Future of Division III

[Just Bill]

If Tostitos or AT&T is ready to hand out $100 million to a couple of our member schools to have them play a bowl game, then I'm all for it.  Until then, we're all just fine with our playoff system, thank you.

[hickory_cornhusker]

ESPNs Mike and Mike show this morning had the president or leader of the BCS division 1 football series.  Guy from Nebraska and I cant remember his name.  Anyway, Mike and Mike start talking about how d1 has used the excuse of "academics" as a reason not to have a playoff system.  They then point out that d2 and d3 students also have to handle academics and have a playoff system.  The BCS guy actually said something to the effect of a lot of d2 and d3 leaders actually want a bowl system!

Just a bunch of BS.  Dont know if its archived on espn, but its an interesting bit.  They also had Orin Hatch earlier (or yesterday, I missed it) talking about the other side.

Here's the link to the interview
http://sports.espn.go.com/stations/player?id=4315901

[Ralph Turner]

February 20, 2009 update of the Exploratory Provisional Reclassifying List   (Thanks pabegg RIP)

The NCAA has just posted the latest list of reclassifying institutions:

Click here

Here's my summary of the changes:


Active with restrictions (fifth year member of provisional program)
Mount Mary College

Fourth year
Mitchell College
Presentation College


Recieved waiver- now in year 4

SUNY-Morrisville

Third year (games against them now count for ranking purposes)
Lancaster Bible College
Lyndon State College
Saint Vincent College
La Sierra University (second year spent at "year 3")
North Central University (third year spent at "year 3")

Second year
Geneva College
Penn State Harrisburg
Franciscan University of Steubenville
St. Joseph's College, New York
Birmingham Southern College (the only reclassifying school on the list)



First year
University of Cincinnati Clermont College  Gone from Feb 2009 list
State University of New York at Cobleskill

Spalding University (second year spent at "year 1")

Starting next year
Doane College (was supposed to have started this year)
Berry College
Concordia University NE
Covenant College
Hastings College
Penn State Abington
William Jewell  Declared for D-II


Modified for formatting -- Thanks for the link, pabegg.

Search found at www.ncaa.org using these terms

"current exploratory provisional reclassifying div iii"


The Division III Presidents Council meets on August 6th.  We should see the newest list shortly thereafter.

[Ralph Turner]

D-II announces Membership Committee actions.

...
The Division II membership process includes a two-year candidacy period and at least one provisional year before institutions are granted active membership.
...

Lake Erie to active status (full membership).

CSU-East Bay and Maryville MO from year #1 to year #2.

Lincoln PA  from provisional to year #1.

Modified for formatting.  Ralph

[Ralph Turner]

Seven new legislative proposals under consideration

Pull quotes...

Permit a daily, one-hour "walkthrough" session in football during the preseason five-day acclimatization period. The proposal by the American Southwest Conference and Empire 8 would prohibit wearing protective equipment (such as a helmet or shoulder pads) , use of football equipment (such as a football or blocking sled) or conditioning activities during the period, which is intended only for instruction. The proposal also specifies that student-athletes must be provided at least three hours of continuous recovery time between the end of an on-field practice session and the start of the walkthrough session.

Permit an institution to send electronically transmitted correspondence via such media as instant messaging, text messaging and social-networking sites, provided the information transmitted is similar to that available to a general audience via the institution's Web site and that a prospective student-athlete "initiates, accepts and 'opts-in'" to receive the information. The Centennial Conference proposal is very similar to a recommendation  from the Division III Interpretations and Legislation Committee that will be considered next week by the Division III Management Council.

Next, a big one for baseball and softball

Decrease the maximum number of baseball and softball contests from 40 to 36 and decrease the number of games required to meet sports-sponsorship requirements from 25 to 20. The North Atlantic Conference says it is seeking to bring the number of contests in those sports in line with other spring team sports while reducing pressure due to weather conditions to schedule spring trips.

Or...

In another option proposed by the North Atlantic Conference, decrease only the number of baseball and softball games required to meet sports-sponsorship requirements from 25 to 20.

(This may be a "cold-weather' proposal.  So many games needed for so few weather friendly dates.)

Please remember that this is only step #1 for each of these proposals...

The Division III Management Council will be the first governance-structure body to review the proposals, during its meeting beginning Monday in Denver. The Council is expected only to assign each proposal to an appropriate committee for review and comment; it typically takes no position on membership-sponsored proposals until its October meeting.

The final vote will occur in January 2010, and implemented at a date TBD.

