It’s Monday at the NCAA convention, the day in which Division III member schools vote on the various legislative proposals.
It’s not a day in which they will vote on whether to split into two divisions. We have at least another year before that happens, and perhaps more, since we’ve heard discussion that it may be delayed from its planned 2009 convention date. But there are other proposals on the docket as well that will have an impact on Division III.
The basketball season will start on Nov. 15 in 2008 and in the future after a vote that passed 248-185 with two abstentions. Currently Oct. 15 is the first date of practice but the date of the first game is subject to the calendar (the Friday before Thanksgiving). This would make it more consistent, though Opening Night would float during the week as Nov. 15 does.
This means the 2008 season will open a whole six nights earlier than usual, 12 days before Thanksgiving … and the night before Division III football’s Selection Sunday!
The usage of male practice players was restricted in women’s sports, in another key vote. It passed narrowly, 223-206 with 17 abstentions (presumably from single-gender schools). It allows use only one day a week, among other cutbacks. Practice players must be declared eligible and use a season of intercollegiate eligibility in order to participate. Only three men can be used in a basketball practice, six in soccer, three in volleyball, or half of the typical starting lineup, rounded up.
Division III members voted overwhelmingly to ban text messaging to prospective recruits. Or, more specifically, they voted to limit electronic transmission of correspondence with recruits to e-mail and faxes. So, no text messages, no Facebook/MySpace, no IMs, etc. It passed by a vote of 362-72 with two abstentions, with good turnout from Division III schools.
A proposal to allow student-athletes to work at schools’ camps passed overwhelmingly as well, 425-13 with two abstentions.
Further proposals of note got voted down, then withdrawn. A proposal to allow provisional Division III members to be counted toward meeting a league’s seven-member automatic bid requirements failed 252-185-7. This was a proposed amendment to another proposal that was then withdrawn. Another proposal, to lift the ban on new single-sport conferences, was pulled from the agenda. This primarily affects women’s ice hockey but could have a football impact as well.
It’s important to note that, while many people assume that rules in Division III come down from the NCAA national office as if engraved on stone tablets, in fact Division III schools vote on all legislation and the membership shapes the rules.
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Coach C · January 14, 2008 at 11:40 am
Fixing the date of the start of the season is a very good thing. Previously it was like trying to figure out when primary election day was. I am fairly certain you had to consult a lunar calendar. If Taurus was rising in the third phase of the cycle, the game had to be played after 6 pm local time, etc.
I’m not sure where I stand on the ban on the use of technology to recruit students. most colleges now use some forms of text, IM and social networking to recruit student. Now they will have to put measures in place to prevent its use with prospective student athletes. Seems like the athletes are getting the short end of the stick. I think there should be some limits, but this seems to be an attempt that will eventually have to be amended.
Pat Coleman · January 14, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Perhaps, but hearing about high-level prospects that get dozens of texts a day, during class and everything, at the D-I level made it seem like a necessity.
Pat Coleman · January 14, 2008 at 12:53 pm
They are discussing reconsidering the male practice players proposal in the afternoon session.
Pat Coleman · January 14, 2008 at 1:02 pm
The move to reconsideration failed 229-203-3.
Gordon Mann · January 14, 2008 at 1:14 pm
One school that is impacted by the text messaging in a fairly significant way is Gallaudet because of their target students. I wonder if they’ll be allowed some sort of special exemption.
Pat Coleman · January 14, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I expect they’d be allowed to TTY just like everyone else is allowed to phone.
Coach C · January 14, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Virtually every school I can think of will be impacted. It’s going to be a PITA to select out the PSAs from electronic marketing efforts that all other students can be a part of.
Pat Coleman · January 14, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Interesting — are coaches sending out these other electronic marketing efforts? I think this is aimed at coaches, not at enrollment officers.
jhenry · January 15, 2008 at 6:56 am
All of the rule votes are interesting but the one that will have a big impact on the coaches at small d-3 schools is the camp rule. Finding staff to work at day camps is very difficult. Not to mention a lot of the little girls who want to come to camp are anxious to view their role models, the young women on the team. I think this was a job well done by the voters.
Regarding the test message idea, I am an assistant coach for a good program in women’s basketball and we have never used text messaging because it is a big expense. Email and phone are much cheaper and therefore work well in a d-3 budget. The budget concern is probably one of the main issues.
Gordon Mann · January 15, 2008 at 11:13 am
On Gallaudet, I was told that text messaging and email are frequently the modes of communication of choice for these recruits. Perhaps with the advent of cell phones and black berries, the TTY has suffered the same fate as the land line phone. It’s still around but not many people under a certain age rely on it as their primary means of communicating.
On an unrelated note, I think I recognize that gym on the front page.
Pat Coleman · January 15, 2008 at 11:27 am
Right — I don’t think that has changed but I think it’s reasonable to treat text messaging like a phone call and e-mail like a letter. E-mail is not restricted.
JBNY · January 15, 2008 at 11:54 pm
With the new start date 6 days earlier than usual, does this mean that the maximum number of games allowed (post-season playoffs/NCAA tournament not included) will be expanded?
Pat Coleman · January 16, 2008 at 12:21 am
No, that would take a separate act and I think one of the reasons behind this was to spread the same number of games out more whenever possible.
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jbower01 · January 16, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Were the regulations related to the use of male practice players in women’s DIII basketball put forth by the usual suspects (MIAC)?
This seems like regulation for the sake of regulation. Why the hell does it matter in the first place, and why are kids losing (albeit potentially hypothetical anyway) years of eligibility for participating in one-day-a-week practices?
Good grief–is this what we’ve come to?
David Collinge · January 17, 2008 at 5:23 pm
jbower01,
You can read a good discussion of this in an earlier installment of the Daily Dose, which features the comments of Vasser head coach Barb Bausch.
http://www.d3hoops.com/dailydose/2007/01/02/who-should-teams-practice-against/
sac · January 17, 2008 at 5:30 pm
The extra handfull of days to start the season will allow some schools a longer break for the holidays and a few off days around exam time. Good ideas I think.
It will be interesting to see how many actually take advantage of the extra days.
Next season November 15 is 6 full days earlier than the normal start of the season. Its going to spread the season out an awfull lot, esp for those conference that don’t typically start conference play untill January (ie MIAA, CCIW). That might have to change, and they’ll adopt some bye dates for later in the season..