National Collegiate Athletic Association
NCAA News Archive - 2007
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SAAC, Council discuss social issues at joint summit
Council turns attention to male practice players
Council turns attention to male practice players
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By Gary T. Brown
The NCAA News
The NCAA News
ARLINGTON, Virginia — After a year of discussions about male practice players within various pockets of the governance structure, Division II put the topic in front of a more collective audience at the 11th annual Management Council/Student-Athlete Advisory Committee summit July 21-22.
The Council had asked SAAC members to gather feedback from their conference and institutional SAACs on the matter, and the groups also discussed survey results from the Division II membership.
The survey of Division II institutions, which garnered a 91 percent response rate, found that only 34.6 percent of schools used male practice players at least once in 2005-06, and that usage was concentrated in basketball, soccer and volleyball. Fewer than 10 of the 89 teams that reported usage said they used male practice players more than occasionally. Results also showed no meaningful statistical relationship either between the use of male practice players and the squad size or the use of male practice players and the number of scholarships awarded to women.
Feedback from the coaches associations in those sports also urged the matter to be left as an institutional decision rather than resolve it legislatively.
Management Council Chair Dave Brunk, commissioner of the Peach Belt Conference, said Division II appears to be comfortable with the status quo as long as institutions use male practice players properly.
“The question has become: Do we legislate, regulate or educate?” Brunk said. “From the feedback we’ve received through the survey and other commentary, it seems education about how male practices players should be used is the most acceptable approach.”
Council members did advocate a legislative approach to an educational component when they supported a recommendation from the Division II Legislation Committee to specify that male students who practice with women’s teams must be certified in accordance with all applicable eligibility regulations.
When Council members discussed that proposal further at their July 23 meeting, they amended it to allow for male student-athletes to practice with women’s teams, noting that such activities would be regarded as countable athletically related activities.
The Management Council also engaged SAAC members on game environment, in preparation for the larger session on that issue in the afternoon (see story in The NCAA News Centerpiece).
Council member Dave Riggins, athletics director at Mars Hill College, likened the desire to clean up the game environment to the movement years ago to regulate smoking in public areas — it was a matter of people understanding what constituted acceptable behavior.
“The smoking issue was contentious. People had to constantly enforce the new rules,” Riggins said. “Over time, though, the issue has become self-policed. If a person lights up in a restaurant now, odds are that another customer would tell him or her that it isn’t acceptable anymore. We want to get to that point with game environment. If fans are saying things to student-athletes that are not acceptable, we want other fans to influence that behavior.”
Grand Valley State University Athletics Director Tim Selgo said the biggest threat to the game environment isn’t the student-athletes, coaches or even student fans, but the adult fans.
“For the most part, students and participants aren’t the problem,” he said. “The issue is adult vs. adult. Each team has their student cheering section and they yell across at each other, but the people who cross the line into being nasty typically are the adults.”
Among ways summit participants proposed to mitigate behavior was having respected coaches, administrators or even young children come to center court before the game and deliver a positive game-environment message. While most institutions have their public address announcer recite the NCAA sportsmanship statement before games, SAAC members in particular felt the more personalized presentation would reach the larger audience.
The Council had asked SAAC members to gather feedback from their conference and institutional SAACs on the matter, and the groups also discussed survey results from the Division II membership.
The survey of Division II institutions, which garnered a 91 percent response rate, found that only 34.6 percent of schools used male practice players at least once in 2005-06, and that usage was concentrated in basketball, soccer and volleyball. Fewer than 10 of the 89 teams that reported usage said they used male practice players more than occasionally. Results also showed no meaningful statistical relationship either between the use of male practice players and the squad size or the use of male practice players and the number of scholarships awarded to women.
Feedback from the coaches associations in those sports also urged the matter to be left as an institutional decision rather than resolve it legislatively.
Management Council Chair Dave Brunk, commissioner of the Peach Belt Conference, said Division II appears to be comfortable with the status quo as long as institutions use male practice players properly.
“The question has become: Do we legislate, regulate or educate?” Brunk said. “From the feedback we’ve received through the survey and other commentary, it seems education about how male practices players should be used is the most acceptable approach.”
Council members did advocate a legislative approach to an educational component when they supported a recommendation from the Division II Legislation Committee to specify that male students who practice with women’s teams must be certified in accordance with all applicable eligibility regulations.
When Council members discussed that proposal further at their July 23 meeting, they amended it to allow for male student-athletes to practice with women’s teams, noting that such activities would be regarded as countable athletically related activities.
The Management Council also engaged SAAC members on game environment, in preparation for the larger session on that issue in the afternoon (see story in The NCAA News Centerpiece).
Council member Dave Riggins, athletics director at Mars Hill College, likened the desire to clean up the game environment to the movement years ago to regulate smoking in public areas — it was a matter of people understanding what constituted acceptable behavior.
“The smoking issue was contentious. People had to constantly enforce the new rules,” Riggins said. “Over time, though, the issue has become self-policed. If a person lights up in a restaurant now, odds are that another customer would tell him or her that it isn’t acceptable anymore. We want to get to that point with game environment. If fans are saying things to student-athletes that are not acceptable, we want other fans to influence that behavior.”
Grand Valley State University Athletics Director Tim Selgo said the biggest threat to the game environment isn’t the student-athletes, coaches or even student fans, but the adult fans.
“For the most part, students and participants aren’t the problem,” he said. “The issue is adult vs. adult. Each team has their student cheering section and they yell across at each other, but the people who cross the line into being nasty typically are the adults.”
Among ways summit participants proposed to mitigate behavior was having respected coaches, administrators or even young children come to center court before the game and deliver a positive game-environment message. While most institutions have their public address announcer recite the NCAA sportsmanship statement before games, SAAC members in particular felt the more personalized presentation would reach the larger audience.
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