[Ralph Turner]

FYI

Patriot League discusses football scholarships

[Ralph Turner]

Post from the GSAC Men's Hoops board...

Covenant schedule shows games against every GSAC member, a good sign..http://athletics.covenant.edu/mbasketball/schedule

+1 Karma

Looks like that we shall see Covenant entering into the provisional class of D-III this season.

Let's look for the announcement from the NCAA next month.

It looks like Covenant may be declaring for D-III to enter in this year's provisional class for 2013-14.

[Ralph Turner]

http://www.covenant.edu/news/07.27.09

http://www.berry.edu/pr/news/pressdetail.asp?ID=775

Covenant, Berry GA and PSU-Abingdon are the three provisionals for this fall.

They can be full members in 2013.

[Ralph Turner]

Good proposals coming from the Men's Golf Championship Committee!

Increasing the number of bids from 1:7.5 to 1:7.  This would increase the number of Pool C bids avaiable.  Football and basketball fans may think that Pool C is tight in their sports.  It is really tight in Golf -- 2 Pool C bids versus 27 Pool A conferences, 7 Pool B bids and 278 eligible programs.

Cutting the field to 15 teams and 6 individuals after the second round.  This really helps with weather contingencies.

Allowing a second coach/driver to attend the championship.

Please read the article to get the details!

[Ralph Turner]

New members..

SUNY-Morrisville

http://newscenter.morrisville.edu/article.aspx?id=7002

Morrisville State will compete as an active member of the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) in 2009-10 with the exception of football, men's ice hockey and field hockey. Football competes in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC).

In addition, with full NCAA accreditation, Morrisville State is eligible to seek affiliate membership with the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) for both field hockey and men's ice hockey.

No word yet on the Presentation SD, Mitchell CT or Mount Mary WI websites if they were approved for active membership.

[hickory_cornhusker]

All four are now active members. Here's the link to the article from the NCAA.
Also has the updates on the other levels of the provisional pipeline.


Modified for formatting-- Thanks, Ralph

[Ralph Turner]

Excerpted from the NCAA's press release today (posted by Hickory Cornhusker above).
New members (with location and conference affiliation):

Mitchell College (New London, Connecticut; New England Collegiate Conference).
State University of New York at Morrisville (Morrisville, New York; North Eastern Athletic Conference).
Mount Mary College (Milwaukee, Wisconsin; independent).
Presentation College (Aberdeen, South Dakota; Upper Midwest Athletic Conference).

Year #4

Lancaster Bible College (Lancaster, Pennsylvania; independent).
Lyndon State College (Lyndonville, Vermont; North Atlantic Conference).
North Central University (Minneapolis, Minnesota; independent).
Penn State Harrisburg (Middletown, Pennsylvania; North Eastern Athletic Conference). The institution received approval to advance from the second to the fourth year of provisional membership.
Saint Vincent College (Latrobe, Pennsylvania; Presidents' Athletic Conference).


Year #3

Franciscan University of Steubenville (Steubenville, Ohio; Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference).
Geneva College (Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania; Presidents' Athletic Conference).
St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn, New York; independent).

Year #2

Spalding University (Louisville, Kentucky; St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference).
State University of New York at Cobleskill (Cobleskill, New York; North Eastern Athletic Conference).


Year #1

Berry College (Mount Berry, Georgia; independent).
Covenant College (Lookout Mountain, Georgia; independent).
Penn State Abington (Abington, Pennsylvania; North Eastern Athletic Conference).


The 14th institution is La Sierra University, which repeated the third year of provisional membership in 2008-09 and currently is under review by the Division III Membership Committee.


In addition, one institution is entering the third year of reclassifying membership. Birmingham-Southern College, reclassifying from Division I, is affiliated with the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference and is on track for active membership in 2011-12.

Division III received no applications for 2009-10 exploratory membership.

September 1 also is the date when two single-sport conferences will become active members. They are the Eastern Collegiate Football Conference and Midwest Lacrosse Conference. Both were approved earlier this year for active membership.

[Knightstalker]

Excerpted from the NCAA's press release today (posted by Hickory Cornhusker above).
New members (with location and conference affiliation):

Mitchell College (New London, Connecticut; New England Collegiate Conference).
State University of New York at Morrisville (Morrisville, New York; North Eastern Athletic Conference).
Mount Mary College (Milwaukee, Wisconsin; independent).
Presentation College (Aberdeen, South Dakota; Upper Midwest Athletic Conference).

