The Division II Legislation Committee is opposing two amendment-to-amendments to Convention legislation, including one from the Great Northwest Athletic Conference that would affect the proposed seven-day dead period during the winter holiday break.

The GNAC, which includes two institutions in Alaska, wants to allow teams to travel on December 20 after road contests that occur on the 19th as long as that is the earliest practical opportunity to return to campus. The amendment affects the December 20-26 dead period that is part of the Life in the Balance package for the 2010 Convention.

The Division II Presidents Council, which is sponsoring the Life in the Balance initiative, has emphasized that the intent of the dead period for winter sports is for institutions not to conduct any athletically related activities during those seven days – including travel to and from contests. The Legislation Committee, while understanding the scheduling difficulties with leagues in the western regions, nonetheless believes the GNAC amendment erodes that intent.

At issue appears to be the practical ramifications of scheduling around the dead period. Contests scheduled on the 19th, particularly those scheduled that evening, could require the visiting teams to return to campus after midnight. The Legislation Committee, in fact, issued an interpretation at its November 3 meeting that would allow teams to arrive on campus on the 20th as long as they left the contest site before midnight.

But committee members were reluctant to give much more ground on the proposal.

“While it may be impractical to have midnight on the 20th be a ‘line in the sand,’ the intent of the winter break is for schools to plan their schedules to accommodate the dead period rather than have the dead period accommodate schedules,” said Legislation Committee chair Ann Martin, an associate AD at Regis (Colorado). “The committee understands the geographic challenges with several of our conferences – and the difficulties inherent in scheduling conference games – but we believe the amendment goes beyond the intent of the original proposal.”

Committee members also worried that carving out exceptions in the Life in the Balance package even before the proposals reach the Convention floor potentially compromises the initiative.

In that vein, the Legislation Committee also opposed an amendment from the Northeast-10 Conference to delay the effective date of a Life in the Balance proposal to reduce contests in field hockey.

The Northeast-10, which along with the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference contains about 80 percent of the schools that sponsor field hockey in Division II, says that the current proposed effective date of August 1, 2010, for contest reductions has a one-time negative impact on field hockey because of the 2010 National Championships Festival for fall sports. Because of the Festival, the 2010 Division II Field Hockey Championship game is December 4, about three weeks later than usual for the sport.

If the Life in the Balance proposal passes, that means field hockey teams in 2010 will be spreading fewer games (18) over a longer period (11 weeks), which the Northeast-10 believes does not allow for consistent scheduling of the customary two games per week. Sponsors say that beginning in 2011, when there is no fall festival, the 18 games over an eight-week regular season is “reasonable and appropriate.”

Legislation Committee members, though, noted that the Festivals – particularly the fall-sports versions – require some sports to make adjustments to accommodate an event where the benefits outweigh those inconveniences. Soccer and volleyball, for example, had to shorten their seasons to accommodate a mid-November Festival in 2006.

The Division II Administrative Committee (a group comprising the chairs and vice chairs of the Presidents and Management Councils, plus one other member of the Presidents Council) will review the amendment-to-amendment proposals in December but is not expected to take positions before the Convention.