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NCAA News Archive - 2007
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Moratorium lets Division I pause to ponder growth
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By Jack Copeland
The NCAA News
The NCAA News
Division I leaders called “time out” this month on accepting applications from prospective new institutional members and conferences, setting up a review of recent migration of schools into the division and possibly the adoption of new standards for joining Division I in the future.
The Division I Board of Directors approved a four-year moratorium August 9 on permitting institutions to begin the process of joining the division, taking an action that among other things will prevent a school from moving from another division into Division I or moving between its subdivisions until August 2011.
It is the second moratorium since 2000 on accepting membership applications in Division I. However, in contrast to the previous two-year moratorium, which focused on the process of joining Division I and also eventually resulted in criteria for more clearly distinguishing football-playing institutions, the purpose this time is to review standards of Division I institutional or conference membership.
“This is a chance to stop and catch our breath as an organization and take a good, hard look at the advantages and disadvantages (of revising membership standards),” said Board of Directors Chair James Barker, president of Clemson University. “It’s hard to do that when you’re in the midst of making these kinds of decisions, so we’re sort of calling time out and taking a careful look at this.”
The moratorium does not affect 20 institutions that already have entered the seven-year Division I provisional-membership process for new NCAA members or the five-year process to move from Division II, including institutions that officially have entered exploratory membership.
The moratorium will prevent institutions in Divisions II and III from seeking reclassification of a specific sport into Division I under multidivision-classification legislation, and also prevents a new single-sport or multisport conference from gaining Division I membership until the moratorium ends.
“We’re seeing continuing growth of the number of institutions that desire to move either from Division II into Division I, or from outside the Association directly into Division I,” said David Berst, NCAA Division I vice president. “We believe it’s time to stop and at least assess that movement, and the impact of that kind of growth on the broader membership.”
Berst said the first step in that assessment will be to form a study group to review current Division I membership standards for institutions and new conferences. The first two years of the moratorium likely will be devoted to that review, followed by a year to propose possible new standards and then a year for consideration by the membership and the Division I governance structure of any proposed changes.
Association-wide implications
The moratorium was endorsed by the NCAA Executive Committee Membership Working Group, a panel including representation from all three NCAA divisions that is studying the Association’s current three-division structure and considering steps to manage continuing membership growth and related issues.
The working group agreed that a moratorium would give Division I an opportunity to re-evaluate criteria for achieving Division I membership during the same time frame as the working group’s Association-wide review.
The four-year length of the moratorium mirrors a timeline established by the Executive Committee working group to propose and enact ways of managing an influx of new NCAA member institutions in Divisions II and III — including possibly creating a fourth NCAA division or by subdividing Division III. The working group expects to propose preliminary models for dealing with membership growth later this year, followed by discussion and possible revision of those models during 2008.
Action could be taken at the 2009 Convention, followed by a two-year period during which institutions could make reclassification decisions if a new division or subdivision is created.
The Division I moratorium has Association-wide implications, simply because many of the institutions that recently have applied for Division I membership are reclassifying from Division II.
Since 1986, 47 institutions have reclassified from Division II to Division I, including three institutions that completed the reclassification process and achieved active membership this year. Another 18 former Division II institutions currently are at various stages of the reclassification process — including six that officially are entering exploratory membership this year. Five institutions are entering Year 1 of provisional membership, two are entering Year 2, three are entering Year 3 and two are entering Year 4 — the final phase before gaining active membership.
Two institutions currently are joining Division I from outside the NCAA. One is beginning exploratory membership this year; the other is in the fifth year of a six-year provisional membership.
Divisions II and III recently have adopted revisions of processes for gaining membership in those classifications — ranging from a restructuring of the process to give Division II more flexibility to move institutions judged ready to advance from exploratory membership through a shorter provisional-membership period, to action by Division III to reduce the number of institutions annually entering the membership process but also entrusting its Membership Committee with greater flexibility for accepting institutions into provisional or reclassifying membership.
Continuing growth
The last Division I moratorium also resulted in a revised procedure for gaining membership — notably, a more detailed educational assessment process.
However, Greg Sankey, chair of the Division I Management Council membership subcommittee and associate commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, reported to the Division I Board of Directors during the August 9 meeting that those procedural changes have done nothing to slow down migration into Division I, and they show no sign of doing so in the future.
The continuing migration particularly has impacted Division I championships, Sankey reported. The large number of reclassifying institutions has resulted in the creation of new conferences, including single-sport conferences. That factor, in turn, has resulted in an increase in automatic bids to championships and a corresponding reduction in at-large berths.
Members of the Executive Committee working group, discussing reasons for supporting a Division I moratorium, also noted other factors for consideration:
In enacting the moratorium, the Division I Board agreed that the time is right for what Barker called a “careful analysis and study” of the impact of membership migration. The Board also agreed with the membership subcommittee’s suggestion that the moratorium will provide an opportunity to consider philosophical expectations and legislative requirements that should be applied to institutions wishing to join or maintain membership in Division I.
The Board asked the subcommittee to develop an “education document” further exploring implications of the moratorium.
Barker believes current Division I institutions and conferences will accept the idea of pausing to review membership standards.
“If (the Board) is a good sample, and I hope it is, (the moratorium) will be supported and it will be seen by Division I as a positive thing,” he said. “I think that’s certainly what (Board members) saw after a great deal of discussion.
“Although there were some concerns (a reason for requesting the “educational document” from the membership subcommittee), the over-riding feeling was a need to be reflective,” Barker said.
Michelle Brutlag Hosick of The NCAA News staff contributed to this article.
