The Division III Management Council has already taken positions on several key pieces of legislation on which members will vote at January’s NCAA Convention, but the council’s fall meeting – held Oct. 20-21 in Indianapolis – provided an opportunity to weigh in on legislation that originated from member schools:
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A proposal from 22 Division III institutions seeks to reform the format of football’s offseason. Currently, a five-week period in the spring is used for skill instruction. The proposal, though, calls for the provision barring contact and limits on equipment during that time to be eased significantly. It would allow as many as seven days of full-pad practice, with live tackling allowed on three days and two days devoted to full 11-on-11 scrimmages. The legislation’s intent, its sponsors say, is to provide football players with skill instruction and development equivalent to that received by athletes in other sports that are out of season. They also note the increase in contact would give student-athletes more time to learn safe tackling techniques.
The council voted in opposition to the proposal, just as the Division III Interpretations and Legislation Committee did last month, expressing worries that increasingly robust football activities in the spring would stretch the staffing resources of athletic departments.
“The council was primarily concerned with how this would impose on athletic training staffs and facilities as well as the demands it would place on personnel,” said council chair and Director of Athletics at Wilmington College, Terry Rupert. “Those are the concerns.”
- The council chose to support legislation first proposed by the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and New Jersey Athletic Conference that would permit schools to hold their first regular-season basketball game on Nov. 15 or the preceding Friday should Nov. 15 fall on a Saturday, Sunday or Monday. The proposal seeks to provide flexibility without lengthening the playing season. Currently, games cannot be played before Nov. 15 irrespective of the day of the week.
- The council opted not to take a position on a similar rule change – this one pertaining to football – that was proposed by a trio of conferences. It would permit schools to hold their first games of the season on a Thursday. Currently, that is permitted only when the first contest falls on Labor Day weekend. Council members noted the proposal could eliminate confusion regarding when Thursday games are permitted and when they are not, but worried that allowing Thursday contests at the beginning of every season would force too much missed class time.
- The council also opted not to take a position on a proposal from the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association and New England Collegiate Conference that calls for soccer and women’s volleyball scrimmages and exhibitions to be exempt from maximum contest and first-date-of-competition limitations. The conferences argue that scrimmages provide more time for instruction and note that basketball and football benefit by being exempt from those limitations. While the council didn’t oppose the proposal, it wasn’t swayed by the argument, choosing to take no position because of potential inequities those allowances could create with other sports.
Benefit deregulation
Last month, the interpretations and legislation committee proposed a series of amendments that would deregulate restrictions on awards and benefits for student-athletes. The management council approved several in concept: allowing student-athletes’ families to receive complementary tickets to on-campus sporting events where the athlete is being honored (for example, a volleyball player recognized at halftime of a football game); providing expenses for families who have to travel to tend to student-athletes who are injured or sick (the original language included a caveat that the athlete must be facing a “life-threating” injury or illness in order for the family to be reimbursed); allowing institutions to provide meals to relatives of student-athletes; and allowing student-athletes to receive expenses associated with national team practice and competition. The council will review and vote on final versions of these proposals during its January meeting.
However, the council sent a pair of similar proposals pertaining to entertainment and apparel allowances back to the committee for further review. Council members worried that easing restrictions on either could have unintended consequences related to recruiting and further advantage schools with greater financial resources.
“I think deregulation is good, and I think we should try to do a lot of it,” Rupert said. “However, there’s a reason it was regulated to begin with. I think that’s what we found out. There are some good ideas here, but we’ve got to make sure we’re looking at it from all sides.”
Division III budget
New budget data indicates that policy changes crafted by the Division III Championships Committee and Division III Strategic Planning and Finance Committee have eased some of the short-term budget concerns primarily related to championships travel costs. Those costs, once projected to rise up to 10 percent a year, are now estimated to rise by less than 6 percent annually. And championships travel costs actually fell by 2.3 percent this spring compared to last year.
The council reviewed the new forecast figures and discussed the possibility of more budget-centric policy changes in the future, such as tweaks to non-championships initiative spending and a potential dues increase for member institutions that could help balance the budget over the long term. Ultimately, that decision is up to the membership, and the current budget process and climate will be the focus of a round table discussion session at the Division III Issues Forum on Jan. 16 at the NCAA Convention.
“I think the championships committee made some key policy changes that helped considerably,” Rupert said. “But the championships budget issues will occur again in the near future.”
For-profit institutions
The council endorsed the Executive Committee’s recommended restrictions of for-profit NCAA member institutions. One for-profit institution is a member of Division III, and seven are members throughout the NCAA. The recommendations restrict for-profit members from voting on legislation, serving on committees and receiving grants or financial distributions directly from the Association. The proposal will be ratified in January at the NCAA Convention.