In addition to its discussion on playing and practice seasons, the Division II Management Council at its meeting this week endorsed a set of concepts related to changes in the organized-competition rule that expands the grace period during which prospects may participate in such competition without triggering seasons-of-competition withholdings.

Council members also endorsed parameters from the Division II Legislation Committee that define “organized” competition by whether official score is kept, team standings or statistics are maintained or team uniforms are used rather than whether players are compensated (a sticking point in current legislation).

The action means the Legislation Committee at its June meeting can formulate the set of concepts into a final legislative proposal that will then make its way through the governance structure and culminate in a vote at the 2010 Convention.

The new grace period would extend the current three-months between high school graduation and college enrollment. For example, students who graduate from high school in May 2010 would have until fall 2011 to matriculate in college (and would be able to participate in organized competition during that time). After that, prospects would sacrifice seasons of competition for each subsequent year of delayed enrollment if they participate in an activity that meets one of the conditions of organized competition.

Council members agreed with the Legislation Committee that the expanded grace period would give individuals the opportunity to participate in organized competition for a reasonable period without compromising the original intent of the rule. They also noted that coaches frequently begin recruiting individuals during the first year after high school graduation, and an expanded grace period would allow these individuals ample time to make a decision regarding enrollment in college without compromising their opportunity to participate in Division II athletics.

Credit-hour proposal referred

In other action during the Council’s April 20-21 meeting, members referred a proposal from the Academic Requirements Committee regarding countable credit hours back to that group for further review.

The concept would require qualifiers with no previous attendance at a four-year institution (and who have attended a two-year school for at least one semester or one quarter) to complete three credit hours of English and math among the 12 credit hours per term of attendance required for transfer eligibility.

Current legislation does not specify what disciplines are among the 12 semester or quarter hours of transferable degree required to be immediately eligible for competition, practice and athletics aid.

The concept also would require qualifiers who have previously attended a four-year institution, partial qualifiers and nonqualifiers (who have attended the two-year school for at least two semesters or three quarters) to have six credit hours in English and three in math.

The proposal is similar to legislation Division I recently adopted for student-athletes entering two-year colleges on or after August 1, 2009, but Division II Management Council members want the ARC to clarify how remedial courses factor into the equation, whether transfers with an associate’s degree would be subject to the legislation and whether students could count transferrable credits from a previous four-year institution.

ARC members originally supported the measure in part because Division I adopted a similar standard, but mostly because they believe it would promote competitive equity for two-year college transfers.  In addition, the committee believes that the proposed concept enhances academic preparedness and conforms to English and math requirements generally accepted in higher education.

The Division II Management Council also:

•         Agreed with a recommendation from the Academic Requirements Committee to sponsor legislation for the 2010 NCAA Convention specifying that NCAA Eligibility Center (rather than institutions as current legislation requires) provide information contained within the disclosure reports related to admissions, graduation-rate data and academic success rate to prospects, parents or guardians after they have registered with the Eligibility Center (and the Eligibility Center has received an institution’s request to add the prospect to the institution's IRL). The Eligibility Center also shall provide notification of initial-eligibility standards, the banned-drug list and information about nutritional supplements.

•         Agreed to sponsor legislation for the 2010 NCAA Convention to specify that head coaches shall be certified in first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automatic external defibrillator (AED) use.

•         Supported a Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee recommendation regarding relief from withholding conditions in cases where a student-athlete has been permitted to participate in practice or competition before receiving final amateurism certification from the NCAA Eligibility Center. The committee reviewed guidelines originally approved at its December 2007 meeting and reaffirmed its position that relief from a withholding condition for a violation of this sort should no longer be provided beginning with the 2009-10 academic year. The committee provided relief during the 2007-08 and 2008-09 academic years with the understanding that many Division II member institutions were not familiar with the new amateurism certification process and were inadvertently allowing student-athletes to participate before receiving their certification decisions.

•         Endorsed a Committee for Legislative Relief position that no relief of the organized-competition or training-before-enrollment legislation will be provided for waiver requests involving institutions asserting that misinformation or a lack of information was provided to the prospective student-athlete during the recruitment process.

•         The Management Council’s April meeting was its first conducted using agendas and supplements provided online rather than via hard copy. Most Council members brought their own laptops and followed the agenda online, referring to supplements they had downloaded before the meeting. The proceedings aligned with a national office initiative to conduct “greener” meetings that rely on technology more than paper, when appropriate.