Division II has confirmed that the next National Championships Festival will be Tuesday, November 30, through Saturday, December 4, 2010, at a location to be determined.

The fall-sports version of the festival – the second of its kind – will crown champions in men’s and women’s cross-country, field hockey, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball.

The Division II Championships Committee confirmed the schedule during a recent conference call, noting that the dates vary from a previously proposed schedule of Tuesday, November 16, through Saturday, November 20. 

The new dates render moot a waiver the Division II Management Council had issued to permit schools to bring their men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball programs in a week earlier in August. That waiver would have been necessary because the sports seasons for soccer and volleyball would have been shortened because of the original timing of the 2010 Fall Festival.

Now, because the championships for men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball will occur at their traditional time, it is not necessary for schools to bring in these three programs early in the preseason practice period.

The date change coincides with current discussions within Division II regarding whether the division’s championships policies and practices align with the division’s strategic positioning platform (and whether such a review could generate better business practices).

The Championships Committee, which in conjunction with the Division II Legislation Committee has been charged by the Division II Presidents Council to lead the playing-and-practice-season discussion, worked with the sport committees affected by the Fall Festival to determine an appropriate time for the event. Those discussions prompted the group to move the festival to the weekend after Thanksgiving rather than the weekend before. The change keeps schools from having to start the preseason early in men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball in fall 2010.

A location for the festival has yet to be determined. The Championships Committee has solicited requests for proposals and expects to determine a festival site in June.

The 2010 Fall Festival will be the fifth in the series. Division II launched the festival approach, which is unique to Division II, in spring 2005 (Orlando), then conducted a fall festival in 2006 (Pensacola) and another spring version in 2008 (Houston). The division conducted its first Winter Festival earlier this month in Houston.