Future of Division III

[Pat Coleman]

That's why schools such as St. Mary's of Minnesota, whose last football team lost to Gagliardi in his first year at SJU (1953) are adding football, as not increasing their male enrollment could mean a real struggle for survival.

St. Mary's has not committed to adding football yet. A decision is expected at the school's September board of trustees meeting.

[johnnie_esq]

St. Mary's has not committed to adding football yet. A decision is expected at the school's September board of trustees meeting.

You're absolutely right PC. I jumped the gun on that one and assumed the conclusion (see what I think of the issue).  SMUMN has not yet announced they are adding football.

I strongly believe they will be.  But I've been wrong before and I could be wrong on this one too.

My bad.  {egg on face icon goes here}

[Pat Coleman]

Oh, I believe you'll be right eventually too. Just wanted to pointout the formality that it has not happened just yet.

[johnnie_esq]

Johnnie Esq called our attention to these finanacial aid numbers  earlier in the year.  A large number of schools give student-athletes far less aid than the average student.  This unique form for discrimination is not addressed by the most recent news report from the NCAA.  I would love to read a discussion or an interview by Pat Coleman or a NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) member of senior NCAA D3 administrators about this discrepancy inthe awarding of financial aid.  Are some student-athletes not getting the help that they are eligible to receive?

NCAA financial aid compliance, July 2006

This is an interesting change.  The NCAA seemed pretty happy with how the initial project went.  They MUST have seen something in some schools that seemed a bit out of whack for this change to be done in this way.  They are adding the following four triggers:

n A wide difference (statistically, two standard deviations from the Division III mean) between student-athletes and nonathletes in the percentage of each group's financial need that is covered with institutional gift aid.

n A wide difference (also, two standard deviations) in the proportion of student-athletes in a group of new students at an institution and the proportion of institutional gift aid awarded to student-athletes in that group.

Bylaw 15.4.1-(d) states that "the percentage of the total dollar value of institutionally administered grants awarded to student-athletes shall be closely equivalent to the percentage of student-athletes within the student body."

n A wide difference (again, two standard deviations) between student-athletes in specific sports and nonathletes in the percentage of each group's financial need that is covered with institutional gift aid.

That this will add approximately 50% more schools to their list of review says something about the process to date.  I find the last one to be most interesting-- In other words, if SJU is giving benefits to its football players but noone else, this trigger will find it out.

The third one should be interesting as well for schools with big adult-ed or night programs.  In theory, if you have a big night-school where nobody receives financial aid, but your football team is all day-schoolers and 60% are on aid, this should bring this into further examination.

[johnnie_esq]

One more on this topic for today: 
From the NCAA news, same issue as RT identifies above:

Admissions decisions sometimes tie athletics to awards.

"The bylaw is pretty clear," he added. "There is no restriction on using athletics ability or participation as a criterion for determining whether a student should be admitted, but that evaluation must not be used in the awarding of financial aid."

The biggest surprise for the committee was that institutions readily revealed in justifications submitted to the committee that they included athletics among other criteria in determining merit awards — indicating they simply were unaware of NCAA prohibitions against doing so.

"We saw schools who actually had it in their written (rating) policies — they had a check list," Shilkret said."

Secondarily:
Panel grapples with reclassification, growth

A working group formed late last year by the NCAA Executive Committee pledged to explore options ranging from slowing down membership movement from one division to another to creating a fourth division during its first in-person meeting June 16 in Chicago.

The Executive Committee Membership Working Group agreed to explore the Association-wide impact of divisional reclassification policies and also to study ways of controlling Division III's growth without harming other divisions, and agreed to meet again this fall to discuss possible options for addressing those issues.

This working group is looking at the future of the NCAA-- how to deal with D-III's numbers, mainly.  They had to take a pledge, however-- to do no harm to D-II, so that certainly almost entirely leads in a direction of a creation of some sort of D-IV.

I'm sure this topic will get more interesting in the next year or two...

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

That is true and very interesting.  I've never thought about that disconnect or lack thereof between admission and aid.  It's perfectly acceptible to grant leeway for extra life experience in admissions, but d3 schools should keep that out of their aid packages.

