Divide the division? New athletic subdivision proposals floated in NCAA

Author: David Infante

The 400-member NCAA division that houses the majority of Middlebury's athletic competition is under fire - or so it would seem from recent calls to create a new subdivision, a Division IV, that would separate the very different schools that make up Division III.

While most Middlebury students and staff say they are happy in the current Division III, the College was pulled into the debate earlier this month when President of the College Ronald D. Liebowitz told The New York Times he doubted a move to a new Division IV would harm Middlebury's athletic program, at least from an admissions standpoint.

"For those [who] are pushing a re-divisioning, the feeling is that it would be good to have schools with similar philosophies about the place of academics and athletics in their missions, plus similar admissions policies, competing against one another," explained Liebowitz in an e-mail. "I want our students to be challenged in every venue possible - academics, athletics, the arts, and all creative endeavors - to the highest possible level, so long as we retain the balance between academics and our co-curricular program, including athletics."

The differences between Divisions III schools have led to disagreements over the athletic-academic balance - smaller NESCAC members support the division's limitations, while the larger members are unhappy with the constraints placed on recruiting practices and academic requirements. Division III schools are bound by restrictions that the other NCAA divisions are not, the most obvious of which is the prohibition on athletic scholarships. This restraint has traditionally acted as a check against sports dynasties in which one school reigns supreme, because no school can use financial might to assemble the finest high school athletic talent. The ideal, of course, is leveling the playing field in the division while at the same time encouraging strong student-athlete enrollment.

However, the system has become increasingly inefficient at stemming the athletic dominance of a small group of schools. Certain conferences within the division have become more and more verbal in the past several years, with lesser-known organizations calling for the split.

With the proposed new subdivision, schools that favor a wider array of sports and more restrained recruiting practices would be separated from those favoring strong, popular sports and relaxed recruiting parameters. Still, many members of Division III cannot reach an agreement.

Liebowitz maintained that the well-rounded excellence of schools such as Middlebury and the other members of the NESCAC will continue to be the deciding factor in the minds of most recruits.

"Great student-athletes in D-III are not seeking professional athletic careers, and so the quality of the academics at their chosen school is likely to be very important in their ultimate decision," he wrote.

As a result, he remains confident that Middlebury's prowess in both the academic and athletic realms would be largely unaffected should a separation occur.

But the unrest has grown to the point that at the most recent President's Convention for Division III schools, two committees were established, each charged with drafting a model of a possible split. However, there was a lot of confusion among many athletic directors.

Middlebury's Athletic Director Erin Quinn sat at the conference and his perceptions of the push for a new division were cautious. In a phone interview, Quinn said that he was, "a little bit surprised to see President [of Franklin and Marshall College] John Fry's time-table for specific legislation. It is certainly not an issue with a quick fix. There are a lot of difficult situations and there really isn't a good 'cookie-cutter' solution to it."

The issues presented at the conference are worth examination, Quinn conceded, but the idea that the division faces an imminent and unavoidable separation is confusing. Most of the schools in the NESCAC that have verbalized a stance on the issue echoed these sentiments, and Quinn sees a reason for that.

"Some of the reforms that are being discussed or that will be discussed are reflective of things we already do in the NESCAC," said Quinn. "If some schools wanted to initiate reforms that cause a split, questions arise over who remains D-III and who becomes D-IV, and countless other issues."

As for Middlebury, the future will likely play out as it has in the past. Most of the reforms proposed concerning academic restrictions and recruiting practices are already enacted by NESCAC regulations, so a move from one division to the other would not affect the manner in which sports and academics are approached.

However, Quinn saw several potential obstacles should the split occur.

"Middlebury and the NESCAC [schools] have shown a great balance of being able to be one of the premier academic schools in the country while at the same time maintaining a premier athletics program as well," he said.

In the case of a split, that internal balance would most likely remain unaltered due to the self-imposed and conference-imposed constraints levied at the Middlebury athletics program. But outside the school and the conference, there might be headaches. The geographic location of Middlebury has a significant impact on the opponents.

"We're not from Boston or Hartford, where you have a whole bunch of schools to choose from," said Quinn. Though Middlebury sports teams will, "drive as far as they need to play conference opponents because that's what you do, the well-rounded schedules we can generate with out-of-conference games could become an issue." This will be especially true if half the traditional regional competition is no longer in the same division.

Middlebury's athletic department has not formulated an official stance on the issue as of yet, but Quinn said he and the majority of the coaches are on the same page.

"Most of us feel comfortable competing at the current D-III level because we have a niche academically with our types of schools," he said.

The student-athletes who comprise Middlebury's teams were similarly skeptical.

"Even though it wouldn't change the games that were played, there would probably be a stigma attached to a championship title that would discourage a lot of student athletes from choosing D-IV schools," said Danny Haluska '10, a cornerback on the football team.

As a prospective student, Haluska said he was attracted to Middlebury by the tandem of athletic and academic prowess for which the school is well respected. However, Haluska said he "could definitely see high school seniors choosing another place to play sports to avoid playing in a 'sub-division.'"

Kerry Reilly, a first-year varsity field hockey player, saw the issue the same way.

"I feel like a new division, if there ends up being one, is automatically going to be considered sub-standard to the original Division III organization," said Reilly. "I mean, what school would want to be a part of a start-up division when there is already an established division available?"

Quinn was confident that even if a split occurred, the NESCAC's athletics in general, and Middlebury's in particular, would remain largely unchanged.