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NCAA News Archive - 2007
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Panel proposes waiver for single-sport leagues
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By Jack Copeland
The NCAA News
The NCAA News
The Division III Championships Committee is recommending a waiver process that would permit it to treat currently existing single-sport conferences similarly to multi-sport conferences for championships purposes.
The proposed waiver process also would give the committee latitude to recognize single-sport conferences in sports with low division-wide sponsorship, those formed by geographically isolated institutions, and those sponsoring competition in emerging sports.
The recommendation is subject to approval by the Division III Management Council and ultimately the Division III Presidents Council, which recently asked the Championships Committee to consider limited “interim” solutions for allowing single-sport conferences to achieve automatic qualification to championships. The Councils could enact the waiver process as noncontroversial legislation to be effective for 2008-09 championships.
The Championships Committee recommended earlier this year that the Presidents Council sponsor a Convention proposal that would have permitted single-sport conferences with seven or more active members as of February 1, 2008, to receive automatic qualification for championships. The Council, however, decided not to sponsor the proposal, expressing reluctance to create a new opportunity to achieve automatic qualification when a possibility exists that Division III may be restructured.
The proposed waiver process would permit the Championships Committee to award automatic qualification to a single-sport conference formed before September 2007 and including at least seven active members. The process would permit the committee to waive current legislation, which permits only single-sport conferences that have maintained the same original seven members since February 1998 to receive automatic qualification.
The committee’s intent is to apply similar requirements for achieving automatic qualification to single-sport conferences as are currently applied to multi-sport conferences, including the opportunity for a two-year grace period if a single-sport conference falls below seven active members.
A 2008 Convention proposal by the North Atlantic and Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conferences seeks a similar solution by permitting single-sport conferences in existence before February 1, 2007, to receive automatic qualification, provided they maintain a membership of seven active (rather than “original”) members.
The waiver process, however, would give the Championships Committee authority to act more broadly than proposed by the two conferences.
It also would permit the committee to approve a waiver for a single-sport conference that meets one of the following criteria:
Budget planning
The Championships Committee also took its first official steps during its September 17-18 meeting in Indianapolis toward establishing a championships budget for the two years beginning in fall 2008.
The committee listed several possible initiatives for the new budget cycle drawn both from its own list of priorities and from recommendations by Division III sports committees, whose chairs met September 17 with the Championship Committee.
The committee will make formal budget recommendations for the next biennial during its January 2008 meeting, but included the following items as possibilities for the budget cycle, pending availability of funds:
Altogether, the requests reviewed by the committee represent an increase of less than 3 percent in the championships budget.
The Championships Committee also considered concerns expressed by several sports committees about sending highly seeded but geographically isolated teams on the road during championships under existing policies limiting travel expenses. The committees expressed a belief that the policy deprives student-athletes on those teams of the opportunity for a championship experience on their own campus and also hinders efforts to reward teams for regular-season performance.
The committee asked the Management Council to discuss the possibility of annually setting aside funds for championships bracket enhancement — and also using a portion of surplus funds from the previous year for that purpose when a surplus occurs — to allow geographically isolated higher seeds in championships to periodically host competition.
September 17-18/Indianapolis
The proposed waiver process also would give the committee latitude to recognize single-sport conferences in sports with low division-wide sponsorship, those formed by geographically isolated institutions, and those sponsoring competition in emerging sports.
The recommendation is subject to approval by the Division III Management Council and ultimately the Division III Presidents Council, which recently asked the Championships Committee to consider limited “interim” solutions for allowing single-sport conferences to achieve automatic qualification to championships. The Councils could enact the waiver process as noncontroversial legislation to be effective for 2008-09 championships.
The Championships Committee recommended earlier this year that the Presidents Council sponsor a Convention proposal that would have permitted single-sport conferences with seven or more active members as of February 1, 2008, to receive automatic qualification for championships. The Council, however, decided not to sponsor the proposal, expressing reluctance to create a new opportunity to achieve automatic qualification when a possibility exists that Division III may be restructured.
The proposed waiver process would permit the Championships Committee to award automatic qualification to a single-sport conference formed before September 2007 and including at least seven active members. The process would permit the committee to waive current legislation, which permits only single-sport conferences that have maintained the same original seven members since February 1998 to receive automatic qualification.
The committee’s intent is to apply similar requirements for achieving automatic qualification to single-sport conferences as are currently applied to multi-sport conferences, including the opportunity for a two-year grace period if a single-sport conference falls below seven active members.
A 2008 Convention proposal by the North Atlantic and Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conferences seeks a similar solution by permitting single-sport conferences in existence before February 1, 2007, to receive automatic qualification, provided they maintain a membership of seven active (rather than “original”) members.
The waiver process, however, would give the Championships Committee authority to act more broadly than proposed by the two conferences.
It also would permit the committee to approve a waiver for a single-sport conference that meets one of the following criteria:
- Its members belong to a multi-sport conference that has not sponsored a championship in the particular sport for at least 15 years.
