DIII Moves Forward With Recruiting Proposals, Steps Back on Fin Aid Audits
The Division III Management Council moved forward with two recruiting proposals last week and put the brakes on a proposed random financial aid audit system.
The recruiting proposals both pertained to off-campus contact and are deregulatory in nature. The biggest would allow coaches to have off-campus contact with prospects after their sophomore year in high school (currently after their junior year in high school). The other proposal would allow coaches to have contact with prospects on the day of a competition, even before the prospect competes, provided they are have been released or are not considered “on-call”. Both proposals will go to the Division II Presidents Council before being voted on at the 2015 NCAA Convention.
The Management Council decided not to move forward with a planned financial aid audit system at this time. The random audits would have included up to 10 institutions per year who had not triggered reviews through self-reported data (50% of DIII institutions have triggered such a review. The Management Council sent the proposal back to the DIII Financial Aid Committee citing concerns with overburdensome time and cost demands on DIII members.
In other news from the meeting:
- The Management Council suspended a planned per diem increase for postseason events, saving Division III $1.2 million per year.
- The DIII men’s lacrosse bracket was expanded from 30 to 32 and the women’s bracket from 36 to 38.
- An amendment to DIII’s new preseason scouting ban which would have allowed one preseason scouting opportunity was voted down.