Change is never easy, particularly when tradition and football are involved.

Preseason football practice, practically a sign of the change of seasons in some locales, will be quite different this August at Division III institutions. It's a change that other divisions will be experiencing to some degree as well, but the speedy nature with which the model was adopted, along with the fact that Division III tends to regulate a bit less than the other divisions on many matters, has left many coaches reworking their preseason plans.

Because of a new preseason football model adopted by the Division III Presidents Council this spring, there will be no two-a-day practices for the first five days of a mandatory acclimatization period (in which there will be a gradual addition of pads). After the five days, double-session practices are permitted, but they must take place on alternate days.

Also prescribed is how long the practices can go on both single- and double-session days, as well as how many hours of recovery time student-athletes must have. Also new are walk-throughs, a chance to try out plays in an hour-long session on days in which double-session practices are not permitted.

(For the entire model, see the April 28 issue of The NCAA News.)

The changes, all the result of an effort to improve student-athlete health and safety, have created many questions and much discussion in Division III.

Why the need for change?

Matt Mitten, chair of the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports, explained the need for the model in a memo to Division III institutions:

"In the last three years, three NCAA football student-athletes have died while participating in football conditioning workouts. In addition, injury data show the risk of heat illness and general injury to be highest during preseason, particularly on days with multiple practices."

Mitten also noted that study groups in all three divisions analyzed the data and evaluated their own procedures.

In Division III, those examining the data included the Management Council's playing and practice seasons subcommittee, as well as the Division III Football Committee. The Management Council ultimately concluded that changes were necessary and recommended those changes to the Presidents Council, which approved them at its April meeting, effective immediately.

The membership still will have to approve the model in legislative form at the NCAA Convention in January, but it will have been in place for a season already.

Bill Klika, athletics director at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Florham, and chair of the Division III Football Committee, thinks adopting the model immediately was a good move.

"I think it was very prudent for Division III, for our committee and for the Management and Presidents Councils, to recognize -- based on the research -- the need for heat acclimatization and recovery time," he said, noting that he had been a football coach for 25 years.

"I think that if it was needed for Divisions I and II levels, it was needed for Division III. We have big, strong kids, much like Division I athletes, who might be an inch shorter or a tenth of a second slower. But they play the same sport and have the same intensity."

While the competitive-safeguards committee reviewed abundant data related to heat injury, a few statistics stand out. David Klossner, NCAA assistant director of education outreach, said in addition to the high injury rates on days with multiple practices, 79 percent of all fall heat illnesses reported to the NCAA were from football.

"In 2002, 87 percent of all heat illnesses occurred on multiple-day sessions. In addition, during the preseason period, a student-athlete is four times more likely to have an injury of any kind than in the regular season," Klossner said.

Klossner also noted that a study published in the May 2003 edition of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, the scientific journal of the American College of Sports Medicine, showed that the standard football uniform does not allow for safe heat transfer and body temperature regulation in hot environments. A full uniform was found to have the same insulating properties as that of a heavy three-piece wool business suit.

Division III differences

There are several unique aspects of Division III that have affected the conversation about the preseason model. As Division III groups looked at implementing the model, they tried to take those differences into account whenever possible.

"I think (adopting the model) was a sound decision," Klika said. "The challenge was fitting it into the Division III schedule. We have a lot less flexibility in our schedule than Divisions I and II."

Indeed, the first challenge was working the model into the academic schedules of Division III institutions. The Councils and the football committee didn't want student-athletes coming back too much sooner, partly because of budgetary considerations at institutions and partly because, unlike in Division I, most student-athletes are paying their own way for school and need every possible day of the summer to work.

"We tried to look at how we could protect student-athletes (through a new model) and still not break the bank for athletics departments that might be looking at an additional $2,500 a day in costs," Klika said. "Also, if we were just to expand the preseason and bring student-athletes back without consideration for the student-athletes who typically are working to pay a significant portion of their bills, that's not what Division III is about.

"I give the Management Council a lot of credit for being responsive to the membership. They took the 25-opportunities plan, realized it worked better than the 21-day (before the first game) model, and recommended it to the Presidents Council."

The final model accounts for when institutions have their first game and when they begin classes, providing 25 practice opportunities, down from the 27 available last year. (See the May 12 issue of The NCAA News for a chart of Division III preseason practice start dates.)

Also different in Division III is the fact that there is no spring football, and coaches in Division III do not have the option to work with student-athletes over the summer.

Those differences are among the reasons Scot Dapp, head football coach at Moravian College, is not a fan of the model.

"I think it's not as much the model itself. I understand the whole safety concept behind it. My concern is what's not being taken into account at our level," said Dapp, who also is a certified athletic trainer.

Dapp believes that because the first two pieces of the health and safety preseason model in Division I -- the offseason and the spring practice components -- are not present in Division III, the rest of the model is invalid.

"In Division III, the only part of the health and safety model we're using is the preseason part," he said. "We don't have the first two pieces of the puzzle. We have been reduced in the amount of time we are permitted to be with our players, and I think that presents its own safety issue. You have to talk not just about heat but about properly preparing players for the fundamentals of the game -- blocking and tackling."

