The Division II Administrative Committee is recommending that the Presidents and Management Councils take no position on an amendment-to-amendment that would affect the seven-day dead period in the Life in the Balance package for the 2010 Convention.

The dead period for winter sports – one of four proposals in the Life in the Balance grouping designed to shorten seasons and reduce games to provide student-athletes more opportunity to experience all college has to offer – precludes athletically related activities from December 20-26, including travel from contests. But the Great Northwest Athletic Conference has proposed allowing teams to travel on the 20th if that is the earliest practical opportunity to return to campus. Sponsors say the amendment eases the burden on teams in remote areas.

While a recommendation of “no position” would not normally be regarded as action, the Administrative Committee’s decision is significant in that it essentially defers the matter to the Convention floor for a membership decision.

The Administrative Committee, composed of the chairs and vice chairs of the Presidents and Management Councils and an at-large member from the Presidents Council, did not see the proposed amendment as detracting or differing significantly from the intent of the original proposal and thus saw a “no position” as appropriate.

However, the Administrative Committee’s recommendation differs from an earlier Division II Legislation Committee legislation to oppose the GNAC amendment. The Legislation Committee thought the GNAC proposal introduced a gray area into a black-and-white issue (that is, seven days is seven days). The Administrative Committee doesn’t want potential disagreement over the amendment to derail the broader dead-period proposal.

The Administrative Committee did recommend that the Presidents and Management Councils oppose a second amendment-to-amendment that would delay the effective date on a proposal to reduce the number of contests in field hockey.

The Northeast-10 Conference, which along with the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference contains about 80 percent of the schools that sponsor field hockey in Division II, wants to amend the effective date of the Life in the Balance proposal to shorten seasons and reduce games in fall sports because of where the 2010 National Championships Festival falls in the calendar.

Because of the festival, the 2010 field hockey title game is December 4, about three weeks later than usual for the sport.

Though Administrative Committee members understood the field hockey schools’ plight, they were reluctant to recommend action that would separate a sport from the Life in the Balance package. They also noted that other sports had made adjustments in their schedules to accommodate previous versions of the festival and that giving field hockey relief would set an inappropriate precedent.

The Division II Legislation Committee also had opposed the measure earlier.

The Division II Management and Presidents Councils meet January 14 and 15, respectively, at the NCAA Convention in Atlanta before the Division II business session January 16.

Click here for a Q&A on the Life in the Balance package. The Second Publication of Proposed Legislation, which contains all Division II Convention legislation, also is available online.

Make-A-Wish contribution

The Administrative Committee during its December 2 conference call also approved a $15,000 contribution from the Presidents and Management Councils to the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee’s Make-A-Wish fund-raising efforts for 2009-10. This matches the contribution from the two groups during the SAAC’s 2008-09 fund-raising campaign.