National Collegiate Athletic Association

NCAA News Archive - 2010

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Jan 15, 2010 11:33:36 PM

ATLANTA – Division II chancellors and presidents conducted a pre-business-session pep rally on Friday when about 70 of them convened to review the Life in the Balance proposals set to be voted on today.

Presidents Council chair Stephen Jordan and Council members Cheryl Norton and Pat O'Brien led a review of the four proposals designed to shorten seasons, reduce contests, establish later reporting dates for fall sports and create a seven-day dead period during the winter break.

For the most part, presidents in the room enthusiastically supported the effort and were gratified – and in some cases surprised – that the Presidents Council got this done in one year.

"But had you not brought this to the fore as a concern, we would not be addressing these issues now," Norton told her peers, referring to a session at the 2009 Convention in which presidents began wondering whether student-athletes were spending more time on the fields and courts than in classrooms and other campus activities.

The presidents' meeting followed a Division II forum in which Virginia State alumna and Brig. Gen. (ret.) Sheila Baxter told delegates of her own quest for balance in the mid-1970s when her basketball schedule consisted of just 17 games.

Baxter praised presidents for their ongoing support of student-athletes – and for the opportunities for personal development.

"Your work is not in vain – I am a byproduct of that work," she said. "But it's more than just academics. It's important to teach our student-athletes to be good leaders, not just good athletes."

In the question-and-answer session that followed the Balance presentation, the lone concern appeared to be over the dead period and why schools and conferences couldn't be allowed to choose their own seven days. Some conferences already preclude competition during final exam periods, which essentially creates a two-week interval for several schools.

That concern was debated in several forums throughout the past year, including at the Division II Management Council's summer meeting when members were putting the finishing touches on the package.

"Not only would such autonomy cause scheduling difficulties, but it also becomes a balance issue for staffs and administrators at our schools," said Management Council chair Tim Selgo, noting that contests over the holidays typically aren't well attended but still require staffing.

The meeting also preceded a luncheon during which Division II got another vote of confidence from an unlikely source – former Executive Committee chair and current Division I Board of Directors member Michael Adams – who applauded Division II's efforts to balance not only the student-athlete experience but schools' bottom lines.

Adams, who was invited to speak with the Division II presidents on a number of topics, pointed particularly to an endorsement the Knight Commission – of which Adams is a member – issued publicly last week on the Life in the Balance package. That was on the heels of a recently released commission survey of Division I Football Bowl Subdivision presidents who said they want fiscal reform but feel powerless to act.

"The Division II effort is a great statement of coming to grips with what you are about – the importance of balance – and it is laudatory," Adams said.

Dashboard indicators

The presidents during their morning session also heard about a new resource that will be available this summer.

Similar to a project that has been helpful to Division I presidents, Division II leaders will begin receiving "dashboard indicators" on financial data to help inform decisions about athletics budgets.

"It's important to have data on your own institution, but we all yearn for data from other institutions as a comparable resource and to learn best practices from what other institutions are doing," said Washburn University President Jerry Farley, who led the presentation. "We need data in a usable format to help us make decisions, and this dashboard project will serve that purpose.

Farley said the dashboards won't be something presidents will refer to every day. "But it is something you will want to study as you make financial decisions that affect your institution," he said.

The dashboards already have been tested by a pilot group and will be rolled out at the 2010 Division II Chancellors and Presidents Summit this June.

The project currently contains 16 indicators, including allocated and generated revenue, student fees, donor contributions, coaches' compensation, staff salaries, Academic Success Rates, team travel, athletics aid, and athletics expenditures vs. total institution expenditures.

Pfeiffer University President Charles Ambrose said the dashboard tool is the most significant membership benefit since the values study released two years ago that helped Division II schools determine the worth of their athletics programs to the institutional bottom line.

"And we wouldn't have it without the involvement from Association leadership," he said.