The Division I Competition Oversight Committee has adopted strategic objectives focused on improving Division I and National Collegiate championships while also ensuring their growth, consistency and fairness.
Some of the immediate improvements that the committee recently approved for implementation in the 2016-17 academic year include:
- Improved awards ceremonies.
- Gathering/meeting areas for family and friends at the final sites.
- Requirements related to web streaming of preliminary-round competition.
During their meeting June 27-28 in Indianapolis, committee members also outlined future goals designed to provide student-athletes with an outstanding championship experience and enable planned growth of those events. Those goals pertain to:
- Exploring models to maintain and enhance championships.
- Quality of travel experience.
- Enhanced officiating training and development programs.
- Consistency and fairness of championship experience.
- Championship formats and automatic qualification policies.
The committee’s work stems from a working group it created that spent the last several months reviewing current and historical financial information, participant and conference surveys, and sport/championship benchmarks.
The committee continues to support the fundamental principle of access to championships, while recognizing increasing budget concerns, fluctuations in sport sponsorship and conference realignment.
Other items
- The Division I Competition Oversight Committee requested that a member from its group be appointed to serve on the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel to maintain communication and connectivity in the rules-making process.
- Committee members also referred a concept back to the Division I Men’s Soccer Committee in hopes of garnering more information. The concept would change the playing and practice season for men’s soccer to a two-semester format, which would include a spring championship segment.
- The committee also forwarded legislation to the Division I Council to exempt the East Lake Cup in Atlanta from the maximum dates of competition (24) of the 144-day declared playing and practice seasons for men’s and women’s golf. The televised event consists of the men’s and women’s four semifinal teams from the previous year’s Division I championships participating in one day of 18-hole stroke-play competition, followed by two days of semifinals, finals and consolation match-play competition.