The Division II Management Council recommended the Presidents Council sponsor three legislative proposals for the 2024 NCAA Convention that would amend the number of sponsoring schools needed to establish and maintain Division II championships, as well as automatic qualification requirements for all team sports and earned access requirements for football.
The Division II Presidents Council will review the recommendations at its Aug. 2 meeting.
Convention proposals
One legislative proposal would amend the number of sponsoring schools needed to establish and/or maintain a Division II championship to 35 for both men's and women's sports. Currently, the minimum sports sponsorship requirement is 50 for men's sports and 40 for women's sports.
Additionally, the proposal would establish a three-year grace period for a sport that falls below the minimum sponsorship of 35 schools to allow it time to regain the necessary sponsoring schools before the championship is discontinued. The proposal also would eliminate the current legislative exceptions for championships in Olympic sports that fall below the current thresholds, as well as men's and women's lacrosse. Men's and women's lacrosse both are currently well above the 35-school threshold.
This proposal was among several recommended by the Division II Implementation Committee's championships subcommittee and referred to the Division II Championships Committee for further discussion. To review the proposal, the Championships Committee collaborated with several membership stakeholder groups, including the Division II sport committees, the Division II Conference Commissioners Association and the Division II Athletics Directors Association. The Championships Committee also gathered membership feedback through surveys and the Division II Coaches Connection program, which collectively indicated broad support for reducing the minimum requirement and making it consistent between genders.
Another proposal the Management Council recommended to the Presidents Council would amend legislation around automatic qualifiers, granting automatic qualification privileges in all team sports other than football. Currently, that decision is left up to each sport committee.
The Management Council also recommended the Presidents Council sponsor a proposal that would amend the earned access legislation to require representation in the bracket from all football-sponsoring conferences by including the highest-ranked team in a conference not already represented in the bracket. This proposal would be voted on by only football-sponsoring schools and conferences at the 2024 Convention.
Through policy, the Championships Committee would establish a 60% maximum for automatic qualifiers (or their equivalent in football via earned access) in a bracket to ensure sufficient representation from at-large selections. To mitigate the possibility of a sport exceeding the 60% limit, the committee also would establish as policy that bracket expansion be considered at the next budget opportunity whenever a sport reaches a 50% threshold. However, should a sport exceed the 60% limit while being considered for bracket expansion, the Championships Committee may maintain automatic qualification or earned access while the field size is being addressed.
Championships policy changes
The Management Council voted to establish as championships policy an access ratio for all team sports to determine bracket sizes. Specifically, the policy states that for every 4.25 to six schools that sponsor the sport, one would be included in the championship field. This policy, which was recommended by the Division II Implementation Committee, will potentially provide more championship opportunities for student-athletes, as it will guide decisions regarding bracket sizes as part of the triennial budget process.
Membership-sponsored proposals
The Management Council recommended that the Presidents Council refer two membership-sponsored proposals to various NCAA committees. For a proposal from the Division II membership to be voted on at an NCAA Convention, it must have at least 15 active Division II schools or two Division II conferences on behalf of 15 or more of their member schools as sponsors.
The Management Council will review feedback for each proposal and take an official position at its October meeting.
One membership-sponsored proposal would permit schools to participate in their first football contest one week before the Thursday preceding Sept. 6. The proposal is sponsored by the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, Gulf South Conference, Lone Star Conference and Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The Management Council recommended referring the proposal to the Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports, the Division II Championships Committee, the Division II Legislation Committee, the Division II Football Committee and the Committee on Women's Athletics.
Another membership-sponsored proposal would limit softball's playing season to 56 contests (games and scrimmages) during the segment in which the NCAA championship is conducted and eight contests (games and scrimmages) during another segment (e.g., nonchampionship segment). The proposal is sponsored by Montana State Billings, the East Coast Conference, the Gulf South Conference, Albany State (Georgia), Metropolitan State University of Denver, Minnesota State Mankato, Union (Tennessee), Alabama Huntsville and West Alabama. The council recommended referring the proposal to CSMAS, the Division II Legislation Committee, the Division II Championships Committee and the Division II Softball Committee.
DII Academic Guiding Principles
The Management Council recommended the Presidents Council approve new Division II Academic Guiding Principles. The Division II Academic Requirements Committee brought forward the recommendation after an in-depth review at its June meeting.
The principles are:
- Division II is committed to protecting the well-being of our student-athletes.
- Division II supports a "student-first" philosophy.
- The Division II Academic Requirements Committee is the gatekeeper for the division as it relates to student-athlete academic readiness before initial enrollment and academic success after enrollment that will encourage career development toward lifelong goals post-graduation.
- The academic requirements shall support the philosophy of the division.
- Recommendations for change shall be data driven and provide the opportunity for access to athletically related financial aid, practice and competition.
- The certification of requirements will support and promote administrative efficiency when possible.
Other action items:
- The council adopted, via policy, a federated rules process developed for Division II. The Championships Committee reviewed the feedback on the federated rules process from various stakeholder groups, and members felt comfortable that the process that has been developed and vetted over several months provides appropriate feedback opportunities to inform the relevant Division II governance representatives when differences of opinion regarding rules proposals occur.
- The council approved in legislative form two recommendations to better align the minimum contest and participant requirements for sports sponsorship and championship selection for five sports: football, men's golf, women's golf, men's lacrosse and men's soccer. These recommendations were approved in concept by the council in April.
The council also adopted a policy to modify the nullification process so that in instances when nullification is applied, a general statement is included in the bracket release indicating that nullification impacted selections. This additional transparency will allow the sport committee to inform the respective regional advisory committee that nullification was applied. The names of the school and impacted student-athletes will remain confidential.
