After two years of study and refinement, the Division II Presidents Council agreed October 30 to recommend that active Division II member institutions be required to complete a supplemental report to measure the academic success of their student-athletes.

The proposal will be considered at the 2005 NCAA Convention, with an effective date of August 1, 2005, if approved. That means that the first reporting date for Division II members would be in spring 2006.

In making the decision to move forward, the presidents focused on a pair of pilot studies that helped frame the final proposal. Those pilots showed that the current reporting method required by the federal Student Right-to-Know Act unfavorably portrays the academic performance of Division II student-athletes because it counts only student-athletes who receive athletically related financial aid and because of the way it treats transfers.

All institutions sponsoring intercollegiate athletics will continue to be obligated to comply with the Student Right-to-Know Act, regardless of what action Division II takes in January 2005.

The presidents were persuaded through the pilot studies that the proposed methodology would provide increased accuracy and fairness compared to the federal report.

The proposed method would count all student-athletes who are on a team's roster for the first regularly scheduled contest. Incoming transfers would be counted (they are excluded on the federal report) and outgoing transfers would be evaluated based on their academic standing at the time of the transfer (they are counted as not graduating in the federal report).

The project team studying the issue had considered requiring institutions to use information from the National Student Clearinghouse (formerly the National Student Loan Clearinghouse) to track the academic records of student-athletes who transfer out of an institution. However, the project team found that about 95 percent of student-athletes who leave in good academic standing transfer to another institution, meaning that they likely continue on a degree path. While they reached no formal conclusion, the presidents appeared persuaded that requiring institutions to follow up with the NSC would unduly burden the membership.

If the membership accepts that approach, student-athletes who transfer out could be counted only as "nonfailures" since their graduation status would not be determined. Thus, the term "graduation" would not be used in the nomenclature for the study.

That seemed to the Presidents Council to be a fair trade-off, given its sensitivity to how reporting demands could affect the membership. The presidents acknowledged that completing the report will require additional staff time, but they believe that the commitment will not be overly burdensome, especially compared to the value of the information that will be acquired. Further, they believe that while the membership's work demand may be extensive at the outset of the program, it will be reduced once campus reporting systems are refined. Finally, adjustments to Compliance Assistant software should help the membership comply with the new requirement.

Tony Capon, Division II Management Council chair and chair of the Graduation-Rates Project Team, noted that the membership and leadership will have two additional pilot studies (reporting dates in spring 2004 and 2005) in which they can resolve lingering issues so that the report, to be known as the Academic Success Report, provides the best possible information with the smallest possible membership burden. The proposed study will be featured at a Division II educational session at the 2004 Convention in Nashville, Tennessee.

Other business

In other business, the Presidents Council approved a new menu format for the Division II conference grant program (see the October 27 issue of The NCAA News). The new approach, which will be implemented in the 2004-05 fiscal year, will provide conferences with more discretion in applying NCAA grant money. The modified approach will be in place for conference grant requests that are due in February 2004.

Although the presidents took no additional action, they discussed a possible review of the grant program. Grant money currently is divided equally among active member conferences, but the presidents discussed whether that approach is fair since Division II conferences range from six members to 18. The result is that the per capita effects of the grants greatly favor smaller conferences.

The Presidents Council also voted to join the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) in recommending to delay the effective date of 2004 Convention Proposal No. 2-2 to August 1, 2005. The overall proposal, which would require institutions to certify that all student-athletes have insurance to cover athletically related injuries, appears to have widespread support. However, the public institutions in the WVIAC are part of a statewide insurance consortium, and they say they need additional time to go back to the state agency and modify coverage amounts. The WVIAC also said it is concerned about the time that will be necessary to develop the compliance tools that the legislation will require.

The staff working with the NCAA Risk Management and Insurance Task Force agrees with the WVIAC position and has indicated it will ask Divisions I and III to consider joining Division II in seeking the delayed effective date.

Other highlights

Division I Presidents Council

October 30/Indianapolis

Heard reports from NCAA President Myles Brand on the economic baseline study that was released in August and on efforts to establish a more student-friendly regulatory environment. Brand said that Division II presidents should pay particular attention to the baseline study since the information could help guide membership classification decisions. A summary of the report appeared in the August 18 issue of The NCAA News, and a copy of the complete report is available through NCAA Online (http://www.ncaa.org/
databases/baselineStudy/baseline.pdf).

Reviewed legislation that the Presidents Council will sponsor for the 2004 Convention. The Council will sponsor 47 proposals, including one that would require enrolled student-athletes to have successfully completed six credit hours from the previous term to be eligible for athletics competition. Current legislation identifies only annual academic thresholds for continuing eligibility.

Agreed to oppose 2004 Convention Proposal Nos. 2-52 and 2-53, both of which are membership-sponsored legislative proposals pertaining to Division II championships eligibility. The Presidents Council agreed with the Division II Championships Committee that both proposals have merit but could have unintended consequences. In the alternative, the Presidents Council will sponsor a resolution for the 2004 Convention to establish a project team that will study the issue on an expedited basis. The presidents believe that the project team will be able to develop recommendations on a timeline that would conform with the sponsors' August 1, 2004, effective date.

Elected George Hagerty, president of Franklin Pierce College, as chair of the Presidents Council, effective at the conclusion of the 2004 Convention (see related story, page 17). The presidents also elected Daniel Bradley of Fairmont State College (Region 1), Charles Ambrose of Pfeiffer University (Region 2) and Robert Brown of Arkansas Technological University (Region 3) to fill vacancies on the Presidents Councils beginning in 2004. Biographical information on the new members will appear in the November 24 issue of The NCAA News.

Ratified the election of Sue Willey, athletics director at the University of Indianapolis, as new chair of the Division II Management Council and also ratified the elections of Dave Brunk, Northeast-10 Conference; Donna Fields, St. Mary's University (Texas); and Diana Husic, East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, to the Division II Management Council (see related stories, page 17).

Agreed to match up to $5,000 of funds raised by the Division II Student-Athlete Advisory Committee for its national campaign with the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Approved additions to the Division II strategic plan recommended by the Student-Athlete Involvement Project Team (see the October 27 issue of The NCAA News).