In January, junior Joshua Shapiro will travel to Indianapolis to attend the 2018 NCAA National Convention, where he will be representing all Division II athletes as the NCAA D11 National Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) Representative.
Passing all five with flying colors, Colorado Mesa University’s SAAC voted on the proposed legislative items for DII schools on Oct. 2. Every school’s SAACs vote, and then the final decision is made at the convention.
“I think it is important for student-athletes to have a voice,” CMU SAAC Vice President Natalee Todd said. “We are the main ones affected by all these rules and bylaws, and we are hoping we can change something.”
The five pieces of legislative changes voted on included: allowing Mexican teams to play in the NCAA, to view each wagering incident case-by-case, give volleyball an extra week of practice during fall festival years, give football an extra three days of practice before school or the first game, whichever comes first and lastly, allow golf players to receive any type of gift/trophy/item after winning a tournament if it equals to 50 dollars.
“I think these will only benefit and help our athletes,” Shapiro said.
Similarly, to allowing Canadian teams to compete with the NCAA, the first legislative item will allow the Hispanic teams to travel to the United States and compete.
“From an athletic perspective, at least in these huge NCAA western conferences, I would imagine it would benefit athletes from the experience of playing schools from Mexico and not the competition factor,” Shapiro said. “I think it can really only bring diversity to our athletes.”
The purpose behind the second legislative piece is to view each incident as case-by-case, meaning someone who is running a 10,000 dollar betting scheme versus a football player winning 20 dollars can’t be punished the same.
“It might take more personnel to go over it, but we don’t want to punish freshman who had no idea what the rules were, or even, some athletes just really don’t know the rules and the coach may not tell them,” SAAC member Brooke Hodgson said.
Volleyball specific, the third legislative change is directed toward the years when the Division II championships take place for the fall festivals. Typically, these years result in loss of play time and a week of practice making some volleyball players concerned about their rank.
“We always go with the best interest of the sport,” Todd said. “CMU wants to be a championship school, and that week will give us a whole tournament to play with more competition time.”
Previously, the football players would start practicing seven days before the first day of school or 21 days before the first game, however, this proposal will change that to 10 days before the first day of school or 24 days before the first game.
“You get to spread that practice time out instead of just killing them,” Shapiro said. “It gives more practice and recovery time. All of the football players I have talked to here and around the country supported this legislative item.”
Much like the guidelines with athlete’s senior gifts, the final legislative item opened the floor for golf players’ awards/gifts to be anything, ranging from a t-shirt to a plaque. However, it must equal 50 dollars.
“People couldn’t give them gifts because they didn’t know if it fell under the bans or not,” Shapiro said. “We are just trying to open it up so that there aren’t so many rules. You really can’t disagree when you’re only helping them.”
CMU SAAC will have a large voice in the upcoming years, according to Hodgson.
“To have Josh at the level he is, it’s amazing,” Hodgson said. “He even said he hears our voice the most so we have to speak up and hopefully make some changes. [NCAA] hear his voice more than anything, for him to come back to us—it’s going to be crazy the next two years.”
