The Division II Management Council, which met January 9, agreed to authorize a draft of legislation as recommended by the NCAA Olympic Sports Liaison Committee that would permit student-athletes with eligibility remaining and who are not enrolled full-time to participate in practices for national governing bodies in team sports. However, several members expressed concern with how the proposal could affect competitive equity within Division II.

The Management Council also approved a change in review standards for its Administrative Review Subcommittee. To this point, the subcommittee has not permitted reconsideration of a request unless new information is discovered. According to the new policy, the subcommittee chair may permit a review even in the absence of new information (for example, if an institution did not understand the waiver process and failed to provide information that would have influenced the decision).

The Management Council also asked the NCAA membership services staff to develop a concept to address concerns related to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Small College Tennis Championship. The timing of the event creates challenges for institutions in northern climates to comply with the 45-day practice period during the Division II nonchampionship segment.

Dave Waples, athletics director at Kennesaw State University, suggested a new approach to selecting teams for Division II championships. Noting his concern that teams that have finished in fourth or fifth place in a conference have been selected to compete in NCAA championships while teams that have placed second have not, Waples asked the Division II Championships Committee during a January 10 education session to require that each conference submit a priority selection order to each regional selection committee. "It will cut down on 50 percent of all the gripes" (about championships selection), he said.

The Division II Student-Athlete Advisory Committee took advantage of a cooperative audience at the Convention and raised about $750 for its campaign with the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Student-athletes collected money at selected Division II events and also at the door of the January 10 delegates reception.

Norma V. Cantu, former head of the Office for Civil Rights for the U.S. Department of Education, led Division II delegates through a review of Title IX compliance issues on January 11. She identified what she said is a common misunderstanding about Prong 1 of the three-part compliance test. She said that the government will not consider a school to be in compliance with Title IX merely because its female student-athlete participation is within 5 percent of the makeup of the overall undergraduate population. Instead, she said that the government will look at factors that could affect an institution's ability to be proportionate in a particular year, such as a sudden change in the male-female proportion of the overall undergraduate population.

-- David Pickle