In its review of legislation for the 2008 NCAA Convention, the Division II Management Council recommended an amendment to a proposal regarding certification requirements for male practice players in women’s sports.

Council members at their October 22-23 meeting in Indianapolis recommended an amendment-to-amendment to the Division II Presidents Council that removes the competition component of certification, meaning the male practice players would need to be certified only for practice and not actual competition.

Thus, while they would need to progress through the NCAA Eligibility Center for purposes of initial eligibility to practice in their freshman year, the amended legislation would not require male practice players to meet the progress-toward-degree standards expected of student-athletes.
The Council thought the competition requirement was unnecessary since the male practice players would never actually compete for the women’s teams.

The dual certification had been proposed to ensure athletics departments that used male practice players did so properly — and to make compliance duties easier, since practice players would be certified in the same manner as other student-athletes.

However, some Council members believed that requiring the additional certification step would in fact serve to discourage the use of male practice players, which was not the intent of the legislation. Previously, the Management Council agreed that the use of male practice players should be left to an institution’s discretion.

The Management Council’s legislative review also included the four membership proposals for the 2008 Convention. Two regard the basketball playing and practice season, one that precludes schools from beginning practice earlier than the Friday nearest October 15 and another restricting the first game to no earlier than the second Friday of November.

The Council took no position on either proposal, noting that the high number of waiver requests from schools in the past on start dates (some for “midnight madness” sessions) indicated lingering confusion on the right approach. Thus, Council members prefer the membership to decide both proposals at the Convention.

The Council supported another membership proposal to allow the Division II Tip-Off Classic to be played beginning on the Friday immediately before November 1 in calendar years when November 1 falls on a Saturday, Sunday or Monday. The proposal keeps the event on a weekend to reduce missed class time for participants.

Council members opposed a fourth membership proposal to expand the timing of the medical examination for student-athlete participation to one year (instead of six months) before participation. The Council agreed with a Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports position that the proposal would affect a common provision and that the current six-month window provides enough institutional flexibility.

In all, the Division II membership will vote on 21 proposals at the 2008 NCAA Convention in Nashville. Nine will be determined by roll-call vote. They are (numbers refer to the Second Publication of Proposed Legislation):

No. 2-1 Canadian membership pilot program
No. 2-5 Text messaging
No. 2-10 Timing of medical examination
No. 2-12 Male-practice-player certification
requirements
No. 2-14 Early academic certification
No. 2-15 Increase in core-course requirements
No. 2-17 Skill instruction
No. 2-21 Philosophy statement amendment
No. 2-22 Academic Performance Census
disclosure

Other highlights
Division II Management Council
October 22-23/Indianapolis

Agreed to sponsor noncontroversial legislation to specify a student-athlete’s period of ineligibility due to a positive drug test shall begin on the date the sample was collected; however, nullification would not apply until after the institution is made aware of the positive drug test.

Agreed to sponsor noncontroversial legislation that allows wrestling teams to substitute dual meets on consecutive days with the two two-day meets that currently count as single events.

Asked the Division II Championships Committee to revisit its approval of a lighting requirement for regional hosts in baseball. While Council members support the requirement, they recommended that the Championships Committee consider altering the 30-mile rule for neutral sites to accommodate the possibility of no regional participants being able to meet the lighting requirement in a given year.

Conducted roundtable discussions on what might constitute a model life skills program on campus. The discussion emanated from a previous debate about whether legislation should require institutions to sponsor life skills programs. Because so many Division II schools already have life skills programming, the Management Council advocated compilation of a shared-practices document to help refresh current programming and prompt those schools without programs to get started.

Encouraged Division II institutions to nominate student-athletes for NCAA postgraduate scholarships.