Before there were divisions in the NCAA, schools scheduled athletic contests against natural rivals and schools of similar athletic ability. This allowed small schools with a rich tradition in one sport, such as ice hockey for the upstate New York schools Clarkson, RPI, and St. Lawrence, to compete against more nationally recognized schools, such as Boston University and Michigan. Another small school, Colorado College, hosted the NCAA Ice Hockey Championship for the first 10 years it was offered, a testament to the place ice hockey has in the fabric of that community.
In the 1960s, the NCAA had grown large enough that it was necessary to create three divisions for intercollegiate athletics. The small schools—Clarkson, RPI, SLU, and Colorado College—decided that the principles and competition of Division III fit the majority of their athletic programs. However, due to their rich tradition and competition at the highest level in ice hockey, these small schools were allowed to remain in Division I for that sport.
In 1982, the NCAA formalized the procedure, allowing a school classified in a lower division, i.e. Division II or Division III, the opportunity to waive the lower division regulations and operate under Division I rules, including the offering of athletic scholarships in one men’s and one women’s sport, so long as that sport is neither football nor basketball. Now the Division III Management Council is attempting to pass legislation that will severely impact those Division III schools that play Division I in selected sports.
At issue is a piece of a broader reform package that the Division III Management Council believes is necessary to bring athletics in the division back into alignment with the division’s philosophical statement. In short, the Council believes that the athletics programs at some institutions are taking precedence over the philosophy of educating student-athletes. Portions of the reform package include the establishment of an electronic reporting system for the oversight of the awarding of financial aid, the elimination of redshirting, the elimination of funds or endowments that benefit athletics, and the elimination of the awarding of athletic scholarships in sports classified in another division, i.e. a Division III school playing Division I in one sport.
It is this last portion of the reform package that impacts RPI, Clarkson, SLU, and Colorado College in ice hockey, as well as lacrosse powerhouse Johns Hopkins. Essentially, it repeals the 1982 waiver amendment that the NCAA provided to grandfather certain institutions the ability to “play up” in one sport. These schools would no longer be able to offer the athletic scholarships that their Division I brethren can; this would make it exceedingly difficult to continue to compete against those same schools in athletics.
The reform package arose from a survey, taken last year, indicating that a number of Division III members felt that some athletic programs were straying from the philosophical principles of Division III. In order to reign in these programs, the Division III Management Council spent almost a year gathering input and formulating possible solutions to the perceived problem. The result of those sessions is the current reform package, passed by the Management Council at their meeting on July 21 and 22 of this year.
The package was then sent to the Division III President’s Council on August 7 for approval. The President’s Council consists of 15 Division III university presidents and is representative of the division membership as a whole. Of the nine parts of the reform package, eight of the parts passed unanimously and without much discussion. The only the motion not to pass unaimously was that concerning the awarding of scholarships outside of Division III. The Management Council is now accepting input on the reform package before they present it to the entire Division III membership at the national convention in January, 2004. If the package passes at the convention, it will go into effect starting August 1, 2008 for the 2008-2009 school year.
The reform package affects 12 Division III members in eight sports. Understandably, the schools affected are upset by the portion of the proposal that eliminates scholarships, and most schools have issued statements declaring their distaste. Clarkson President Tony Collins stated that “at Clarkson, students who are involved in these athletic programs are treated equitably and all benefit from a philosophy of academics and athletics that promotes their total development. The presence of a Division I program at Clarkson in no way diminishes our commitment to Division III values and philosophy.”
RPI President Shirley Ann Jackson responded similarly, saying that “at Rensselaer, we scrupulously maintain a balance that encourages our hockey players to perform at optimum levels in academics and on the ice. These players truly represent the highest values of the scholar-athlete. Their grades, graduation rates, and their overall achievements in life are a testament to the success and integrity of our program.” To reinforce her statement, Dr. Jackson noted that the hockey team garnered an overall GPA of 3.155 for last semester, with 19 of the 25 members making the Dean’s List. In fact, the overall GPA of all athletes last semester was 3.174, slightly higher than that of the general student population. This seems to reinforce Dr. Jackson’s viewpoint that offering scholarships to ice hockey players does not conflict with the Division III principle of the scholar-athlete, but also does nothing but uphold that principle. In finishing, Dr. Jackson stated that RPI will “engage in a vigorous and sustained effort to defeat the NCAA President’s Council’s proposal.”
There has been an enormous amount of grass-roots support for the defeat of the scholarship portion of the proposal as well. An online petition was started by John Blauvelt, an alumnus of RPI. The purpose of the petition is to ask the Division III membership “to refuse to ratify [the scholarship restriction] part of the proposal at their convention in January or amend the proposal to exclude the section relating to the awarding of scholarships.” His reasoning for starting the petition was, “I enjoyed watching college hockey while I was at RPI. I couldn’t just sit by and watch these rich college programs lose their competitiveness without doing something.” As of right now, the petition has garnered almost 6000 signatures. The petition can be found at http://www.petitiononline.com/NCAAD3/petition.html.
The reform process is moving into its final phases. The Management Council has asked the eight affected schools to present their arguments prior to an October meeting, where the Council could remove the contentious portion of the reform package. If the Council does nothing concerning the reform package in October, it would be up to the Division III schools themselves to vote down the proposal in January. For those teams affected and their fans, it is just a matter of hoping and waiting.
