National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News - News and Features

April 14, 1997

Presidents look ahead at March meetings -- Division II

Stronger compliance program receives final approval

The NCAA Division II Presidents Council Transition Team has given final approval to details of an educational assessment program for provisional Division II members and an enhancement of compliance services for active members.

The presidents approved the Division II Management Council Transition Team's plans for the programs during a March 27 meeting in Indianapolis.

The educational assessment program was authorized by Division II members at the 1997 Convention, at which time the Association also voted to lengthen the provisional-membership period from three to four years.

In Division II, the provisional-membership period's first year will be devoted to an orientation to the NCAA, the second year to achievement of compliance and rules awareness, the third year to a self-assessment of rules compliance, and the fourth year to verification of compliance.

The Division II Presidents Council approved the Division II Management Council's educational assessment plan with only slight modifications. Those modifications will further emphasize chief executive officers' role in the process by requiring their personal involvement in assessment activities.

The program will become effective after the current moratorium on new NCAA members is lifted, and will apply only to schools applying for Division II membership after that date.

The Presidents Council also approved a plan that will enhance compliance services for active Division II members primarily by increasing awareness of and the number of compliance reviews conducted by the NCAA staff at Division II institutions and initiating "mini-regional seminars" in conjunction with regularly scheduled conference meetings.

Plans call for the NCAA staff to conduct between 15 and 20 compliance reviews annually at Division II schools. The reviews are voluntary in nature and are designed to help an institution build effective compliance systems.

The staff also will work with Division II conferences to schedule presentations during regularly scheduled conference meetings offering information similar to what is presented at NCAA regional rules-compliance seminars. Scheduling the seminar presentations in conjunction with conference meetings will help minimize institutions' cost of attending such sessions.

The Presidents Council's approval of the educational assessment program and enhancement of compliance services completes a three-pronged approach to strengthening Division II members' knowledge of and compliance with NCAA rules.

The first prong was put into place last year with approval of the use of an enhanced Institutional Self-Study Guide.

The three-pronged approach to rules compliance was developed as an alternative to establishing a certification program. The combined cost of the educational assessment program and enhanced compliance services is estimated at $310,000 annually -- significantly less than the $500,000 that was set aside by the Association for a Division II certification program.

It is estimated that the educational assessment program will cost $140,000 annually and enhancement of compliance services will cost $170,000.

The NCAA Presidents Commission reaffirmed during its March 27-28 meeting in Indianapolis that Association funds previously set aside for Division II certification should be allocated to the new Division II compliance programs. The Commission will inform the NCAA Executive Committee of its stance and request that the Executive Committee approve funding (which includes operational expenses and staffing) that the Division II Management Council has determined is necessary to implement the programs.

Details of the new programs will be published in an upcoming issue of The NCAA News.

Other highlights

Division II Presidents Council Transition Team
March 27/Indianapolis

  • Received a report from a project team formed following the adoption of 1997 Convention Proposal No. 150, a resolution directing a study of whether there is a need in Division II for legislation similar to the Division I "21-year participation" rule. The project team informed the Presidents Council Transition Team that it plans to conduct a random survey of Division II members sometime this summer to obtain more information on Division II student and student-athlete demographics. The Presidents Council encouraged the project team to continue its review and also to focus on related issues, including amateurism. It also noted that the nine-member project team soon will add a coach to its roster.

    Current members of the project team are Anthony F. Ceddia, president, Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania; Carol M . Dunn, director of athletics, California State University, Los Angeles; Doug Echols, commissioner, South Atlantic Conference; Alfreeda Goff, director of athletics, Virginia State University, Marvalene Hughes, president, California State University, Stanislaus; Patricia A. Merrier, faculty athletics representative, University of Minnesota, Duluth; Allen Lee Sessoms, president, Queens College (New York); Stormie Lynn Wells, student-athlete, University of Northern Colorado; and Kent Wyatt, president, Delta State University.

  • Asked the Division II Championships Project Team and the Division II Management Council Transition Team to review criteria used for selection of regional- and national-championship sites. The Presidents Council also recommended that the criteria be communicated to the Division II membership on a regular basis, and that the groups study the feasibility of establishing predetermined championship sites in certain Division II sports, including women's basketball.

    The Division II Championships Project Team will meet April 29 in Chicago.

  • Took no action on a report from the Division II Budget/
    Finance Subcommittee of the Division II Presidents Council and Management Council Transition Teams. The subcommittee is developing budget principles/guidelines for use in making decisions on the use of funds allocated to Division II in the new governance structure. The Presidents Council agreed to discuss the subcommittee's work during its June meeting. The Division II Management Council will review the report during its April 16 meeting in Tucson, Arizona.

  • Received recommendations from the Division II Financial Aid Project Team that legislation be sponsored to enact partial need-based aid in Division II athletics and/or decrease financial aid equivalency limits in selected sports. The presidents took no action other than to forward the recommendations to the Division II Management Council for its review and then back to the project team to address questions about the proposal (see the April 7 issue of The NCAA News).

  • Selected Jessica Kozloff of Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania to represent the Division II Presidents Council on the new Division II Administrative Committee and selected Gladys Styles Johnston of the University of Nebraska at Kearney; Cal State Stanislaus' Hughes; and Robert A. Burnett of Armstrong Atlantic State University as Presidents Council representatives on the new Division II Budget and Finance Committee.

  • Appointed the following Division II Presidents Council members as liaisons to Division II committees: Sessoms of Queens (New York), Division II Academic Requirements Committee; Jerry E. McGee of Wingate University, Division II Infractions Committee; and Hughes of Cal State Stanislaus, Division II Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.