Bellarmine received the Division II Award of Excellence after the athletics department allowed a young cancer patient, 15-year-old Patrick McSweeney, to start for its men’s basketball team against Louisville.

Division II delegates gave a resounding vote Saturday in favor of allowing schools to provide student-athletes with unlimited meals and snacks as well as team entertainment incidental to their athletics participation.

Division II schools can continue to hire and employ athletics directors who also serve as coaches after members attending the Division II business session at the NCAA Convention narrowly defeated a proposal to phase out the dual role.

Division I schools can give their athletes the full cost of attendance as part of a full scholarship beginning Aug. 1, and those scholarships can’t be cancelled for athletics performances or injury.

During its meeting Saturday in conjunction with the 2015 NCAA Convention outside Washington, D.C., the Division I Board of Directors began conversations about how it should operate, with an eye toward becoming a more strategic body that defines the vision for Division I.

A proposal that would have permitted contact during the football’s spring nontraditional segment was narrowly defeated, with 51.8 percent voting against the proposal, after the lengthiest debate of Saturday’s 2015 Division III Business Session.