Aug 19, 2010 10:49:03 AM

Academic All-America Teams will be named in various Division II sports as a result of an action last week by the Division II Planning and Finance Committee.

Divisions II and III and the College Sports Information Directors of America agreed informally earlier this year on the concept of division-specific Academic All-America teams, but the decision wasn't official until last week when NCAA funding was appropriated to support the expansion of the program in both divisions.

CoSIDA will be provided with funds to assist with the administration of the program and to provide awards for the honorees.

Each year, Academic All-America teams are selected in baseball, basketball, football, soccer, softball, track/cross country and women's volleyball. At-large teams for other sports also are chosen. Until now, honorees from non-Division I institutions were lumped together under the heading of "college division."

The change will take effect in the 2011-12 academic year. 

"This is important news for Division II," said Division II Vice President Mike Racy. "This will recognize many more deserving Division II student-athletes and also help the public understand that the educational experience and academic achievement of our student-athletes is paramount."

"This is a wonderful and significant step forward for the Academic All-America program, which is considered the premier program within the collegiate community for jointly honoring combined academic and athletic success," said CoSIDA Executive Director John Humenik. "Due to this expansion, many more deserving  student-athletes within the DII and DIII ranks will be able to receive the cherished ‘Academic All-America' honor, and those honored will not be referred to any longer as ‘College Division' recipients of that award  but specifically ‘Division II and Division III Academic All-Americans.' This is a win-win-win situation for CoSIDA, the NCAA DII and DIII branding initiatives, and − most importantly − the student-athletes at these divisions."

To fund the program in Division II, the Planning and Finance Committee reallocated funds that had been used to provide incentives for members to submit data to support the compilation of the Division II Academic Success Rate. Because members will be required to submit the ASR data as a condition of active Division II membership, the incentives are no longer required.

In other action at its August 11 meeting, the Division II Planning and Finance Committee:

• Agreed to assist conferences in their efforts to televise regular-season contests for their member institutions. For several years, Division II has used money from a marketing surplus to help conferences with their television agreements. With that surplus now exhausted, the Planning and Finance Committee agreed to use funds available in the conference grant program to assist the membership for that purpose. Effective for 2010-11, $5,000 will be added to the base amount every conference receives under the conference grant program. The 10 percent of conference grant funds that must be applied to membership and strategic-positioning initiatives then could be directed at television production costs, along with some or all of the 50 percent of the grant funds that can used to support the Division II strategic initiatives at the conference's discretion.
  
• Agreed on a formula to support officiating improvement with funds used from money that originally had been set aside for subsidies for the Arbiter officiating-improvement program. Last year, the Arbiter board decided that it would not accept subsidies to cover the costs for officials to register with the website. That decision freed $225,000 of Division II funds that had been allocated to support Arbiter registration. The $225,000 will still be used to support officiating improvement in 2010-11, with the money distributed to conferences based on the sports the conferences sponsor and the number of officials required to call a game in each of those sports. For instance, basketball would count as 81 units since it features three officials at each of 27 games. Football would be 77 units (11 games times seven officials). Payments to Division II conferences would range from about $6,000 to $14,000 under the plan. Conferences would be required to file a report by next summer describing how the money was used and how officiating was enhanced as a result. The distribution of the $225,000 for officiating improvement is a one-time-only proposition, although officiating-improvement programs will continue to be an appropriate use of conference grant funds.
  
• Determined that conferences failing to meet the June 30 deadline for conference grant applications will be fined $5,000 for being late and $5,000 for each additional week thereafter. The decision to impose the fine is intended to ensure that the staff and the Planning and Finance Committee have adequate time to review applications before the summer committee meeting.