by David Pickle, The NCAA News (
NCAA.org)
online story
HERE
Academic All-America Teams will be named in various Division II sports as a result of an action last week by the Division II Planning and Finance Committee.
Divisions II and III and the College Sports Information Directors of America agreed informally earlier this year on the concept of division-specific Academic All-America teams, but the decision wasn’t official until last week when NCAA funding was appropriated to support the expansion of the program in both divisions.
CoSIDA will be provided with funds to assist with the administration of the program and to provide awards for the honorees.
Each year, Academic All-America teams are selected in baseball, basketball, football, soccer, softball, track/cross country and women’s volleyball. At-large teams for other sports also are chosen. Until now, honorees from non-Division I institutions were lumped together under the heading of “college division.”
The change will take effect in the 2011-12 academic year.
“This is important news for Division II,” said Division II Vice President Mike Racy. “This will recognize many more deserving Division II student-athletes and also help the public understand that the educational experience and academic achievement of our student-athletes is paramount.”
“This is a wonderful and significant step forward for the Academic All-America program, which is considered the premier program within the collegiate community for jointly honoring combined academic and athletic success,” said CoSIDA Executive Director John Humenik. “Due to this expansion, many more deserving student-athletes within the DII and DIII ranks will be able to receive the cherished ‘Academic All-America’ honor, and those honored will not be referred to any longer as ‘College Division’ recipients of that award but specifically ‘Division II and Division III Academic All-Americans.’ This is a win-win-win situation for CoSIDA, the NCAA DII and DIII branding initiatives, and − most importantly − the student-athletes at these divisions.”
To fund the program in Division II, the Planning and Finance Committee reallocated funds that had been used to provide incentives for members to submit data to support the compilation of the Division II Academic Success Rate. Because members will be required to submit the ASR data as a condition of active Division II membership, the incentives are no longer required.
In other action at its August 11 meeting, the Division II Planning and Finance Committee:
- Agreed to assist conferences in their efforts to televise regular-season contests for their member institutions. For several years, Division II has used money from a marketing surplus to help conferences with their television agreements. With that surplus now exhausted, the Planning and Finance Committee agreed to use funds available in the conference grant program to assist the membership for that purpose.
Effective for 2010-11, $5,000 will be added to the base amount every conference receives under the conference grant program. The 10 percent of conference grant funds that must be applied to membership and strategic-positioning initiatives then could be directed at television production costs, along with some or all of the 50 percent of the grant funds that can used to support the Division II strategic initiatives at the conference’s discretion.