NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland – Division II has announced a Game Environment Award of Excellence, similar to an honor the division established for community engagement last year. Division II schools are to submit successful game-environment initiatives to the “ideas that work” section of the Division II game-environment Web site by October 16. A selection committee will choose one winner per conference (and one for independent schools) to receive a $500 grant that can be used for other game-environment efforts. A national winner from the pool of conference winners will be announced at the 2010 NCAA Convention. The community-engagement award applications are due January 30, and winners will be announced at the community-engagement/game-environment workshop this April in Philadelphia … The Division II Management Council received an update on the winter sports National Championships Festival March 10-14 in Houston, at which 800-900 student-athletes will compete for titles in wrestling, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, and men’s and women’s indoor track and field. Officials believe the nature of the first winter sports festival as being exclusively for individual/team sports will broaden the pool of Division II institutions that will have experienced the festival since its inception in 2004. NCAA Director of Championships Sharon Cessna said the community-engagement activity in Houston will involve youth clinics in wrestling, and track and field, and swimming and diving interactions with senior citizens. She also said requests for proposals for the next festivals (fall 2010 and spring 2012) will go out in March … Council members also heard an update on College Football Officiating, LLC, a collaboration between the Collegiate Commissioners Association and the NCAA, which was created to ensure consistent application of NCAA football playing rules and officiating mechanics. While discussions are preliminary, Division II Council members heard that the Division I-oriented CFO might present opportunities for Division II as well. “It certainly would be attractive to Division II as it relates to national training and evaluation and simply having a presence in the officiating community,” said Division II Vice President Mike Racy … The Council recognized two members of the Today’s Top VIII from Division II schools – Kirby Blackley (track and field) from Findlay and Kathleen Tafler (soccer) from Grand Valley State … Council member Dan Mara, former chair of the Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct, noted that group’s announcement of a comprehensive sportsmanship campaign at an NCAA education session today that Mara said gained momentum in large part because of the efforts in Division II over the past two years to create positive game environments. “Seventy-five percent of the success stories that were offered in the committee discussions came from Division II,” Mara said. The Management Council also formally asked the sportsmanship and ethical conduct committee to consider recognizing the annual winners of the NCAA Sportsmanship Awards at the NCAA Convention … The Management Council recognized outgoing members Donna Fields, head softball coach and senior woman administrator at St. Mary’s (Texas); John Mansuy, faculty athletics representative at Wheeling Jesuit; Gene Hermitte, faculty athletics representative at Johnson C. Smith; and Dan Mara, commissioner of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference. The Council also honored outgoing Chair Debbie Chin, the athletics director at New Haven. Chin’s term as chair ends at the end of the Convention, when Grand Valley State Athletics Director Tim Selgo will succeed her.