SAVANNAH, Georgia --- An NCAA Division III year-round drug-testing pilot program, the division’s financial aid reporting initiative and membership growth were the main topics of discussion at the Division III Management Council’s spring meeting April 10-11.

The NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports (CSMAS) recommended the Council approve implementing a two-year year-round drug-testing pilot in Division III. The council approved the recommendation, which will be forwarded to the Division III Presidents Council later this month. If approved by that group, the pilot program will go into effect in August.

NCAA Health and Safety staff and staff from The National Center for Drug Free Sport (NCDFS) presented the Council with information regarding the program.

"Currently, Division III post-season drug-testing has occurred since Fall 1986,” said Andrea Wickman of NCDFS. “All Division III championships are subject to testing, but not all are tested every year. Each Division III championship must be tested at least once every five years. A year-round program for Division III would close the loop, since Division III is the only division that doesn’t currently test year round.”

The NCAA currently tests year round in Divisions I and II, but not in Division III. The 2005 Substance Use Study demonstrates that reported Division III student-athlete performance-enhancing drug use is commensurate and slightly higher than Divisions I and II student-athlete use.

The first year of the pilot program would cost $400,000. Two-thousand samples would be collected each year from 200 schools and 10 athletes per school. All Division III members would be eligible to volunteer and participating schools would be selected by NCDFS based on the goal to have a representative sample by geographic region, size, public/private institutions. Due to the nature of random selection, some schools may be selected to participate more than once each year.

The Council also reviewed aggregate results from the first full year of the Financial Aid Reporting Process, submitted by the Division III Financial Aid Committee.

Using the four percent variance standard established last year to measure compliance, about 86 percent of 431 institutions demonstrated statistically that the institutional gift aid they awarded to newly enrolled student-athletes during the 2004-05 academic year was substantially comparable to aid granted to the general student body. Fifty-seven Division III institutions’ aid to student-athletes exceeded the aid awarded to the general student body by at least four percent, when comparing students with similar need.

The process is the biggest compliance initiative ever in Division III and supports one of the division’s bedrock principles: student-athletes should be treated like all other students in the awarding of financial aid.

"We learned a great deal from this first year of reporting, and as we begin to modify the process, we will make it even more effective,” said Kevin McHugh, member of the Financial Aid Committee, Management Council and executive director of student development and campus programs at The College of New Jersey in Ewing, New Jersey “This was a fascinating look into the Division III financial aid process and, not surprisingly, it reinforced what we already know about the division – that it is very diverse.”

Every Division III institution that participated in the process received a report last fall of its variance figure, accompanied by a detailed analysis of financial aid packaging for student-athletes compared to other students. True to the reporting program’s intent, each report offers a snapshot only of that particular institution’s financial aid practices, and offers no specific insight into how amounts of aid awarded at that school compares to other Division III schools.

Sixty institutions (about 14 percent of Division III membership) were moved to a Level I review. In Level I review, NCAA staff and the Financial Aid Committee review institutional reports using a predetermined set of filters developed by the committee.

Two of the 60 institutions were accepted without requiring Level II justifications. Ten were accepted with specified conditions and 48 were moved to a Level II review. In Level II review, the Financial Aid Committee will review the institutional report and the institution’s justification, as specified. If the justification is not acceptable by the committee or the institution fails to respond, the report is forwarded to the enforcement staff for further review.

Of the 48 schools the committee considered during Level II, 19 justifications were accepted, four were accepted with conditions, and 25 were not accepted and forwarded to the enforcement staff.

The 2006-07 financial aid reporting process will begin July 1 – the first day of the three-month period during which institutions are required to submit financial aid data for student-athletes and other students who enrolled for the first time during the 2005-06 academic year. The deadline for the 2006-07 reporting process is Sept. 29.

The Financial Aid Committee continues to review the process and will randomly select schools regardless of variance for the 2006-07 reporting year to ensure that all institutions are potentially reviewed more closely by the Committee.

The Council also endorsed a series of recommendations forwarded from the Division III Membership Committee on to the Presidents Council and Executive Committee Working Group regarding the growth of Division III.

The Council urges the groups to consider:

• Further limitation on the provisional class size (one or two per year).
• Tightening the standards applied to exploratory and provisional members to begin the process in lieu of the lottery system.
• Long-term divisional structure in the NCAA.
• Optimal size of Division III based on resource allocation.
• More aggressive screening of active members consistent with the Division III philosophy, membership and legislative requirements.
• Raising membership dues, if necessary, to address additional Division III resources, services and long-term membership options.
• Changing demographics in the United States in relation to higher education.

The Division III President’s Council meets in Indianapolis on April 27. Management Council’s summer meeting is scheduled for July in Dallas.