National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News - News and Features

November 10, 1997

Convention gets a look from CEOs

Division II gathering to stress information

The Division II Presidents Council is arranging a program for the 1998 Convention that seeks to inform institutional chief executive officers about Division II financial matters, championships policies and procedures, and current key issues in intercollegiate athletics.

The Presidents Council, which met October 28 in Kansas City, Missouri, also designated seven legislative proposals for chief executive officers' attention at the 1998 Convention in Atlanta.

Many of the Presidents Council's actions during the recent meeting were directed at encouraging CEOs' attendance at the first Convention in the new governance structure.

The presidents approved a schedule of gatherings and shaped an agenda for the business session designed to engage CEOs in discussion of important issues that the division will face during coming years.

Highlights of that schedule include:

  • A Division II chief executive officers' forum from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, January 11.

    The forum tentatively is expected to feature a review of Title IX issues much like that provided for other institutional personnel at the NCAA's annual Title IX workshops.

    It also will feature information on NCAA efforts to deal with gambling problems at Division II institutions and provide CEOs with an overview of legislation scheduled for consideration at the next day's Division II business session.

  • The Division II business session, which begins at 8 a.m. Monday, January 12.

    In addition to featuring consideration of the 19 proposals on the Division II legislative agenda -- including the seven proposals included in the Presidents Council grouping -- the session will feature discussions of possible changes in the current formula for distributing money from the Division II enhancement fund to Division II institutions and of championships policies and procedures.

    Those discussions are expected to occur during late morning and early afternoon January 12, making it feasible for CEOs to depart Atlanta that evening if they wish to do so.

  • Various other events of interest to CEOs, beginning with the traditional delegates' reception at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, January 10, and also including the Convention's opening business session, chief executive officers' reception and NCAA honors dinner (featuring recognition of current and former student-athletes from all three membership divisions) Sunday evening.

    Legislative agenda

    The first part of the Monday business session will be devoted to consideration of proposed legislation, beginning with the Presidents Council grouping.

    That grouping includes Presidents Council-sponsored proposals to:

  • Require the establishment of conference student-athlete advisory committees (Proposal No. 2-1 in the Second Publication of Proposed Legislation).

  • Include conference staff members in legislation prohibiting participation in gambling activities (Proposal No. 2-2).

  • Reduce the number of equivalency scholarships for cross country and track at schools that sponsor only cross country (Proposal No. 2-10).

  • Place limits on contact practices in spring football (Proposal No. 2-15).

    Also included in the grouping are membership proposals to exclude a Pell Grant from counting as part of a grant-in-aid (Proposal No. 2-9) and to decrease the permissible number of football scholarships in Division II from the equivalent of 36 financial aid awards to 30 (Proposal No. 2-12).

    The Presidents Council has taken no position on membership proposals in the presidents' grouping. The Presidents Council designated the seven proposals in the grouping for roll-call voting.

    Workshop canceled

    The Presidents Council also noted a decision by the Division II Management Council to cancel a legislative workshop that had been scheduled for Tuesday morning, January 13, in Atlanta.

    The workshop was planned to assist Division II institutions in understanding and learning to apply any legislation adopted at the 1998 Convention, but the small number of proposals on the agenda at the Convention prompted doubts that such a session is needed this year.

    It is anticipated that such workshops may be scheduled at future Conventions, due to an anticipated increase in proposed legislation resulting from deregulation efforts and other legislative initiatives.

    Other highlights

    Division II Presidents Council
    October 28/Kansas City, Missouri

  • Agreed to await further consideration and a recommendation from the Division II Management Council regarding whether to end the current moratorium on membership growth.

  • Approved a revision in the format of the finals of the Division II Baseball Championship (to permit participants in Saturday games to play on the following Monday and participants in Sunday games to play on the following Tuesday) and also approved the Pine Bluff (Arkansas) Convention Center as the site of the finals of the 1998 Division II Women's Basketball Championship, contingent on the availability of previously budgeted funds for these purposes.

  • Approved changing the name of the Division II Eligibility Committee to the Division II Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement.

  • Approved noncontroversial legislation to modify the composition of the Association-wide Research Committee; increase the size of the Men's Water Polo Committee; set June 15 as the deadline date for Division II provisional members' annual reports; permit committees that are required to meet in Kansas City, Missouri, to meet in Indianapolis; and establish a quorum requirement (three members present and voting) for the Division II Committee on Infractions.

  • Re-elected three members of the Presidents Council to new four-year terms: Gladys Styles Johnston of the University of Nebraska at Kearney, Oscar L. Prater of Fort Valley State College and Joan K. Wadlow of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

  • Ratified the election of two individuals to fill two current vacancies and one January 1998 vacancy on the Division II Management Council (the appointments will be announced soon in The NCAA News).

  • Ratified the re-election of four current members of the Division II Management Council: Peggy L. Green of Fayetteville State University; Kaye P. Crook of Coker College; Jerry M. Hughes of Central Missouri State University; and Pamela Gill-Fisher of the University of California, Davis.

  • Approved recommendations by the Division II Management Council regarding the scheduling of elections for Management Council vice-chair and chair. As a result, the vice-chairs of both the Presidents Council and Management Council will be elected in January 1998 to take office in August 1998, and the chairs of the Management Council and Presidents Council will be elected in July and August 1998, respectively, to take office in January 1999.