The Division I Board of Directors approved a four-year moratorium August 9 on permitting institutions to begin the process of joining the division, taking an action that among other things will prevent a school from moving from another division into Division I or moving between its subdivisions until August 2011.
It is the second moratorium since 2000 on accepting membership applications in Division I. However, in contrast to the previous two-year moratorium, which focused on the process of joining Division I and also eventually resulted in criteria for more clearly distinguishing football-playing institutions, the purpose this time is to review standards of Division I institutional or conference membership.
“This is a chance to stop and catch our breath as an organization and take a good, hard look at the advantages and disadvantages (of revising membership standards),” said Board of Directors Chair James Barker, president of Clemson University. “It’s hard to do that when you’re in the midst of making these kinds of decisions, so we’re sort of calling time out and taking a careful look at this.”
The moratorium does not affect 20 institutions that already have entered the seven-year Division I provisional-membership process for new NCAA members or the five-year process to move from Division II, including institutions that officially have entered exploratory membership.
The moratorium will prevent institutions in Divisions II and III from seeking reclassification of a specific sport into Division I under multidivision-classification legislation, and also prevents a new single-sport or multisport conference from gaining Division I membership until the moratorium ends.
“We’re seeing continuing growth of the number of institutions that desire to move either from Division II into Division I, or from outside the Association directly into Division I,” said David Berst, NCAA Division I vice president. “We believe it’s time to stop and at least assess that movement, and the impact of that kind of growth on the broader membership.”
Berst said the first step in that assessment will be to form a study group to review current Division I membership standards for institutions and new conferences. The first two years of the moratorium likely will be devoted to that review, followed by a year to propose possible new standards and then a year for consideration by the membership and the Division I governance structure of any proposed changes.
Association-wide implications
The moratorium was endorsed by the NCAA Executive Committee Membership Working Group, a panel including representation from all three NCAA divisions that is studying the Association’s current three-division structure and considering steps to manage continuing membership growth and related issues.
The working group agreed that a moratorium would give Division I an opportunity to re-evaluate criteria for achieving Division I membership during the same time frame as the working group’s Association-wide review.
The four-year length of the moratorium mirrors a timeline established by the Executive Committee working group to propose and enact ways of managing an influx of new NCAA member institutions in Divisions II and III — including possibly creating a fourth NCAA division or by subdividing Division III. The working group expects to propose preliminary models for dealing with membership growth later this year, followed by discussion and possible revision of those models during 2008.
Action could be taken at the 2009 Convention, followed by a two-year period during which institutions could make reclassification decisions if a new division or subdivision is created.
The Division I moratorium has Association-wide implications, simply because many of the institutions that recently have applied for Division I membership are reclassifying from Division II.
Since 1986, 47 institutions have reclassified from Division II to Division I, including three institutions that completed the reclassification process and achieved active membership this year. Another 18 former Division II institutions currently are at various stages of the reclassification process — including six that officially are entering exploratory membership this year. Five institutions are entering Year 1 of provisional membership, two are entering Year 2, three are entering Year 3 and two are entering Year 4 — the final phase before gaining active membership.
Two institutions currently are joining Division I from outside the NCAA. One is beginning exploratory membership this year; the other is in the fifth year of a six-year provisional membership.
Divisions II and III recently have adopted revisions of processes for gaining membership in those classifications — ranging from a restructuring of the process to give Division II more flexibility to move institutions judged ready to advance from exploratory membership through a shorter provisional-membership period, to action by Division III to reduce the number of institutions annually entering the membership process but also entrusting its Membership Committee with greater flexibility for accepting institutions into provisional or reclassifying membership.
Continuing growth
The last Division I moratorium also resulted in a revised procedure for gaining membership — notably, a more detailed educational assessment process.
However, Greg Sankey, chair of the Division I Management Council membership subcommittee and associate commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, reported to the Division I Board of Directors during the August 9 meeting that those procedural changes have done nothing to slow down migration into Division I, and they show no sign of doing so in the future.
The continuing migration particularly has impacted Division I championships, Sankey reported. The large number of reclassifying institutions has resulted in the creation of new conferences, including single-sport conferences. That factor, in turn, has resulted in an increase in automatic bids to championships and a corresponding reduction in at-large berths.
Members of the Executive Committee working group, discussing reasons for supporting a Division I moratorium, also noted other factors for consideration:
- Division I currently lacks the type of flexibility that Divisions II and III recently have adopted to approve or deny acceptance of institutions or conferences based on membership criteria.
- Existing Division I conferences rapidly are reaching capacity, making it increasingly unlikely that new Division I member will be able to establish a conference affiliation.
- A number of institutions that recently have reclassified from Division II to Division I have been involved in major infractions heard by the Division I Committee on Infractions.
- As in the other divisions, the growth of Division I affects the national office’s ability to maintain the current level of membership services.
In enacting the moratorium, the Division I Board agreed that the time is right for what Barker called a “careful analysis and study” of the impact of membership migration. The Board also agreed with the membership subcommittee’s suggestion that the moratorium will provide an opportunity to consider philosophical expectations and legislative requirements that should be applied to institutions wishing to join or maintain membership in Division I.The Board asked the subcommittee to develop an “education document” further exploring implications of the moratorium.
Barker believes current Division I institutions and conferences will accept the idea of pausing to review membership standards.
“If (the Board) is a good sample, and I hope it is, (the moratorium) will be supported and it will be seen by Division I as a positive thing,” he said. “I think that’s certainly what (Board members) saw after a great deal of discussion.
“Although there were some concerns (a reason for requesting the “educational document” from the membership subcommittee), the over-riding feeling was a need to be reflective,” Barker said.
Michelle Brutlag Hosick of The NCAA News staff contributed to this article.
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