National Collegiate Athletic Association

NCAA News Archive - 2010

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Jan 12, 2010 11:43:48 PM

ATLANTA – Twelve months ago, Division II chancellors and presidents determined the student-athlete experience in the division was out of balance. Three days from now, Division II delegates will decide what to do about it.

The year-long deliberation among hundreds of Division II constituents culminated in a four-proposal package for this Saturday's business session designed to align the division's competition and practices with its balance-drive strategic position.

Because the effort gets at the core of athletics participation – moderating the number of contests and shortening seasons – the debate at times has been contentious. Some student-athletes, coaches and staff naturally resisted the idea of scaling back (as one administrator put it, "Intercollegiate athletics isn't very good at getting smaller"), but presidents have not let up on the need for moderation not only as a better business practice but as a strategic initiative.

Stephen Jordan, who chairs the Division II Presidents Council, said the effort to streamline seasons and reduce contests in 10 sports is more than a desire to just balance academics and athletics.

"We have athletics, academics, community engagement, and all these activities on campus that we think help a person to grow intellectually, emotionally and socially," said the Metro State president. "We think the ingredients are not bad but they're not quite right, and that we need to make an adjustment in shaping the whole person."

The proposals, Jordan said, give student-athletes more time to achieve that balance.

Angelo State Athletics Director Kathleen Brasfield, who will begin a term as Management Council chair after the Convention ends, said people who are reacting against the package may be misinterpreting it as only the beginning of a much larger move toward reducing competitive opportunities for student-athletes.

"On the contrary," she said, "the package is more about making sure what we do in practice meets our philosophy. People should view the package from the perspective of how it aligns with what we talk about in terms of balance and in terms of the atmosphere we want to provide for our student-athletes."

And to those who fear a heavy-handed approach in Phase II of the initiative that focuses on possible reductions in the number of exempted contests and the structure of the nontraditional segment in all sports, Brasfield said leaders already are aware of the need to do their own balancing when it comes to proposals for the 2011 Convention.

"We must keep in mind the unique competitive nature of Division II athletics," she said. "We have a good product where student-athletes can compete at a high level – a demanding level – and student-athletes do know they have to make sacrifices.

"There has to be a balance between further reductions and sacrificing the quality of our competition."