D3 proposals at the 2022 NCAA convention

Started by Ron Boerger, January 11, 2022, 08:26:45 AM

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Ron Boerger

There are 9 proposals to be considered by the D3 membership at this week's NCAA convention (source):

Playing and practice seasons in football - addresses concerns regarding head impact exposure by reducing contact overall in the preseason and traditional season while increasing opportunities to teach appropriate blocking and tackling techniques during the spring

International student-athlete amateurism certification - requires the NCAA Eligibility Center to certify the amateurism of all international student-athletes enrolling on or after Aug. 1, 2023.

Expanded ability to practice without using a season of competition - allow student-athletes to participate in a full season of practice without using a season of competition if the athlete does not compete in any games.

Permit the Division III Presidents Council to sponsor and adopt emergency legislation under defined circumstances.

Establish equestrian as an emerging sport for women.

Reduce the minimum number of multisport conference members required for automatic qualification for Division III championships from seven to six.

Reduce the minimum number of member schools required to form a single-sport conference from seven to six.

Eliminate the option for a student-athlete to sign a waiver declining the sickle cell solubility test.

Permit Division III member schools with Division I sports to apply all Division I legislation, including Bylaw 15 (financial aid), to the Division I sports. In 2020, NCAA legislation was updated permitting Division III schools sponsoring Division I sports to apply all Division I rules to those programs except for principles of financial aid.

Some really bad ideas here IMO.  Reducing AQ conferences from 7 to 6 schools has the potential to increase the number of auto bids, making Pool C's even harder to come by.  Allowing SAs to practice for a year without losing eligibility if they don't play will basically enable the practice of red-shirting in D3 again.  And it would be nice to know what the "defined circumstances" are for "emergency legislation" by the President's Council - likely a COVID-related measure but still.   

I found the actual proposals from the NCAA at this site but it's too much legalese for me to dive into this morning. 

Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)


Yeah, redshirting really isn't in the spirit of Division III.  The current 4 in 5 rule seems to be a good fit.  The only exception I could think of is maybe if an athlete is going abroad for a semester or something, and they want to practice during the other semester without using eligibility?  I could understand that, maybe, but it seems such a rarity to warrant a rule change like this.
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Dave 'd-mac' McHugh

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on January 11, 2022, 11:52:57 AM

Yeah, redshirting really isn't in the spirit of Division III.  The current 4 in 5 rule seems to be a good fit.  The only exception I could think of is maybe if an athlete is going abroad for a semester or something, and they want to practice during the other semester without using eligibility?  I could understand that, maybe, but it seems such a rarity to warrant a rule change like this.

And really what you are talking about in this scenario would only affect winter sports (ice hockey, basketball) because vast majority of all other sports are one-semester sports. In your scenario with those other sports, they would be missing the out-of-season practices and that is kind of the norm - teams don't tend to have everyone available for, say, spring practice for soccer. Athletes are doing something else.

So for winter sports, they wouldn't use the entire season at practice and likely don't qualify to lose the year of eligibility since they didn't practice all year.

That all said ... I always forget where the "line" is to use that eligibility.
Host of Hoopsville. USBWA Executive Board member. Broadcast Director for D3sports.com. Broadcaster for NCAA.com & several colleges. PA Announcer for Gophers & Brigade. Follow me on Twitter: @davemchugh or @d3hoopsville.

TheChucker

Quote from: Ron Boerger on January 11, 2022, 08:26:45 AM
There are 9 proposals to be considered by the D3 membership at this week's NCAA convention (source):

Playing and practice seasons in football - addresses concerns regarding head impact exposure by reducing contact overall in the preseason and traditional season while increasing opportunities to teach appropriate blocking and tackling techniques during the spring

International student-athlete amateurism certification - requires the NCAA Eligibility Center to certify the amateurism of all international student-athletes enrolling on or after Aug. 1, 2023.

Expanded ability to practice without using a season of competition - allow student-athletes to participate in a full season of practice without using a season of competition if the athlete does not compete in any games.

Permit the Division III Presidents Council to sponsor and adopt emergency legislation under defined circumstances.

Establish equestrian as an emerging sport for women.

Reduce the minimum number of multisport conference members required for automatic qualification for Division III championships from seven to six.

Reduce the minimum number of member schools required to form a single-sport conference from seven to six.

