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    DII’s Balance package: One down, one to go

    Jan 19, 2010 8:57:42 AM

    By Gary Brown
    The NCAA News

     

    When the lights went out in Georgia after the Division II business session Saturday, most presidents left the room sensing brighter days ahead for a division that had just completed an ambitious – and at times tumultuous – project under their leadership.

    With the four-proposal Life in the Balance package approved by wide margins, Division II chancellors and presidents  showed their peers in intercollegiate athletics that leadership can go a long way in a reform agenda.

    As Division II Presidents Council chair Stephen Jordan of Metropolitan State put it after all the votes were counted: "It was an absolute manifestation of presidential leadership. When chancellors and presidents take the time to become involved in the process, they can take the division in a positive direction."

    That direction begins next fall when student-athletes in football, cross country, field hockey, soccer and volleyball report to school a week later. That will reduce the time that only student-athletes occupy campuses and, in turn, lighten the financial burden on the institutions to house and feed them.

    Student-athletes in soccer and volleyball also will play two fewer contests (a two-game reduction in field hockey begins in 2011), and the Division II Football Championship will be played a week later than in previous years.

    Baseball and softball student-athletes also will spend less time on the diamonds through a six-game reduction for men and no more tournament exceptions for women. Golfers also get a three-contest-date reduction starting next year.

    The Balance package also affected basketball with a one-game cut for men and women. In addition, a seven-day dead period over the winter holidays gives student-athletes and staffs alike some strategic down time.

    "It's important to remember," Jordan said, reflecting on the year-long legislative effort, "that this initiative was rooted in our strategic-positioning platform and was not merely an exercise in cutting games. While cutbacks in the very thing many student-athletes and coaches regard as their primary pursuit – competition – was hard for some to accept, once people saw the big picture, they realized the Balance package was the right thing to do."

    Most of the package came into the 2010 Convention with support from the governance structure, faculty representatives and the Division II Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Members of the latter said after their November meeting that while doing less of what they love most was initially counterintuitive, they saw that "balance" in this context wasn't merely between athletics and academics.

    "It's not balance if you're having to stay up until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning four nights a week to keep up with the school work that you're not able to do during the day because of practice or games," said SAAC chair Christopher Odom of Angelo State after the SAAC's fall meeting. "The purpose of college is to make for a more well-rounded person."

    The vote totals at the business session showed that, for the most part, delegates agreed with that assessment.

    Phase II under way

    But while the 2010 Convention has ended, Division II's quest for balance hasn't. Work on Phase II already has begun, with nonchampionship segments and exempted contests in applicable sports targeted as the next areas for review. Also to be considered are possible changes in the hourly limits for athletically related activities in and out of season (the so-called 20/8-hour rules).

    As with Phase I, Phase II will undergo an inclusive and far-reaching review, from coaches associations and governance committees (including the Division II SAAC) to the commissioners and athletics directors associations.

    The goal is to have recommendations for the Division II Legislation and Championships Committees by June. Final recommendations will go to the Management and Presidents Councils and SAAC in the summer for possible sponsorship at the 2011 NCAA Convention.

    One certainty for Phase II is that the people the proposals affect will be encouraged to provide input on the concepts early and often.

    Grand Valley State Athletics Director Tim Selgo, who chaired the Management Council during Phase I and remains as a member on the Council for Phase II, said busy athletics administrators usually wait until proposals are imminent before really thinking about their impact. He urged that not be the case as whatever emerges from Phase II heads for the 2011 Convention in San Antonio.

    "As an AD myself, I know there will be a lot on our plates waiting for us when we return from this Convention," Selgo told a group of Division II leaders last week. "But this is something that needs our immediate attention. From January to June is the critical period for Phase II, not July to December."

    Eckerd College Athletics Director Bob Fortosis echoed those sentiments at the Management Council meeting shortly after the business session.

    "This is a party to which everyone is invited," he said, "and it doesn't help to show up late."