The Division II Academic Requirements Committee devoted most of its attention at its February 7-8 meeting to a review of progress-toward-degree research and questions involving midyear academic certification.

The Division II Presidents Council has charged the committee with conducting an ongoing examination of progress-toward-degree standards. To this point, the research staff has developed two years of Division II-specific data; a third year will be available in July.

However, NCAA Director of Research Todd Petr told the committee that the extensive Division I data collected over the last decade appears to correlate closely with the Division II data that have been compiled so far. Thus, Petr was able to present the committee with projections of how various different standards (for instance, higher grade-point average requirements applied after the completion of a variety of credit hours) likely would affect Division II student-athletes.

The committee reached no conclusions about altering progress-toward-degree standards. It will continue to examine the matter at its next meeting when the third year of Division II-specific data are available.

Regarding midyear certification, the committee reviewed a membership survey on the subject that revealed that about 70 percent of the responding institutions conducted some sort of midyear academic review. However, the extent of the reviews that were reported varied to the degree that they had little in common.

Moreover, only 43 percent of the membership responded to the survey. To acquire more information, the committee will resubmit the survey to the institutions that did not respond to the first request.

In another matter related to academics, USA Today has determined that Divisions I and II institutions will be required to have a minimum of 26 student-athletes receiving athletically related aid to be eligible for the annual NCAA-USA Today Academic Achievement Awards. The winners of the awards are determined by using graduation-rate figures determined through the provisions of the federally mandated Student-Right-to-Know (SRTK) Act. Since SRTK measures only student-athletes receiving athletically related aid, some institutions with minimal financial aid commitments have won achievement awards, and the accompanying $25,000 grants, while having fewer than 10 student-athletes measured.