INDIANAPOLIS— Division II leaders today unveiled financial study findings during the 2008 NCAA Convention in Nashville, Tenn. The study was designed to better understand both the real cost of investments made by Division II institutions in awarding partial-athletics scholarships and the value they receive in return for those investments.

The Division II Presidents Council commissioned the study last year to compliment the Division II strategic-positioning platform, which explains the philosophical reasons for Division II membership and points out the division’s key attributes. The study is designed to determine whether Division II’s partial scholarship model positions the division as a cost-effective membership alternative to Divisions I and III.

“I believe that this is the only econometrics study in higher education that measures the financial and non-financial benefits of Division II’s partial athletics scholarship model,” said Charles Ambrose, President of Pfeiffer University and chair of the Division II Presidents Council. “Our efforts to strategically position Division II in the NCAA family and demonstrate the financial viability of sponsoring intercollegiate athletics at this level are done to demonstrate that Division II should be viewed as a membership destination for many colleges and universities.”

The study can also be used as a tool for colleges and universities to determine if Division II’s athletics-aid model produces positive net tuition revenue for schools through the recruitment and retention of all students.

The study was designed and implemented by the higher education consulting firm Hardwick Day. A total of 18 institutions took part in the study, including 9 public and nine private, representing a range in size and geography, as well as athletics programs that sponsored or did not sponsor football.

The findings from the study help to better define the impact Division II partial athletics scholarship recipients have on campus culture, tuition and other institutional revenue, as well as provide a simulation model to assist schools in reviewing their own partial scholarship awarding practices.

”This was an ambitious project, and the demands for data made significant work for the study participants,” said Nathan Mueller, principal at Hardwick Day. “We appreciate the efforts of these colleges and universities in completing a new kind of study.”

The study found that the availability of athletics scholarships in Division II increased the ethnic and geographic diversity among new students. It was also found that athletic scholarship recipients exhibit more involvement in community service and volunteer activities that those students in the rest of the student body.

This latter point closely echoes one of the key pillars of the Division II strategic positioning, which is community engagement and ensuring that athletics serves as the front porch in building strong relationships between the community and institution.

Regarding the financial implications of the partial scholarship model, the study found that athletics scholarships recipients at Division II schools most frequently include other Division II schools among their choices, as opposed to other NCAA divisions or non-NCAA schools. This finding suggests that not offering athletics scholarships would place Division II schools at a competitive disadvantage in recruiting such students.

The study highlights that schools offering partial scholarships to a number of student-athletes are best positioned to optimize such aid packaging to generate net tuition revenue. It was also found that schools that emphasize fewer and larger scholarships would be likely to increase net tuition revenue by reducing the average amounts of athletics scholarships and offering them to more students.

In conjunction with this study, Division II is offering a simulation model designed to estimate the results of changes made to its athletics scholarship program. This model will be available to schools for use by late spring 2008. It will incorporate several elements, including the ability to adjust the number of full tuition scholarship equivalents and recipients for each sport and the resulting change in revenue and expenses that might be expected from these changes.

For more information about Division II and the 2008 NCAA Convention, visit www.ncaa.org and www.doubleazone.com.

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