Division II has issued an executive summary of the Life in the Balance package to accompany the release of the Second Publication of Proposed Legislation.

The summary serves as another educational tool to help Division II members understand the intent of the proposals to streamline seasons and reduce contests in nine sports, including men’s and women’s basketball.

The package consists of the following four proposals headed to the Convention floor:

• Reduce contests in men’s and women’s soccer (from 20 to 18); field hockey (from 20 to 18); women’s volleyball (from 28 to 26); baseball (from 56 to 50); men’s and women’s basketball (from 27 to 26); men’s and women’s golf (from 24 dates to 21); and softball (by eliminating the tournament exception where multiple tournament games count only as a single contest).
• Reduce the length of seasons in soccer, volleyball, field hockey and cross country by allowing student-athletes to report 17 days before the first permissible contest (which cannot be before the Thursday preceding September 6) or five days before the start of classes, whichever is earlier. Those dates are about a week later than current legislation.
• Football student-athletes could begin their preseason practice activities either 21 days before the first permissible contest date in Division II (which also could not be before the Thursday preceding September 6) or seven days before the start of classes at the institution, whichever is earlier. This reporting date for football practice would be about a week later than current legislation. The Division II Championships Committee approved a policy change (contingent on the adoption of this proposal) to move the football championship back one week to accommodate the later reporting date in football.
• Establish a seven-day “dead period” from December 20-26 that prevents winter sport student-athletes from participating in practices or games and precludes student-athletes in all sports from participating in voluntary workouts on campus during the same period, unless those activities are conducted in facilities open to the general student body

The package has full support from the Division II Presidents Council, which authorized a comprehensive review of playing-and-practice-season legislation last January to make sure Division II policy aligns with the division’s strategic-positioning platform (which is anchored by a Life in the Balance positioning statement).

Other presidents support the effort. Wingate President Jerry McGee, a former Presidents Council member, said if Division II is going to use its platform to guide behavior, then its athletics policies must match those ideals.

“As a former student-athlete and someone who is a great admirer of college athletes for being able to balance their lives, given all the demands, I like the concept,” McGee said. “If balance is going to be our mantra – if that’s going to say who we are – then we need to practice it.”

McGee’s conference, the South Atlantic Conference, already has taken similar steps to shorten at least baseball and softball seasons to 50 games (the collective Division II proposal calls for 56 in softball and 50 in baseball). McGee said the initial reaction was mixed, but he has heard no complaints now that the policy has been in effect for a year.

“As long as everyone is playing by the same rules, the coaches are usually OK with it,” he said. “All I know is that our kids are headed out a lot on those vans for three- and four-hour trips during the week. And I worry about them having a chance to be a student or to be part of college life – that is part of what we’re selling, after all.

“It’s not just learning a little math – you can do that on the Internet – but we’re selling a college experience. We need to give our athletes a chance to do that.”

Grand Valley State President Thomas Haas agreed with his colleague.

“It’s spot on,” Haas said of the Life in the Balance package. “We want to make sure that our seasons aren’t causing too much missed class time and that there’s really that balance between student-athlete athletics and academic endeavors.”

Haas also praised the attempt to realize cost efficiencies during a time in which all of higher education is struggling financially.

“I would be remiss as a president not to point out that we also have to consider costs with all of our programs at the university – and intercollegiate athletics is one of those programs,” he said. “I’m proud that DII has addressed this head-on. We want to be cost-effective and to create the right atmosphere for students with the type of diversity for programs. The proposed reductions are sound and allow us to keep that balance of academics and competitive athletics.”

The Life in the Balance review will continue even after the 2010 Convention. The Presidents Council has asked for a review of the nonchampionship segments in all sports and the number of exemptions (such as scrimmages, exhibition games and even regular season games that are exempted from maximum-contest totals).

For more on the Life in the Balance initiative, visit the Division II home page directly via www.ncaa.org/dii.  Information surrouding the Life in the Balance proposals may be accessed via the “Division II Headlines” section of the home page.