INDIANAPOLIS---The Division III Presidents Council endorsed for further study a list of ideas generated from the Future of Division III � Phase II initiative during its meeting April 28 in Indianapolis.

Included in the list are suggestions for addressing membership growth, reviewing conference alignment, seeking sport equity and promoting student-athlete academic success and campus involvement.

A few of the ideas presented by the Future of Division III--Phase II Oversight Group would require membership approval of legislation, and many would be achieved through educational or informative efforts, such as creation of �best practices� guides.

Among ideas addressing membership growth are:

• Capping team sport championship brackets � some of which currently are threatening to grow to an unmanageable or undesirable size because of Division III�s growth � at 64 teams.
• Explore specific ways to ease reclassification to NCAA Division II, giving attention to minimizing adverse effects on student-athletes who aspire to championship competition.
• Consider increasing minimum sports-sponsorship requirements, but also consider alternative ways by which smaller institutions may be able to demonstrate a commitment to Division III�s philosophy of broad-based participation.
• Regarding conference alignment, ideas include:
• Creating a Conference Self-Study Guide to prompt institutions to discuss philosophical and other reasons (such as institutional missions, academic profiles, geographic proximity and similarity of athletics programs) for maintaining affiliation in a conference.
• Consider permitting � as an outcome of conference self-study and for a limited period of time � realignment of conferences without loss of automatic qualification.
• Ideas involving sport equity include:
• Exploring ways to promote equality in an institution�s treatment of sports.
• Enhancing recruitment of minority student-athletes, coaches and staff.
• Means of promoting academic success and campus involvement include:
• Amending the Division III philosophy statement to specify an expectation that student-athletes� academic performance should be, at a minimum, consistent with the general student body (and also to specify that student-athletes should be admitted to institutions in a manner consistent with other students).
• List �best practices� for ensuring that athletics is an integral part of institutions and that student-athletes and coaches are integrally involved in campus life.
• During the next three months, those ideas and others will be discussed further at various Division III committee meetings, membership seminars and conference gatherings, and also by the division�s Virtual Focus Groups. The ideas � as well as reactions gathered in those various settings � also will be discussed by the Division III Management Council at its July meeting in Anaheim, California.