Eliminate the option for a student-athlete to sign a waiver declining the sickle cell solubility test.

Permit Division III member schools with Division I sports to apply all Division I legislation, including Bylaw 15 (financial aid), to the Division I sports. In 2020, NCAA legislation was updated permitting Division III schools sponsoring Division I sports to apply all Division I rules to those programs except for principles of financial aid.

Some really bad ideas here IMO.  Reducing AQ conferences from 7 to 6 schools has the potential to increase the number of auto bids, making Pool C's even harder to come by.  Allowing SAs to practice for a year without losing eligibility if they don't play will basically enable the practice of red-shirting in D3 again.  And it would be nice to know what the "defined circumstances" are for "emergency legislation" by the President's Council - likely a COVID-related measure but still.   

I found the actual proposals from the NCAA at this site but it's too much legalese for me to dive into this morning.

I'm wondering if a move to 6-team conferences could actually incent some schools in large conferences to reorganize into smaller conferences to open up AQ possibilities. As an example (maybe a bad one) a school like Hardin Simmons, that exists in UMHB's shadow for football, might rather be in a smaller conference of primarily TX schools.

Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)


The six teams is just to help larger conferences where not all the members play every sport.  It's not primarily a basketball move, although it might be what the USA South needs to split.
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@ryanalanscott just about anywhere

Caz Bombers

I know we don't love it, and wish it would go the other way (up to at least 8) but dropping the minimum to 6 at least makes it consistent with the rules in Division I.

Not sure what the rules are in Division II but they have only a little more than half as many conferences as there are in D3 and tend to be larger circuits anyway. Plus D2 football doesn't technically have AQs but "earned access" instead which might be an idea for D3 football to consider. Basically if your league sucks for a while you don't get to have an AQ again until you stop sucking so much.

Inkblot

Quote from: Caz Bombers on January 15, 2022, 03:34:45 PM
I know we don't love it, and wish it would go the other way (up to at least 8) but dropping the minimum to 6 at least makes it consistent with the rules in Division I.

Not sure what the rules are in Division II but they have only a little more than half as many conferences as there are in D3 and tend to be larger circuits anyway. Plus D2 football doesn't technically have AQs but "earned access" instead which might be an idea for D3 football to consider. Basically if your league sucks for a while you don't get to have an AQ again until you stop sucking so much.

That's not quite what earned access is; it's more like an AQ that's conditional on being in the top 9 of the regional ranking – but it goes to the highest-ranked team in the conference, not necessarily the champion.
Moderator of /r/CFB. https://inkblotsports.com. Twitter: @InkblotSports.

Ron Boerger

BTW "this week" is actually the upcoming week, as the convention is scheduled for 19-22 Jan.

Ralph Turner

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on January 15, 2022, 02:49:16 PM

The six teams is just to help larger conferences where not all the members play every sport.  It's not primarily a basketball move, although it might be what the USA South needs to split.
I hope that the move to 6 for an AQ fails. What we have seen is that the depth of Pool C schools in all sports is incredible. It was a circulating story that 2018 National Baseball Champion UT-Tyler was the last Pool C team picked. That Pool C bid goes away unless that number of playoff slots is increased.  In baseball, we have seen the 7-team-bid-for-AQ prompt conferences to encourage members to add the sport. We have seen conferences that need AQ access to take affiliation agreements with other conferences to gain AQ access. In some cases that was done by adding teams into post-season "inter-conference" tourney formats. I also imagine that the 7-team bid has brought schools back to their conference table to iron out differences that would have ordinarily split conferences wide open, for minor reasons that were not worth the loss of the AQ access.

The disparity in strengths of teams across the division and "worthiness" of a playoff bid is handled  quite nicely by the current arrangement.  A Pool B team worthy of a playoff bid an get a playoff bid, if Pool B/C is of adequate size.

Dave 'd-mac' McHugh

Stay tuned for tomorrow morning (Tuesday). We have a special Hoopsville with a roundtable of Athletics Directors and a Commissioner who have very interesting insights into a lot of what you all discuss.

We will post an update in the morning. Video and podcast available.
Host of Hoopsville. USBWA Executive Board member. Broadcast Director for D3sports.com. Broadcaster for NCAA.com & several colleges. PA Announcer for Gophers & Brigade. Follow me on Twitter: @davemchugh or @d3hoopsville.

