The Division II Legislation Committee is opposing two of the three proposals submitted for the 2010 Convention by the membership and taking no position on the third.

All three membership proposals had been referred to the Legislation Committee as the governance group best qualified to take an initial position.

Committee members during a conference call last week voted to not support a measure from the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, the Peach Belt Conference and the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference to change the first contest date in men’s and women’s basketball to the second Friday in November.

The proposal is the same that has been submitted and voted down at the last two Conventions, though by just 11 votes last year. Sponsors say the proposal’s primary benefit is to allow institutions to schedule their first contest on a weekend night. They also note that many exhibition or “discretionary” games that do not count toward maximum limits were played before November 15 (the currently legislated start date) in 2008, indicating that the membership may be interested in playing countable games during that period as well.

The Legislation Committee, though, said the amendment increases the length of the regular season while shortening preseason practice. Members also pointed out that some institutions prefer to have more contests on weekdays rather than weekends because more campus personnel and students available to attend them during the week. They also said the proposal is contrary to the Life in the Balance initiative.

Legislation Committee members also opposed a proposal from the MIAA, the Lone Star Conference and the South Atlantic Conferences to eliminate requiring institutions to provide a prospective student-athlete written notice of the limit of five official visits. The sponsors say the proposal eliminates unnecessary paperwork, eases the workload on compliance personnel and reduces “inadvertent violations due to administrative oversight.”

But the Legislation Committee said without the written notification requirement, prospects wouldn’t necessarily be aware of the five-visit limitation for official visits and thus possibly exceed the maximum. Members also disagreed with the notion of the notification being an administrative burden, since compliance administrators will still be required to monitor the rule.

Finally, the committee took no position on a proposal from the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference to spread out the nonchampionship segment in golf and thus keep golfers from missing class time periodically for several weeks in a row.

The proposal states that during the nonchampionship segment, golfers may participate in any practice or competition as permitted by other legislation, provided it is restricted to a maximum of 24 days that occur within 60 consecutive calendar days.

It also allows an institution that declares fall as its championship segment and discontinues championship-segment activities by November 1 (instead of November 15) to add 15 calendar days to the 60 consecutive calendar days available during the nonchampionship segment.

Sponsors say the change would not increase missed class time because the 24 days of practice and competition in the nonchampionship segment would not increase, and most institutions already compete in four to five tournaments during the segment.

The Legislation Committee actions will be provided to the Management Council and Presidents Council for review at their October meetings.