National Collegiate Athletic Association

NCAA News Archive - 2010

back to 2010 | Back to NCAA News Archive Index

Jan 15, 2010 6:41:08 AM

ATLANTA −The Division I Leadership Council will forward a report to the Board of Directors this spring that recommends standards for new Division I members, including a path that requires five years as a member of Division II, a bona fide offer of membership in a Division I conference, and an application fee equal to the average annual value of distributions and championships benefits realized by Division I members.

The Council completed an 18-month-long study of the issue, prompted by a four-year moratorium on new members instituted by the Board in August 2007. The Leadership Council, formed in summer 2008, was charged with creating a set of recommendations that could be introduced as legislative proposals in the 2010-11 legislative cycle for approval before the moratorium expires in 2011.

The new reclassification process would require institutions to spend five years as an active member of Division II before declaring an intention to move to Division I. The institution must then follow the five-year reclassification process to become a Division I institution. At the beginning of that process, the institution must have a bona fide offer of membership from an existing Division I conference and meet minimum sport sponsorship requirements (50 percent of the grants-in-aid maximums in the conference-sponsored sports the institution will participate in).

Interested institutions must also submit an application fee that is equal to the average annual value of distributions and championships for Division I members, a figure that was set at about $1.4 million in the most recent distribution year.

Additionally, once achieving active membership, new institutions would be eligible to receive academic enhancement funds and distributions from the Student-Athlete Opportunity Fund immediately. However, other distributions (sport sponsorship, grants-in-aid) would not be available until new members have been active for three years. Conferences would be allowed to share basketball grant funds as determined by the conference.

The Board will receive the report at its April meeting and is expected to refer it to the governance structure to form legislative proposals for consideration in the 2010-11 cycle.

The Council also made progress on its charge to improve the diversity of the governance structure. The group recommended that current diversity minimums (20 percent ethnic minority and 35 percent of either gender) be applied to each cabinet or Council individually. Current standards apply the minimums to the Legislative and Leadership Councils and the Championships/Sport Management Cabinet collectively and the remaining five cabinets collectively.

In response to concerns voiced by the Division I-A FARs, the group also recommended that new, positional minimums be added to each body as well: 20 percent faculty athletics representatives and 20 percent athletics directors.

Each subdivision (the Football Bowl Subdivision and a combination of the Football Championship Division and Division I) must meet the requirements with its next round of appointments. The FBS will meet the requirements when its nominees are appointed this year, while the FCS and Division I subdivisions will have the next two years to work together to build a slate that meets the new minimums.

The Board is expected to act on the diversity recommendations at its Saturday meeting, in anticipation of FBS nominations over the next few months.