National Collegiate Athletic Association

NCAA News Archive - 2010

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Jan 15, 2010 11:40:51 PM

ATLANTA – Division II members feel like they have a positive story to tell, and now they are looking for better ways to do it.

An education session Friday focused on Division II promotional tools and also on different features the membership would like to see emphasized. The session was well-attended, and participants appeared energized by the discussion.

Delegates seemed especially interested in a series of templates that would assist with presentations to groups that might benefit from a greater understanding of Division II.

The original list of target audiences included presidents, institutional board, faculty, campus leaders and civic groups, among others, but those at Friday's session saw other opportunities for such presentations, such as with non-athletics administrators, alumni, legislative and political leaders, and even churches.

Jill Willson of Double L Consulting led the discussion and was pleased with the degree of interest the membership exhibited.

"Not only did they appear to want the information," she said, "they were interested in whether it could be provided so that they could customize it to meet their needs, such as if they wanted to include one of their own photographs in one of the Division II presentations. That is absolutely possible, and we'll make it happen."

Willson said the presentation templates will be available from NCAA.org soon, probably within two weeks. Those interested will be able to download what they need, ideally on to a portable device such as a jump drive.

Willson also encouraged delegates at the session to consider the possibility of an annual campus athletics retreat, at which time all related parties could come together and discuss Division II, conference and institutional athletics objectives. She has developed a recommended timeline and also a topical list that includes liberal use of video, introduction of the Division II strategic platform, community-engagement and game-environment initiatives, and assessments of graduation rates. Finally, any such retreat would culminate with the development of institutional athletics priorities for the coming year.

"We understand that the big priority is to win games," she said, "but everybody needs to have priorities that are directed at what they want to accomplish away from competition." Possible discussion points might involve communication of Division II initiatives, what can be done to create a more positive game environment and how the general student body could become more involved in athletics.

Willson and Dave Smith of Creative Street Media Group also led the attendees through a revised Division II promotional site, which is now known as DIINetwork.org (www.diinetwork.org). The site, which is not to be confused with a broadcast network, consolidates the game-environment and community-engagement elements previously found on DIICommunity.org while also adding several new features to keep the site current (such as a blog by Rich Luker, the engineer of Division II's community-engagement effort).