Division II to Vote Today on Tightening Academic Standards

Rules toughening academic requirements for incoming freshmen will be voted on today when Division II delegates meet at the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. convention.

Last year in New Orleans, Division I delegates voted to require at least a 2.0 grade-point average in 11 academic courses and scores of at least 700 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test or 15 on the American College Test.

The Division II is expected to follow suit today by adopting one of three proposed amendments to the NCAA constitution.

The measure that appears to have the most support would put Division II’s academic standards on par with Division I: 2.0, 700, 15. The proposal is backed by members of the California Collegiate Athletic Assn., Lone Star (Tex.) and Sunshine State (Fla.) conferences. It also has the support of the NCAA Presidents Commission.

Members of the Gulf South (Ala.) Conference have proposed an amendment similar to that of Division I, but with a less stringent core-curriculum grade-point average and lower test-score requirements.

A third proposal, backed by the Division II Steering Committee, recommends a 2.0 grade-point average requirement without test-score provisions.

Presently, Division II does not have overall academic standards. An athlete must either meet the school’s entrance requirements, or win an admittance waiver.

“Right now, you don’t even have to graduate from high school to be eligible in Division II,” said Dennis Keihn, athletic director at Cal State Los Angeles. “That’s one of the problems.”

Even if the Division II votes to adopt the most stringent academic standards, schools in the Cal State University system would not be affected. By the fall of 1988, when the guidelines would go into effect, Cal State entrance requirements would be even more strict.

So why should CCAA schools care about today’s vote? It’s a matter of public perception, according to Bob Hiegert, Cal State Northridge athletic director.

“In people’s minds, cleaning up college athletics is not three or four separate issues. It’s all one big problem,” he said. “The drugs, the recruiting violations, the academic improprieties--it all comes under one heading. We’re just trying to clean house a little, like Division I did.”

Northridge President James W. Cleary, chairman of the Division II Presidents Commission, said in an interview after last year’s convention that Division II did not need to toughen its academic requirements because it was more academically pure than Division I.

He has changed his mind.

“There are those who believe we don’t have a problem with academics in Division II and that may be true,” Cleary said, “but a layman doesn’t see it that way.

“If Division II now begins to attract and enroll student-athletes who have been turned down by Division I institutions, it would appear that Division II has lower academic standards and that is not the case.”

Said Hiegert: “Division II has always prided itself in sound academic principles. The way things appear now is not in accordance with the way we want to be perceived.”

Division II delegates will also vote on a proposal to adopt the 20-year age rule now in force in Division I. The rule stipulates that any freshman aged 20 or older has only three years of eligibility, and may not redshirt a year.

Division II presently has no such restriction, and has thus attracted a bevy of older, foreign athletes, particularly in track and field.

Over the past three years, more than a third of Division II national champions would not have been eligible under Division I age rules. Many were members of national track teams in their homelands.

“The track coaches in our conference kept telling us that it wasn’t fair that our Division II-level athletes had to compete against 25- or 26-year-olds with international experience,” Keihn said. “We think they have a very legitimate complaint.”

The possibility of staging tryouts for some Division II sports will also be considered today.

Similar measures have been proposed in the past, but have failed to garner enough support.

The NCAA Presidents Commission’s Ad Hoc Committee on Institutional Responsibility announced Wednesday that there will be a special convention in Dallas, June 29-30, to study measures that would reduce the cost of athletics.

Restrictions on scholarships, recruiting periods, the length of practice and playing seasons, and the size of coaching staffs will be examined.

Cleary said cost-cutting amendments could have a bearing on Northridge’s decision to either stay in Division II or move up to Division I. Northridge coaches voted unanimously in December to recommend the move to Division I, but Cleary has the final word.

“We’ve all heard the horror stories of Division I athletic programs going under,” Cleary said. “It causes one to stop and reflect when considering such a move. But this kind of cost-cutting effort contradicts the presumption that being Division I means spending millions of dollars. We’ll be watching closely.”

Cleary offered to host a meeting of CCAA presidents on Wednesday, but no one accepted his offer because of other meetings and commitments.

“The CEOs of member institutions have never sat down to talk about the future of the CCAA,” Cleary said. “Given the decreasing number of Division II institutions on the West Coast, those who have traditionally been opposed to Division I might have reason to change their minds.”

Cleary said he may call a meeting of CCAA presidents in February.

Vic Buccola, commissioner of the Western Football Conference, was hot on the trail of UC Santa Barbara Athletic Director Stan Morrison on Wednesday morning.

Buccola is trying to lure Santa Barbara into the WFC. The Gauchos restarted their football program in Division III last fall and may be interested in moving up if all goes well in the next two or three years.

Santa Barbara would be the WFC’s eighth team, and would replace Portland State, which is studying the step up to Division I-AA or Division I.

The WFC formed a committee on Wednesday that will investigate the feasibility of lowering the maximum number of football scholarships at each school.

The Division II limit for football scholarships is currently 45. Only two WFC teams--Portland State and Southern Utah State have that many. CSUN had 23 in 1986.

Similar measures are being studied by several Division I, Division 1-A and Division I-AA football conferences.

DIVISION II PROPOSALS ACADEMIC STANDARDS

1. Proposed by CCAA, Lone Star and Sunshine conferences, and backed by NCAA Presidents Commission:

Candidates must have 2.0 grade-point average, and at least 700 on the SAT or 15 on the ACT college boards.

2. Proposed by Gulf South Conference:

Candidates must have a 2.0 GPA and 600 on the SAT or 12 on the ACT.

3. Proposed by Division II Steering Committee:

Candidates must have a 2.0 GPA. No minimum on the SAT or ACT.