D3 proposals at the 2016 NCAA Convention

[Ron Boerger]

Some interesting D3 proposals at the NCAA Convention coming up in San Antonio (January 2016):

• To establish annual membership dues as $2,000 for an active institution ($1,100 increase) and $1,000 for member conference offices ($550 increase).

D3 only gets 3.18% of its member dues, the standard split for all NCAA revenues.   Under this proposal the division would get 100% of the increase (one hopes the overall NCAA brain trust approves of this).  With 449 schools and, I dunno, 40ish conferences that would be about 500K to the good of the division, which says "the increased revenue will help account for certain championships expenditures."

• The MIAC and NCAC are proposing to totally deregulate electronic correspondence between schools and prospective student-athletes, and to allow public as well as private communication (currently policy allows only private comm)
• about 25 schools including 5 ASC and 6 WIAC institutions are proposing an additional 14-day football practice segment during the off-season with no limits on length of the daily sessions
• The IIAC and UAC have proposed that student-athletes be allowed to participate in out-of-season institutional fundraising involving athletic participation, with some restrictions
• the UMAC, NCAC, MIAC, and NAC have proposed that coaching staff be allowed to contact prospective student-athletes "on a day of competition prior to the competition, provided that contact occurs on the institution's campus and the institution's campus is not the competition site."   

Your guess is as good as mine how a day of competition can be held prior to the competition.    Maybe I'm missing something.

• Allowing an institution in the 3rd/4th year of D3 provisional/reclassifying membership to count towards the number of teams required to start the two-year waiting period for AQs.   

[jknezek]

Interesting. I really only care if the first one passes, and even that I think is a ludicrously low fee. Hopefully getting the 100% will help them think more logically and change it to a "by sport participation" registration. $500 per sport, and use the money to help offset championships. That would raise $120K alone for football, which isn't a huge participation sport but also has a fairly small tournament.

I do understand not raising the fees unless DIII gets the benefits, but if the NCAA allows DIII to keep the benefits then I think the fees should be significantly higher.

[Ralph Turner]

$1.3M is probably a cost of living adjustment from the last time the fees were raised.

As an ASC fan, I hope that the year-3/year-4 provisional/re-classifying measure passes. (I hope we can see the roll call of that vote.)

The spring football proposal came from the "Baptist Association of ASC Univerisities"...LOL.

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

the UMAC, NCAC, MIAC, and NAC have proposed that coaching staff be allowed to contact prospective student-athletes "on a day of competition prior to the competition, provided that contact occurs on the institution's campus and the institution's campus is not the competition site." 
Your guess is as good as mine how a day of competition can be held prior to the competition.    Maybe I'm missing something.

I took it to mean on the day of the competition but before the competition takes place (so a morning when there's an evening game)

[Ron Boerger]

As an ASC fan, I hope that the year-3/year-4 provisional/re-classifying measure passes. (I hope we can see the roll call of that vote.)

The final roll call votes for all proposals should be available on the D3 convention site, where there are line items for "voting grid" and "final roll call vote report":

http://www.ncaa.org/governance/2016-division-iii-convention-resources

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

The fees increase is going to pass without much resistance. The only way they were going to raise fees was to make sure the NCAA allowed them to keep all of it rather than just 3.18% (which, technically would have been how it would work based on the NCAA constitution). I don't think they can call them dues or whatever the official word is, so I believe there is a special designation for the dues increase... but again, this wasn't going to get to a vote if Division III wasn't keeping all the money - or furthermore, it wouldn't pass Division III if they couldn't keep it. I have heard nothing from the NCAA that indicates the rest of the NCAA is about to try and take the money.

As for the football item - I suspect that won't pass. The entire division is in the middle of a thorough review of playing seasons and practices and presidents have shown of late they aren't keen about non-traditional practice seasons. I think this will get tabled until the entire review (which was started as a compromise after last year's 10% reduction was facing a massive defeat) is done and recommendations for all sports are presented. I have a feeling that many schools feel football is just trying to wedge in changes every year until something sticks and it is frustrating people. Last year's practicing with pads and helmets item was the most contentious of the debate and actually was the only item up for a re-vote. I just don't see them voting this through and then having the practice/playing seasons committee come back with different recommendations and things get more complicated.

Speaking of that playing and practice season committee, I think they are presenting their findings and maybe their recommendations at this year's convention (would take place Friday morning). That will be the most interesting thing happening if it happens. If it doesn't, it will come out sometime in the next few months so things can get rolling towards next convention. I highly suspect some sports are facing cutbacks in games (baseball, softball, maybe lacrosse and soccer - the last two my gut feeling more than what I am hearing).

Right now, I am planning to be at the convention, though I haven't secured my plans as of yet.

[Just Bill]

the UMAC, NCAC, MIAC, and NAC have proposed that coaching staff be allowed to contact prospective student-athletes "on a day of competition prior to the competition, provided that contact occurs on the institution's campus and the institution's campus is not the competition site." 
Your guess is as good as mine how a day of competition can be held prior to the competition.    Maybe I'm missing something.