Year #4

Lancaster Bible College (Lancaster, Pennsylvania; independent).
Lyndon State College (Lyndonville, Vermont; North Atlantic Conference).
North Central University (Minneapolis, Minnesota; independent).
Penn State Harrisburg (Middletown, Pennsylvania; North Eastern Athletic Conference). The institution received approval to advance from the second to the fourth year of provisional membership.
Saint Vincent College (Latrobe, Pennsylvania; Presidents' Athletic Conference).


Year #3

Franciscan University of Steubenville (Steubenville, Ohio; Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference).
Geneva College (Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania; Presidents' Athletic Conference).
St. Joseph's College (Brooklyn, New York; independent).

Year #2

Spalding University (Louisville, Kentucky; St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference).
State University of New York at Cobleskill (Cobleskill, New York; North Eastern Athletic Conference).


Year #1

Berry College (Mount Berry, Georgia; independent).
Covenant College (Lookout Mountain, Georgia; independent).
Penn State Abington (Abington, Pennsylvania; North Eastern Athletic Conference).


The 14th institution is La Sierra University, which repeated the third year of provisional membership in 2008-09 and currently is under review by the Division III Membership Committee.


In addition, one institution is entering the third year of reclassifying membership. Birmingham-Southern College, reclassifying from Division I, is affiliated with the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference and is on track for active membership in 2011-12.

Division III received no applications for 2009-10 exploratory membership.

September 1 also is the date when two single-sport conferences will become active members. They are the Eastern Collegiate Football Conference and Midwest Lacrosse Conference. Both were approved earlier this year for active membership.

For some reason I just like Franciscan University of Stuebenville, that is just a great name.

I didn't think anything named Spalding could exist in Louisville.

[Ralph Turner]

Women's Golf...

Lots of information in the article.  Forgive me for pasting almost the entire article, but it does cover many of the issues that Women's Golf is facing as D-III tries to grow the sport.  IMHO, it has helped the conferences that are trying to grow the sport without cutting back on the requirements of the institution to offer a creditable program.

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/ncaa?key=/ncaa/ncaa/ncaa+news/ncaa+news+online/2009/division+iii/championships+panel+grants+aq+relief+to+womens+golf_08_20_09_ncaa_news

Championships panel grants AQ relief to women's golf

...


Aug 20, 2009 8:57:02 AM

The NCAA News


The Division III Championships Committee has approved a two-year waiver request from the Division III Women's Golf Committee that relaxes automatic-qualification requirements conferences need to meet in that sport.

The action taken during an August 18 conference call allows institutions to count contests in which only four golfers participate (rather than the standard five) for postseason-selection purposes. That in turn relieves conferences that have been struggling to meet AQ standards.

In essence, the waiver extends what has been a three-year grace period for the AQ model in women's golf through the 2009-10 and 2010-11 academic years.

The issue became nettlesome as a number of Division III women's golf programs scrambled to compete in at least six tournaments with five golfers to qualify for postseason selection. A failure by an institution to meet that requirement can affect whether a conference would have seven members eligible for the championships under AQ requirements. Of the 11 conferences that were granted automatic qualification last year, six would not be renewed if the five-person roster were required this year.

The golf committee asked the Championships Committee for the waiver not only to provide immediate relief but also as the best option to grow the game. The sport committee reasoned that programs would still be encouraged to reach a five-woman roster for competitive reasons (in golf, teams play five but count only the top four scores), but the waiver would assist teams or conferences that are making an effort but currently struggling to meet the standards.

In granting the waiver, the Championships Committee made it clear that it was intended as temporary relief rather than a permanent solution.

The group also emphasized that the waiver did not mean a retreat from current requirements for counting women's golf toward Division III's sports-sponsorship requirements. Under the relaxed standards, there will be teams that can help their conferences meet AQ requirements in the sport but cannot count women's golf toward meeting sport-sponsorship requirements for Division III membership, which still require five student-athletes to participate in at least six competitions.

The Championships Committee talked briefly about whether the five-person roster requirement is appropriate for golf as a sport-sponsorship standard but noted that would be an issue for the Division III Membership Committee to decide.

In a related action, the committee agreed that the bracket size for the 2010 and 2011 Division III Women's Golf Championships will be calculated from the number of teams that had at least four participants complete at least one contest or 18-hole round of golf during 2008-09. As a result, the bracket would include 19 teams, based on a ratio of one team for every 7.5 schools meeting that standard.

...

Once again, the conference AQ process is helping to build opportunities for student-athletes in D-III.

[Gray Fox]

Women's Golf and Lacrosse coming to the SCIAC.

http://www.oxyathletics.com/othernews/2007-08/042608wsports_lax_golf