The Championships Committee’s adoption of a contingency plan that would provide for a subregional round when appropriate was part of a broader discussion of playing and practice seasons at the committee’s February 3 brainstorming session in Indianapolis.

Everything from shortening seasons, reducing contests and eliminating the nonchampionship segment in some sports to counting exempted games and incorporating conference postseason tournaments into the national championships was tossed onto the table. And while it was a big-picture start to a discussion that is expected to last most of the year, committee members by the end of the meeting began honing in on the kinds of better business practices the Division II Presidents Council has called for to align policies and procedures with the division’s strategic-positioning platform.

Employing a “sky is the limit” mentality, committee members were looking for efficiencies without compromising competitive equity or the student-athlete experience. Among the concepts discussed were:

•         Reducing the length of the playing and practice seasons (for example, preseason practice periods and regular seasons) and the maximum number of contests and dates of competition for various sports (reductions may be different for each sport).

•         Reducing or eliminating the list of annual and discretionary exemptions from the maximum number of contests and dates of competition (for example, alumni games, scrimmages and postseason conference championships).

•         Drastically reducing or even eliminating the nonchampionship segment (that is, the 24 practice or contest dates in a 45-consecutive-day period, including spring football).

•         Amending the 20/8-hour rule.

•         Moving the reporting date for fall sports to reduce the time student-athletes spend on campus before classes begin (this would require extending the regular season and championship dates).

•         Counting multiple games played in one contest date (for example, doubleheaders in baseball and softball and tri-matches in volleyball) as individual games that apply toward the maximum rather than as one contest date.

•         Providing additional days between championship selections and first-round competition to allow sport committees to make pairings based on better business practices (this would require either shortening the regular season or moving the championship back).

•         Allowing each region in various championships to determine selection criteria by which teams qualify for regional competition (for example, determining whether automatic qualification is based on a conference’s regular-season or postseason tournament champion).

While all of those are preliminary concepts, they’re all part of a discussion the Presidents Council sees as the next step in a strategic progression that began with creating the platform, deregulating legislation to allow for community engagement and changing the division’s philosophy statement to support the attributes in the platform. Now the Council has charged the Championships and Legislation Committees to review whether playing-and-practice-season policies and championships procedures walk the division’s strategic talk.

While the current national economic slide has contributed to the need for such a review, alignment of Division II policies with its strategic plan is the overarching impetus. Division II presidents and chancellors in fact are beginning to ask whether student-athletes are spending too much time practicing and competing, and thus disrupting the athletics-academics balance the strategic-positioning platform advocates. In turn, conferences and institutions are welcoming the review to perhaps relieve strapped travel budgets and enhance the student-athlete experience.

“This discussion is about Division II more than it is about the stock market,” said Championships Committee Chair and Mars Hill Athletics Director David Riggins. “The current economy certainly prompts the discussion, but it is not the primary driver of seeking better business practices. Centering discussion on the platform allows the dialogue to occur in the membership regardless of what is going on in the economy.”

At the end of the day, committee members divided the big-picture concepts into those that would require legislative changes (Bylaw 17), those that wouldn’t require legislative changes but would need further vetting in the membership, and those that the Championships Committee could address on its own.

One of the latter is a change the committee adopted to allow championship brackets in baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, softball and women’s volleyball to be announced as regions are completed rather than via selection shows. That change is effective immediately.

As for a timeline in which changes to playing and practice seasons might be made, the Championships and Legislation Committees are the two primary filters through which proposals will be made and membership comment will be sought. The Legislation Committee meets in March to begin its own review, which will incorporate the discussion the Championships Committee just had.

The Management and Presidents Councils will review preliminary concepts in April, and then the Championships and Legislation Committees will meet jointly in June to begin refining recommendations. Final suggestions are expected by the end of the July/August Management and Presidents Council meetings, and proposals coming from those sessions will enter the legislative cycle for the 2010 Convention.

“This is ground-breaking stuff,” Riggins said. “Like anything else, we are starting with big-picture thinking and then refining the concepts to balance better business practices with the needs of a diverse membership. In the end, I believe Division II will continue to be an example of a group that tackles tough issues in ways that satisfy the division’s philosophy and enhance the student-athlete experience.”

In other actions at the Championships Committee meeting, the group:

•         Approved Southern Indiana as host for the 2009 Division II Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships in Evansville, Indiana. The committee also approved the following regional hosts for 2009: Abilene Christian (South Central), Wingate (Southeast), Massachusetts-Lowell (East), Wayne State (Nebraska) (Central) and San Francisco State (West). Three regions remain to be determined.

•         Approved Nebraska-Omaha as host for the 2010 Division II Wrestling Championships.

•         Approved the C.T. Branin Natatorium in Canton, Ohio, as the venue and Lock Haven University as the host institution for the 2010 Division II Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships.

•         Approved Missouri Western State as the host of the 2010 Division II Softball Championship May 27-31 at Heritage Park in St. Joseph, Missouri.

•         Approved Grand Valley State as the host for the 2011 Division II Women’s Golf Championships May 11-14 at the Meadows in Allendale, Michigan.

•         Referred a recommendation for a double-elimination (plus one) format for the South region in the Division II Baseball Championship back to the Division II Baseball Committee for additional consideration. The baseball committee had recommended the change because of a recent reallocation of two bids from the West region to the South, but the Championships Committee believes an alternate format should be considered (members did not support the proposed version of the “plus one” model).