However, you also have the other side of things too, namely not prejudicing the system against athletes.  I think if you have a fair admissions system (one that puts athletic participation in proper proportion to other factors) that could be used to grant aid, especially at d3 schools.

I'd want a kid with financial need, who also happens to be an incredible leader on the soccer field to be able to get scholarships that reflect the leadership she's displayed.

They do need a line drawn between admissions and aid; I'm just not sure I want to it to be a dividing line.

[Ralph Turner]

Johnnie, I would appreciate other voices, but, what can D2 do to make themselves more attractive?

The D3 model has competitive sports by student-athletes who will pay for the privilege.

The D1 model attracts the creme de la creme.

There is very little room in the middle.  The NCAA web site features occasional press releases about the identity of D2.

Any Texas D2's moving to D3 would be interesting.  The Lone Star Conference schools are completely different.  the Heartland Conference picked up 2 non-football NAIA schools this year, Texas A&M International in Laredo and UT-Permian Basin in Midland-Odessa.

Thanks for finding the article.  This shall be different, especially as the NCAC-types try to distinguish themselves from the rest of us.

[Warren Thompson]

Any Texas D2's moving to D3 would be interesting. 

Thanks for finding the article.  This shall be different, especially as the NCAC-types try to distinguish themselves from the rest of us.

Ralph:

I'm trying to imagine a Texas D2 venue moving to D3; that, as you say, would certainly be "interesting" ... and would likely occasion some tectonic rumblings. Texas A&M Kingsville, e.g., in the ASC?  Wow! what would Ron Harms and the late Gil Steinke say about that? 

Plus, don't forget that those institutions who formed the Centennial were, perhaps, among the first in wanting to "distinguish" themselves from us mere D3 mortals.

[Sabretooth Tiger]

Interesting follow-up to yesterday's piece in the NY Times about colleges starting football programs.  Today's article is a commentary on Title IX from a point of view I had not considered.  Here's the link:
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/07/11/opinion/11Tierney.html?th&emc=th

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Well, I would have loved to read the article, but I'm not up for giving the New York Times my credit card number at this point.

[Ron Boerger]

yeah, you have to be a paid "TimesSelect" member, or a subscriber to the newspaper to access that article.    Pity.

[johnnie_esq]

Thank God for Westlaw-- I was able to download the article, and have to admit I disagree with Mr. Tierney.  Mr. Tierney's article is mainly about Title IX and argues that Title IX has prevented schools from having football teams or restarting them at cost to other men's sports.  He notes

Lately, though, as colleges have struggled with the declining number of men on campus, a few small schools have dared to start football teams. They argue that even if they end up with more male athletes, they're still being fair because more men want to play sports. It's not clear if this approach could survive a Title IX lawsuit; advocates for women's sports complain it's still discrimination. But the results on campus are already impressive, as Bill Pennington described in The Times yesterday...

I'm not suggesting that sports are a panacea for male education problems. Men are lagging behind women on campus for lots of reasons: less motivation and self-control, poorer academic skills. No matter what happens with Title IX, women will deservedly continue to outnumbermen on campus and dominate the honor rolls.

But because they're now so dominant, they don't need special federal protection in the one area that men excel. This playing field doesn't need to be leveled.

I disagree with Mr. Tierney's basis-- that women are so dominant on campus.  I don't disagree, however, that Title IX could be improved.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I wonder how true that is across the board?

I went to a school with a 60-40 female-male split.  None of the teams were all that great (at least not great enough to draw participants based on success and glory anyway).

While the guys' teams were never beating people off, the women's sports had to go to a great deal of recruitment among the general student body just to have a decent number of players on the roster.

Is this something that happens across the board?  Granted, I went to a small school (even by d3 standards).

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Wait a minute, Westlaw gives you access to the NYT online?

[johnnie_esq]

My Westlaw account does-- thru the Westlaw text, and usually trails a day or so.

Tierney notes the same as you do-- that Women's teams, even successful ones, often have trouble filling their rosters.