At least a couple of conference-sponsored proposals may generate spirited debate at the 2008 Convention, judging from the Division III Management Council’s efforts to recommend positions on issues slated for membership consideration January 14 in Nashville, Tennessee.

The Council recommended positions on seven proposals that member conferences are sponsoring at the Convention, but was unable to agree on whether to support or oppose a conference-sponsored proposal to provide academic or other support services specifically for student-athletes so long as they are comparable to services provided for nonathletes.

Members also struggled with a proposal to permit extending the regular season to “make up” a conference postseason contest suspended because of weather or other unforeseen circumstances, in situations where that contest would determine a conference champion or NCAA championship automatic qualifier.

The Council, meeting October 22-23 in Indianapolis, asked the Division III Presidents Council to support three proposals and to oppose three proposals slated for consideration at the Division III business session January 14 in Nashville, Tennessee. The presidents decided the Division III governance structure’s official position on all conference-sponsored proposals during its November 1 meeting in Indianapolis, after The NCAA News went to press.

The Presidents Council also will hear details of the Management Council’s split on a proposal sponsored by the Wisconsin Intercollegiate and Northern Athletics Conferences that would permit an institution to provide student-athletes with academic or other support services that are “similar” to those provided or available to all students on a campus. The proposal seeks to give institutions more flexibility to provide programming or services geared more specifically to needs and interests of student-athletes.

The split perhaps was predictable, considering that two Division III committees that previously reviewed the proposal disagreed about its merits.

The Division III Interpretations and Legislation Committee supported the proposal, believing it would give student-athletes access to types of services readily available to students but sometimes not easily accessible to student-athletes. However, the Division III Strategic Planning and Finance Committee, which reviewed the proposal because of the possibility that Division III conference grants could be used to pay for such services, said student-athletes should not receive separate academic or career-counseling services on campuses.

Council members split along similar lines, though a student-athlete representative to the Council, emphasizing that he was speaking for himself rather than the Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, also expressed concern about the possibility that such programs might leave an impression that student-athletes are being served separately from other students.

Neither side of the argument attracted majority support from Council members. As a result, it is now up to the Presidents Council to settle the question of whether the governance structure will support, oppose or take no position on the proposal.

Make-ups for advancement

The presidents also will hear details of the Council’s debate of a proposal from the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic and Northern Athletics Conferences to extend regular-season competition due to an unforeseen circumstance.

Most Council members supported the measure, saying a current waiver process is not sufficient for dealing with emergencies and that a game should be played when possible rather than turning to conference policy to determine a champion or qualifier.

However, the proposal also generated significant opposition from Council members who said conferences can and should schedule competition to accommodate unforeseen circumstances, and that conferences rather than the NCAA should govern how such situations are handled
Both the Division III Championships Committee and the Management Council’s Playing and Practice Seasons Subcommittee previously expressed opposition to the proposal, primarily for the reason that conferences can take steps to accommodate such situations.

Other positions

Two other proposals easily won Management Council support:

A proposal by the Midwest, American Southwest, Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic and Northern Athletics Conferences to permit admissions offices to publicize nonathletics-focused campus visits of prospective student-athletes in the same manner that all visits by prospective students to an institution are publicized.

A proposal by Wisconsin Intercollegiate, Northern Athletics and State University of New York Athletic Conferences to permit institutions in fall sports other than football to calculate the first permissible practice date by counting back 16 practice opportunities from the first contest, even when September 1 falls on a Saturday, Sunday or Monday and the first contest is played before that date.

Council members also readily agreed to oppose three proposals:

A proposal by the Capital Athletic and State University of New York Athletic Conferences to change the starting date for the first contest in basketball from the Friday immediately before Thanksgiving to November 15. The Council joined its Playing and Practice Seasons Subcommittee in opposing what it regards as an expansion of the playing season.

A proposal by the North Eastern Athletic and North Atlantic Conferences to allow institutions that were provisional members before August 1, 2007, and have completed the first year of provisional membership, as well as any institution that becomes a provisional member after that date, to be counted by a conference toward the seven-institution requirement to receive automatic qualification in a sport. The Division III Championships Committee opposed the proposal because provisional members are not eligible to compete in championships, and the Division III Membership Committee also opposed it because provisional members still are being prepared for active membership.

