Prospective Division I members would be required to spend at least five years as active members of Division II before beginning the five-year reclassification process under a set of recommendations being considered by the Division I Leadership Council The Council also is considering an application fee model, though the exact amount, parameters and eventual uses for the fee have yet to be determined.

The recommendations discussed at the Council’s October 6 meeting in Indianapolis are expected to be part of a full report sent to the Division I Board of Directors after the Council’s January meeting and distributed to the membership for feedback. The proposals are the result of the Council’s year-long study of membership standards. The Board, which declared a membership moratorium in August 2007, directed the Leadership Council to develop standards that will balance the desire to allow access to the division with a need to provide full services and consistent competitive opportunities to its members.

The recommendation that schools spend five years as active Division II members before beginning the reclassification process arose out of comments from Division II, though preliminary recommendations from the Council also would have required that institutions be a member of Division II before applying for Division I membership. No time limits were suggested, though, in the original proposal.

Division II leaders worried that  permitting institutions outside the Association to go through Division II’s three-year entry process and then immediately apply for Division I and enter the proposed, five-year Division I process could be disruptive to Division II and may not provide an adequate Division II experience. By requiring institutions to be active Division II members for five years, the Leadership Council believes that schools will be better prepared to select an affiliation that best suits the institution.

Another key concern Council members had with institutions immediately pursuing Division I membership upon entrance in Division II is student-athlete eligibility for championships. Without the five-year “waiting period” to apply for Division I membership, an institution could go potentially eight years (three years in the process for Division II, followed immediately by five years in the process for Division I) without teams being eligible for NCAA championships. Institutions are not eligible for Division II championships until they earn active membership, and once a school begins the process to reclassify to Division I, it is no longer eligible for Division II championships.

By recommending that institutions be active members of Division II for five years, the Leadership Council advocated for a 13-year process for institutions outside the Association that want to enter Division I. However, most institutions come through Division II and reclassify to Division I. Since April 2002, 23 institutions have entered Division I, and 21 of them were Division II members before reclassification.

Consideration of entrance fee

Council members also discussed how to best calculate an appropriate and meaningful application fee for reclassification to Division I. Members indicated a desire to tie the fee to the estimated benefits received from becoming a Division I member. Some advocated an equity buy-in model that would require institutions to advance a multiple of the estimated annual benefit of being a Division I member, while others supported a smaller figure more in line with the higher education/nonprofit philosophy. 

The NCAA staff will assemble models for the application fee structure for the Council to consider at its January meeting at the NCAA Convention in Atlanta. The staff will also work to determine a total financial benefit – including the brand value – of being a Division I member.

Financial aid component

The Leadership Council also discussed increasing the financial aid requirements for sponsored sports from 50 percent of grant-in-aid maximums to a larger, undetermined percentage. Raising the bar could ensure that Division I members are offering scholarships more broadly across sports.

Currently, most institutions have three ways to meet the minimum financial aid requirements:

• Provide 50 percent of the maximum allowable grants in 14 sports, at least seven of which are women’s sports (with further requirements for institutions that sponsor track and field and cross country)
• Provide a minimum aggregate expenditure amount (varies by year due to inflation and average tuition costs) exclusive of football and men’s and women’s basketball, provided the aggregate grant value is not less than the equivalent of 38 full grants (at least 19 for women).
• The equivalent of 50 full grants (25 for women), exclusive of football and men’s and women’s basketball (35 full grants for institutions that don’t provide men’s or women’s basketball for the gender without the basketball program).

Data show that most institutions meet and exceed the 50 percent grant-in-aid maximum, though the Council requested more information about how they meet the requirement.

Some members expressed concern about increasing the minimum grant-in-aid requirements during challenging economic times, and backed a phased-in plan for current members that might be operating at the minimum level.

Other standards the Council will recommend include:

• New members may not be elected to membership while subject to any historically based penalties as a result of the Academic Performance Program.
• New members will undergo preliminary certification in the second year of certification with final certification in the last year before active membership.
• Multisport conferences will receive voting privileges through legislation (voting ratios will not change).
• Divisions II and III members will not be allowed to “play up” in a single sport, though current Divisions II and III members with a sport playing in Division I will be allowed to continue.
• All multisport voting conferences will be eligible for consideration for automatic qualification to NCAA championships.