National Collegiate Athletic Association

NCAA News Archive - 2010

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Mar 2, 2010 8:43:15 AM

How to handle athletics eligibility for transfers who have been suspended from their teams for disciplinary or other reasons likely will be a matter of philosophy more than legislation in Division II.

That became apparent after the Division II Academic Requirements Committee could not reach a consensus on a legislative concept at its meeting last week to require a calendar year-in-residence for transfers who have been suspended from their teams but are still enrolled at the previous institution.

The academic panel members instead asked the Management Council to consider incorporating what they see as a matter of ethics into the Division II philosophy statement.

The action completes an interesting trek for the concept that actually originated with the Academic Requirements Committee last fall. The committee recommended legislation for the 2011 Convention that would expand existing rules regarding players who have been dismissed from school for disciplinary reasons to include student-athletes who have been kicked off of their teams but may still be enrolled.

Current legislation requires transfers under a disciplinary suspension to serve a calendar year-in-residence before being eligible to compete at the new institution. The rule does not apply, though, when a student is suspended for disciplinary reasons from his or her athletics team.

Under the concept, student-athletes who transfer while serving a disciplinary suspension from either the school or the team would be held to the same year-in-residence standard. In addition, those transfers would have to be academically eligible had they remained at the institution.

But when the Academic Requirements Committee recommendation went to the Division II Management Council, those members hesitated to legislate what they considered to be an institutional decision. The Council also was concerned that student-athletes who may be dismissed simply because of a disagreement with a coach – or perhaps run off by the coach because of athletics skills – would be unfairly affected by the proposed legislation.

Thus, the Council sent the idea back to the Academic Requirements Committee for refinement. Rather than refine, though, the committee thought the membership would be more comfortable with a non-legislative approach.

"While suggesting this as a matter of philosophy may not stop every institution from seeking to admit transfers who may have poor track records elsewhere, it became clear that trying to address the issue legislatively might well affect too many student-athletes as unintended targets," said Grand Valley State Faculty Athletics Representative Paul Leidig, who chairs the Academic Requirements Committee.

Academic Performance Census waiver requests

In other action at the committee's February 25-26 meeting in Indianapolis, members reviewed waiver requests from institutions that will have enhancement funds withheld in spring 2011 because they were late in filing their required Academic Performance Census data for 2009-10.

It is the second year that institutions are being held accountable for submitting academic data. Submissions were voluntary before that, but the response rate was too low to properly inform decision-making. Thus, the Division II Presidents Council made reporting mandatory, with the penalty for noncompliance being the loss of enhancement funds for the following year. Institutions are required to submit data by 12 weeks after the first day of classes in the fall.

The Academic Requirements Committee denied 11 of the 12 waiver requests. The enhancement funds that are being withheld in these cases will be added to the distributions to member institutions that submitted their Academic Performance Census data properly and on time.

"While there might be some who interpret this action as a penalty, it is not since there's no fine being applied to the affected institutions," Leidig said. "These deadlines are important because the division as a whole has agreed that the data being collected are important to inform future academic policy decisions. Thus, there's a premium placed on collecting them."

Leidig also said that the committee thoroughly vets whatever extenuating circumstances were presented in each institution's appeal.

"We take the appeals seriously," he said, "but we also take seriously the idea of complying with what the membership has said is a priority. If institutions can't devote the resources necessary to comply with these deadlines, then it sends the message that perhaps the enhancement funds aren't a priority to them."

Other highlights

In other action, the Division II Academic Requirements Committee:

• Recommended that the NCAA Division II Management Council adopt noncontroversial legislation specifying that institutions filing initial-eligibility and progress-toward-degree waivers shall be limited to two review opportunities, an initial staff decision and an appeal to the applicable Academic Requirements Committee subcommittee.
• Approved a revision to the NCAA Division II progress-toward-degree waiver procedures to require member institutions to submit an academic recovery plan as standard supplemental documentation for a progress-toward-degree waiver. The change allows NCAA staff to gain a greater sense of the student-athlete's individual efforts, course schedule planning and use of academic resources to ultimately rectify his or her academic eligibility deficiencies. (The revision will be effective for waiver cases beginning in the 2010-11 academic year.)
• Approved a revision to the NCAA Division II initial-eligibility waiver policies and procedures to permit the NCAA staff to render initial decisions for all initial-eligibility waiver cases involving student-athletes with education-impacting disabilities. (The revision will be effective for waiver cases beginning in the 2010-11 academic year.)
• Elected Linda Van Drie-Andrzjewski as chair of the committee beginning in September. Van Drie-Andrzjewski, an associate athletics director and the compliance coordinator at Wilmington (Delaware), replaces Leidig, whose two-year term as chair expires at that time.