Dapp notes that Division I coaches have their players in many cases on campus training all summer. While Dapp certainly isn't advocating that approach, he says it makes a difference in what's realistic for the different divisions. He also notes that the number of freshmen and first-year players who must step on the field and immediately contribute in Division III makes any loss of contact time with Division III coaches a significant one.

"They've got to learn new techniques, there is the conditioning aspect and then fundamentally playing the game," he said. "I don't feel Division III is giving its players the proper time to prepare to play a football game."

Dapp agrees with the concept of avoiding consecutive two-a-days, but he disagrees with the implementation of the acclimatization period.

"I agree you need to acclimatize, but I don't agree you need to do just one practice per day (during that time). If student-athletes are already working out in the summer, they are already working out once per day," Dapp said. "I also think some of these rules are taking the onus off of the college. You still need to be sure you are hydrating players, checking weights, monitoring players' conditions and monitoring the humidity and heat."

Dapp is concerned about other effects of the model, from first-time players having more time on their hands to be homesick to the idea that much of the data supporting the decision has originated with the other two divisions.

"I know the aspects of safety are important, and I agree with that," Dapp said. "I just think we need to give more thought to this overall plan before we say every division has to follow it exactly."

Regulation learning curve

Perhaps the additional Division III "difference" that's annoying some personnel is the fact that coaches and administrators in Division III are simply used to less specific regulation. While Division I is certainly no stranger to carefully prescribed rules and regulations governing everything from the preseason to recruiting and eligibility, it's more common for Division III to have guidelines rather than specifics.

Gary Karner, commissioner of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, has seen some evidence of that.

"Something like the preseason model is very prescriptive," he said. "That's a little bit different for us in Division III. We usually deal with a conceptual framework and work within that."

But Karner also understands why Division III needs to be on the same page as the other divisions with an effort so closely tied to student-athlete health and safety.

"I understand the rationale for having to implement it," he said. "And I know it's in part because it has been done in Divisions I and II, and if something were to happen in Division III and we had not done it, considering the data, it could open the division up to liability. But I think there are a lot of good aspects to the model anyway."

Klika knows the model isn't going to please everyone, but he thinks many coaches may come to like it once they've tried it.

"I think student-athletes are going to be a little fresher, and some coaches who make good use of the film and blackboard sessions might find that they are accomplishing more," he said. "Coaches tend to be a conservative group and are used to doing the same things that have been successful for them in the past. I think once (the model) actually runs its course, it may be more beneficial than we thought."

Moving forward

Larry Kehres, athletics director and head football coach at Mount Union College, is one of the coaches who is willing to give the model a try before he passes judgment.

"I think it's important to remember the recommendations came from members of the competitive-safeguards committee," he said. "I respect their opinion. The style of practice they have recommended is based on the best interests of safety and avoiding heat injury and the kinds of problems that can result from that."

Kehres still is deciding how his new preseason will look, and he's planning how to make the most of single-session practices and walk-throughs. He says he's challenged by the thought of a three-hour practice, which will likely be the norm on single-session days now.

"I've never had anything nearly that long," he said. "I still haven't decided what to do. I think players will become tired, and fatigue is the enemy of learning. It's my challenge to ensure that teaching and learning is paced and will continue to take place."

Kehres said he understands the need for the acclimatization period.

"As much as we tell student-athletes to come back to campus in shape, I'm sure there are some young men who don't do that. So I think the five-day period has some merit. It does add some expense to our preseason, and some of us had our budgets set, but I think you do what you need to do."

Joy Solomen (formerly Reighn), athletics director at Rowan University and a former chair of the Management Council, explained each person's role in the new model to her entire staff, including coaches, the athletic trainer and the equipment manager.

"I explained to the equipment manager, for example, that each student-athlete has to have an acclimatization period of his own, and a late-comer can't just have the equipment the others have," she said. "I think where the model is going to get sticky is when student-athletes come in (to practice) late. That's where I think it will be easy for some coaches to look the other way."

Solomen also sees some benefits to the model that may be unanticipated.

"I like the fact that all of the non-practice stuff is done around practice now. We were always taking freshmen out of practice to deal with things they needed to take care of anyway, from a change in their class schedule to their eligibility review. Now there will be time for that," she said. "It might also give guys a tendency to get to know one another in a social setting. I've never thought you needed five or six hours of practice a day anyway. It's all about what you do with the time you have."

Klika hopes the criticism will lessen as more people realize how fortunate Division III has been to avoid heat-related deaths.

"A lot of the negative reaction I've heard has been coaches saying, 'Now we have to change because of Division I problems,' " he said. "I hope no one ever has a heat-related injury, but I think it's being 'Pollyannaish' to think it can't happen to us," he said. "The Mount Union offensive line is just as big as the Ohio State offensive line. I know it is because I've seen it. And we're not allowed to do as much in the offseason with our players, a reason I think, to be sure we are just as cautious, just as careful, as Division I."

Kehres, who really does coach the Mount Union offensive line, agrees with the idea -- but gets there in a different way.

"I'm not sure the possibility of heat illness is a function of size but rather a function of conditioning," he said. "I think one death -- in any division -- is one too many. I think we should try this (model) and see how it works.

"The presidents are in charge, and they decided that this is what's best for the student-athletes. There's no point in complaining. This is what we have -- let's see how we can adjust most effectively. The coaches who can adjust effectively to the new model are the ones who are going to make the most of it."