- The conference’s sport is sponsored by 100 or fewer Division III institutions.
- Its members are geographically isolated institutions in multi-sport conferences that do not sponsor the particular sport.
- It sponsors a sport through the first 10 years of the existence in that sport of a Division III championship established after September 2007.
Budget planning
The Championships Committee also took its first official steps during its September 17-18 meeting in Indianapolis toward establishing a championships budget for the two years beginning in fall 2008.
The committee listed several possible initiatives for the new budget cycle drawn both from its own list of priorities and from recommendations by Division III sports committees, whose chairs met September 17 with the Championship Committee.
The committee will make formal budget recommendations for the next biennial during its January 2008 meeting, but included the following items as possibilities for the budget cycle, pending availability of funds:
- Another increase in student-athlete per diem, from $75 to $80. Division III has increased student-athlete per diem three times in the past four years. The committee discussed the possibility of waiting until the second year of the biennial (2009-10) to implement an increase.
- Increases in officials’ fees and per diem. The committee discussed the possibility of increasing fees 4 percent annually during each of the two years and increasing officials’ per diem from $40 to $45. It also discussed the possibility of waiting until 2009-10 to increase per diem.
- Increases in the number of nonstudent-athletes included in travel parties in the individual/team sports of cross country, golf, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and field, and wrestling. The committee is interested in implementing a formula for funding one non-athlete to accompany one to five student-athletes; two non-athletes to accompany six to 10 student-athletes; three non-athletes to accompany 11-15 student-athletes; and four non-athletes to accompany 16 or more student-athletes.
- Squad-size increases in selected sports. The committee expressed support for sport committees’ recommendations of squad-size increases in baseball (from 24 to 25 student-athletes), football (from 52 to 56) and cross country (from seven to eight).
Altogether, the requests reviewed by the committee represent an increase of less than 3 percent in the championships budget.
The Championships Committee also considered concerns expressed by several sports committees about sending highly seeded but geographically isolated teams on the road during championships under existing policies limiting travel expenses. The committees expressed a belief that the policy deprives student-athletes on those teams of the opportunity for a championship experience on their own campus and also hinders efforts to reward teams for regular-season performance.
The committee asked the Management Council to discuss the possibility of annually setting aside funds for championships bracket enhancement — and also using a portion of surplus funds from the previous year for that purpose when a surplus occurs — to allow geographically isolated higher seeds in championships to periodically host competition.
Other highlights
Division III Championships Committee
September 17-18/Indianapolis
- Reviewed three proposals sponsored by Division III conferences for the 2008 Convention, and recommended opposing those that permit extending the regular season to “make up” a suspended conference postseason contest to determine a conference champion or NCAA automatic qualifier and to allow provisional institutions to be counted by a conference toward the seven-institution requirement for automatic qualification in a sport. The committee took no position on the third proposal to permit single-sport conferences that existed before February 1, 2007, to maintain automatic qualification for NCAA championships, noting the waiver process it is recommending to the Division III Management Council (see accompanying story).
- Recommended to the Management Council that Greensboro, North Carolina, be designated as the site for the 2008 Division III Men’s and Women’s Soccer Championships, with Greensboro College serving as host of the event at Macpherson Stadium at Bryan Park.
- Recommended that Cleveland be designated as the site for the 2009 Division III Women’s Volleyball Championship, with Cleveland State University and the Cleveland Sports Commission serving as hosts for the event at Cleveland State as part of the city’s Year of Champions effort.
- Recommended that Claremont, California, be designated as the site for the 2009 Division III Men’s Tennis Championships, with Claremont McKenna-Harvey Mudd-Scripps Colleges serving as host of the event at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center. The committee also noted ongoing efforts to identify a site for the 2008 championships, following the withdrawal of Stevens Institute of Technology as host due to uncertainty created by construction and limited court availability at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadow, New York, which had been selected as the site of the championships.
- Recommended that Lawrenceville, Georgia, be designated as the site for the 2009 Division III Women’s Tennis Championships, with Oglethorpe University and the Gwinnett Sports Commission serving as hosts of the event at the Collins Hill Athletic Club. The committee also noted the selection of Gustavus Adolphus College as host for the 2008 championships in Saint Peter, Minnesota, replacing the USTA National Tennis Center.
- Recommended that Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology serve as host of the 2009 Division III Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track and Field Championships, and that Marietta College serve as host of the 2009 Division III Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
- Agreed to seek comment from the Management Council on the possibility of implementing a requirement (including a waiver opportunity) that institutions participating in individual/team sports schedule 25 percent of competition against in-region opponents.
- Requested a proposal from the Division III Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Committee to increase the championships field size in indoor track and field, after the track and field committee reported that current participation ratios for men and women exceed standards for Division III individual/team sports.
- Recommended to the Management Council that new conferences be approved for active membership during the cycle of Division III governance meetings that end with the Division III Presidents Council’s early May meeting, rather than during the meetings that end in early August.
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