A proposal by the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate, American Southwest and Northern Athletics Conferences to allow more time (until September 1) for a conference or 10 institutions agreeing by July 15 to sponsor a proposal at the Convention to obtain co-sponsorship for that proposal from another conference or 10 additional institutions. The Council agreed with the interpretations and legislation committee’s position that the increased sponsorship requirement adopted last year should remain unchanged for at least a couple of years to gauge how it works, and also noted that the number of proposals sponsored this year (nine) is comparable to the number typically sponsored under the previous requirement.

The Management Council agreed to take no position on one other measure — a proposal by the North Atlantic and Massachusetts State College Athletic Conferences — to permit single-sport conferences that existed before February 1, 2007, to maintain automatic qualification for NCAA championships.

The Council, in a separate action, endorsed the creation of a waiver process that would permit the Division III Championships Committee to award automatic qualification to a single-sport conference formed before September 2007 and including at least seven active members — an action that would achieve the same objective as the conferences’ proposal. As a result, the Council agreed to wait until the conferences have had an opportunity to review the waiver process — and consider withdrawing the proposal — before taking a position.

The waiver process also would give the championships committee latitude to recognize single-sport conferences in sports with low division-wide sponsorship, those formed by geographically isolated institutions, and those sponsoring competition in emerging sports.

Delegates to the 2008 Convention currently are scheduled to consider 15 proposals during the Division III business session in Nashville.

In addition to the eight conference-sponsored proposals reviewed in Indianapolis by the Management Council, the Presidents Council agreed earlier this year to co-sponsor a proposal by the Centennial and New England Women’s and Men’s Athletics Conferences to ban the use by athletics department personnel of text messaging and other electronic communication (except e-mail and fax) to communicate with prospective student-athletes.

The Presidents Council also is sponsoring six proposals of its own at the Convention, including proposals to restrict the use of male practice players in women’s sports and to require the presence at games and practices of at least one non-student institutional employee certified in first aid, CPR and use of an AED.

Other highlights

Division III Management Council
October 22-23/Indianapolis

Ratified a recent interpretation by the Division III Interpretations and Legislation Committee prescribing conditions that must be met before a championship’s competition schedule can be adjusted to accommodate an institution’s policy against competition on a particular day for religious reasons. The Division III Championships Committee requested a detailed interpretation of existing legislation that permits the accommodation for institutions that choose not to compete on a Saturday, Sunday or another day for religious reasons. The resulting interpretation requires an institution’s president or chancellor to provide to the national office a published institutional policy against competition for religious reasons; requires that the policy be applied to all sports and not on a sport-by-sport basis, unless there are specific religious reasons for doing so in a particular sport; and requires the published institutional policy to specifically cite or include athletics and describe any exceptions the institution may make to the policy.

Received a report of recent work by the Division III Membership Issues Working Group, which has been preparing recommendations for the NCAA Executive Committee Working Group on Membership of possible models for creating a new NCAA division or subdividing Division III. The Division III working group previously has expressed interest in basing either a new division or subdivision on heightened sport-sponsorship minimums and recently has been considering other possible criteria.

Adopted noncontroversial legislation recommended by the Council’s Academic Issues Subcommittee to allow student-athletes who graduate in less than four consecutive academic years from initial full- or part-time enrollment to be eligible to complete a championship segment that occurs within the same academic year as the student-athlete’s graduation date. The legislation modifies the current bylaw that permits a student-athlete to be eligible for a championship that begins within 60 days of a student-athlete’s final semester or quarter.

Referred a recommendation from the championships committee to the membership committee that new conferences be approved for active membership during the cycle of Division III governance meetings that ends with the Division III Presidents Council’s early May meeting, rather than during the meetings that end in early August.

Appointed Council members Patricia Epps of Franklin & Marshall College, Kris Hall of Bard College, Garnett Purnell of Wittenberg University and Rosy Resch of the University of Chicago to review recommendations of the NCAA Task Force on Life and Work Balance in Intercollegiate Athletics and study appropriate Division III legislative or other responses.