Dave 'd-mac' McHugh

#10


The annual NCAA Convention is this week and it is one of the most important gatherings of Association membership in the modern history of the NCAA. While a lot of eyes will be on Division I, all three Divisions must vote on a new NCAA Constitution. Division III has played an important role in crafting the new constitution as those in the division try and position DIII for the future.

And while the new NCAA Constitution will garner much of the attention this week in Indianapolis, it isn't the only piece of business that Division III needs to consider. There are a number of pieces of legislation DIII presidents, commissioners, and athletics directors will debate and likely vote on as well. Some of those items could have huge impacts on Division III including the sport of basketball.

In this special edition of Hoopsville, Dave McHugh gathers three ADs and a commissioner to have a round table discussion, and get insight, on the Constitution, DIII's role, and the legislation that will be considered. Plus, we react to what is ahead for DIII and the impact some of the legislation could have on DIII and it's student-athletes.

You can watch the show On Demand here: https://www.d3hoops.com/hoopsville/archives/2021-22/ncaa_convention

Guests include:
- Dr. Angel Mason, Director of Athletics for Berry College
- Jason Fein, Director of Athletics for Bates College
- Stefanie 'Stevie' Baker-Watson, Associate Vice President for Wellness and Director of Athletics at DePauw University
- Brad Bankston, Commissioner of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, former DIII Management Council and Championships Committee member
- Pat Coleman, Editor-in-Chief for D3sports.com

Hoopsville is hosted by Dave McHugh from the the NABC Studio. It is presented by D3hoops.com and thanks to our partner WBCA. All guests are featured on the BlueFrame Technology Hoopsville Hotline.

If you have questions, ideas, or want to interact with the show, feel free to send them to hoopsville@d3sports.com or use any of the social media options available.

If you enjoy the show via the podcasts, choose your favorite avenue to listen and/or subscribe via the the following four avenues (click on the images when necessary):
SoundCloud: www.soundcloud.com/hoopsville


 
   

We also have the podcast now on Tune-In and others coming. We will update them once we have better abilities to do so.

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Ron Boerger

Really good Hoopsville, Dave.  Great comments from your guests and they were quite forthcoming.  Highly recommended to anyone who wants great insight into the Division!

Dave 'd-mac' McHugh

Quote from: Ron Boerger on January 18, 2022, 04:51:01 PM
Really good Hoopsville, Dave.  Great comments from your guests and they were quite forthcoming.  Highly recommended to anyone who wants great insight into the Division!

Thank you, Ron. I thought it was certainly one of the more forthright and interesting conversations I've had other than Dan Dutcher, though we know how limited he has/had to be on things.

Certainly encouraging to try and have more convos like that ... in a new format ... my brain is always spinning.
Host of Hoopsville. USBWA Executive Board member. Broadcast Director for D3sports.com. Broadcaster for NCAA.com & several colleges. PA Announcer for Gophers & Brigade. Follow me on Twitter: @davemchugh or @d3hoopsville.

WUPHF

Quote from: Ron Boerger on January 11, 2022, 08:26:45 AM
Reduce the minimum number of multisport conference members required for automatic qualification for Division III championships from seven to six.

I am not sure how much this will change the sports landscape, but I like it.  But I also like the potential for the expansion of sports in Division III.

Dave 'd-mac' McHugh

Quote from: WUPHF on January 18, 2022, 06:54:12 PM
Quote from: Ron Boerger on January 11, 2022, 08:26:45 AM
Reduce the minimum number of multisport conference members required for automatic qualification for Division III championships from seven to six.

I am not sure how much this will change the sports landscape, but I like it.  But I also like the potential for the expansion of sports in Division III.

I think the larger picture needs to be examined. It can be detrimental in sports like football - making AQs a bit too easy to come by.

While it might help some smaller sports, I don't see it as an expansion of sports necessarily.

The convo I had with the round table and the other with Pat are pretty detailed in all of this. I agree with the idea that each sport should reexamine it's AQ situation and reduce or go higher if necessary. While AQs are an understood, we shouldn't make them too easy that it becomes the only avenue into a tournament.
Host of Hoopsville. USBWA Executive Board member. Broadcast Director for D3sports.com. Broadcaster for NCAA.com & several colleges. PA Announcer for Gophers & Brigade. Follow me on Twitter: @davemchugh or @d3hoopsville.