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DII Legislation Committee takes positions on membership proposals

The Division II Legislation Committee will support three membership-sponsored proposals that will be considered at the 2011 NCAA Convention in San Antonio.

The committee also will oppose two proposals – one pertaining to strength and conditioning workouts during the summer vacation period and another relating to recruiting calendars in sports that use the National Letter of Intent program.

The committee’s positions on all membership-sponsored legislative proposals will be published in the Official Notice, along with the positions of the Division II Management and Presidents Councils. Those Councils will determine their positions in October.

The Legislation Committee, which met via teleconference September 20, agreed to support the following proposals:

• No. 2-12 (Northeast-10 Conference). The proposal would add an additional grace year for men’s ice hockey prospective student-athletes in which they can participate in organized competition without being subject to the use of a season, provided the competition is sanction by United States Hockey or the international equivalent. The committee agreed that the proposal would aid Northeast-10 Conference men’s ice hockey-sponsoring institutions as they seek to maintain schedules with Division III programs, which make up most of their competition.
  
• No. 2-17 (Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference). The proposal would permit student-athletes in baseball, men’s and women’s lacrosse, and softball to compete in the nonchampionship segment without using a season of competition, provided the student-athlete is academically eligible at the beginning of the institution’s academic year. The committee agreed that, in an effort to provide equitable participation opportunities for student-athletes to compete in the nontraditional segment without being charged with a season of competition, it was appropriate to support this proposal.
  
• No. 2-5 (Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference). This proposal would expand the winter break period and provide institutions the flexibility to establish a seven-consecutive-day break between December 20 and December 30. In supporting the proposal, the committee noted that the additional flexibility would benefit member institutions and conferences. It also agreed that the proposal would likely decrease the number of legislative-relief proposals that would be filed under the current legislation, which was approved in January as part of the Life in the Balance package.

The committee opposed No. 2-15 (Northeast-10 Conference), which would modify the 48-hour dead period preceding the National Letter of Intent signing date so that it would apply only to prospective student-athletes who are eligible to sign a National Letter of Intent. For all prospective student-athletes who are not eligible to sign a National Letter of Intent, the dates would become a quiet period. The committee believed that the current rule works adequately and that options exist to address situations when prospective student-athletes visit campus during a dead period.

It also opposed No. 2-4 (Lone Star Conference),  a proposal that would permit strength and conditioning coaches to conduct and monitor workouts during the summer, provided the workouts come at the request of student-athletes. The committee was concerned that the proposal would pressure student-athletes to return to school during summer vacation and that it also would advantage institutions that have program-wide strength and conditioning coaches. The Committee for Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports has also been charged with taking a position on this proposal, and that position will appear in the 2011 NCAA Convention Official Notice.