I took it to mean on the day of the competition but before the competition takes place (so a morning when there's an evening game)

"Day of competition" is the 24-hour period when a game is going to be played.

"Competition" is the game itself.

Here is the idea on this one. A High School senior from Minneapolis is travelling with his team to play a game at a high school in Milwaukee. Wisconsin Lutheran College has been recruiting them. Given the distance, this may be the recruit's best opportunity to visit WLC. Under current rules, the WLC coaching staff could not have contact with the recruit until their game was over and the recruit was released from team obligations by their high school coach. But perhaps the HS team intends to load the bus and head directly home after the game.

The legislation wants to allow the recruit to visit WLC on the same day of the game, but prior to the game. Currently this isn't allowed. That's one scenario where this rule would come into play.

[Ron Boerger]

That makes sense, tho I think it could be worded differently.  +k for both of you.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

From a few conversations I have been had with some around the division... the dues is going to be a slam dunk; and the football item will be a pretty close vote (and probably warrant a revote), but not sure it will go through (I know those without football who will be voting against it).

The Playing and Practice Seasons group will present some clarification questions to the entire Division during the business meeting Friday - three in particular including opinions on non-traditional seasons, making exhibition games and allowances universal across all sports, and discussion about cut backs in a couple of sports. Thought is they will take the conversations, debate, and straw polls and come out with their recommendations in the next few months. Interestingly, some feel governance probably won't take up any of the topics except maybe non-traditional seasons (though, I might have that wrong) and leave the other recommendations on the schools and conferences to take up the cause for.

Friday should be interesting with a more interesting Saturday vote-wise.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Re: out-of-season practices (i.e., spring football).  Has a prominent argument been made that we get a fair number of players (football especially, but also other sports) who could be D1, but went D3 specifically because they wanted to play more than one sport?  The demands to specialize have gotten ridiculous.  Back in my Neanderthal days, THREE sport athletes were common.  Now coaches will sometimes prevent players from being even two sport athletes.

Isn't D3 supposed to be all about the student-athlete?

[Pat Coleman]

There already have been spring practices in football for a decade. Football is the one fall sport that doesn't get to use all of its equipment in the spring.

Part of me wonders if a padded spring practice could eventually help bust up the monopoly at the end of the season for those teams that perennially get an extra four or five weeks of practice.

[jknezek]

I think I'd be perfectly happy with each sport having its practices only in-season. These kids aren't in training to be pro athletes (bar a very small minority) and they don't need to be playing all year round. Most teams have lifting and work out sessions in the off-season, officially sanctioned or simply peer pressure it doesn't matter, but they don't need to be practicing out of season.

Let the kids who want to play other sports focus on those sports in each season. Let the kids that only want to play one sport focus on academics in other seasons. I think it's kind of silly to just keep pushing for more and more time in athletics. It's not necessary.

[doolittledog]

I think I'd be perfectly happy with each sport having its practices only in-season. These kids aren't in training to be pro athletes (bar a very small minority) and they don't need to be playing all year round. Most teams have lifting and work out sessions in the off-season, officially sanctioned or simply peer pressure it doesn't matter, but they don't need to be practicing out of season.

Let the kids who want to play other sports focus on those sports in each season. Let the kids that only want to play one sport focus on academics in other seasons. I think it's kind of silly to just keep pushing for more and more time in athletics. It's not necessary.

Then D3 will need to outlaw all out of season practice.  It's allowed in other sports, but for some reason they want to take a stand with football and impose limits. 

[jknezek]

I think I'd be perfectly happy with each sport having its practices only in-season. These kids aren't in training to be pro athletes (bar a very small minority) and they don't need to be playing all year round. Most teams have lifting and work out sessions in the off-season, officially sanctioned or simply peer pressure it doesn't matter, but they don't need to be practicing out of season.

Let the kids who want to play other sports focus on those sports in each season. Let the kids that only want to play one sport focus on academics in other seasons. I think it's kind of silly to just keep pushing for more and more time in athletics. It's not necessary.

Then D3 will need to outlaw all out of season practice.  It's allowed in other sports, but for some reason they want to take a stand with football and impose limits.

As I wrote, I'm OK with that.

[doolittledog]

I think I'd be perfectly happy with each sport having its practices only in-season. These kids aren't in training to be pro athletes (bar a very small minority) and they don't need to be playing all year round. Most teams have lifting and work out sessions in the off-season, officially sanctioned or simply peer pressure it doesn't matter, but they don't need to be practicing out of season.

Let the kids who want to play other sports focus on those sports in each season. Let the kids that only want to play one sport focus on academics in other seasons. I think it's kind of silly to just keep pushing for more and more time in athletics. It's not necessary.

Then D3 will need to outlaw all out of season practice.  It's allowed in other sports, but for some reason they want to take a stand with football and impose limits.

As I wrote, I'm OK with that.

As would I.  I'm just pointing out the hypocrisy of allowing out of season practice in other sports and then conveniently making a stand against out of season practice for football because that sport is more visible to the general public.