"Nearly all of our kindred sister and brethren schools around the nation are affiliated with NCAA Division III," Whitman president Tom Cronin said. "This is clearly where selective liberal arts colleges such as ours belong. The policies and philosophy of Division III athletics place a strong emphasis on student-athletes who are students first and athletes second, which is an emphasis Whitman has always maintained."
This fall marks the beginning of a required three-year provisional membership period for the NCIC schools. The transition period gives athletic departments time to bring their programs into full compliance with NCAA Division III regulations on recruiting, financial aid and other issues. Full membership is slated for the fall of 1998, at which time NCIC teams and athletes become eligible for NCAA post-season competition. Until then, the NCIC will continue its present affiliation with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and compete in post-season events sponsored by that organization.
For NCIC schools, post-season play in the NAIA has always carried a degree of inequity. "When our athletes are successful and move into the post-season, we find ourselves competing against teams and schools that are very unlike Whitman in terms of academic standards and athletic scholarships," Cronin said. "There were instances where a small nation might send its Davis Cup tennis players or Olympic athletes to an NAIA school for a few semesters to train while receiving athletic scholarships. Those situations were grossly unfair for our students, who essentially were competing against professional athletes from abroad."
NAIA membership has dwindled in recent years, Cronin noted, and its future prospects are unclear. "I looked at a recent list of the 180 to 200 schools that remain in the NAIA and many of them are state regional colleges and small church colleges. Whitman was the most academically prestigious school on the list, and the NCIC by far was the academically strongest conference left in the NAIA."
One change facing NCIC schools is the NCAA Division III prohibition against any form of financial aid based on athletics. In the past NCIC schools used enhanced financial aid packages to help meet the demonstrated need of some athletes. Under Division III guidelines, financial aid for athletes must not differ from assistance offered to all students. "I don't think this transition will effect Whitman to any great extent," Cronin said. "I know of very few students who come here for athletics first and academics second. We also have a strong financial aid budget, and we are able to meet the financial need of most of our students."
The move to NCAA in no way represents a de-emphasis of athletics in the conference, Cronin said. "On the contrary, we think this is a very healthy athletic conference, a very important conference nationally, and we want to strengthen it. Each of the private college presidents in this region wants to maintain strong athletic programs that allow our students to compete at the intercollegiate as well as the intramural levels. The type of conference we want to preserve is one in which the concept of the student-athlete is more important than the student who is recruited solely because of athletic ability."
One indication of the NCIC's vitality is its growing membership. George Fox College begins competing this fall, followed by the University of Puget Sound in 1996. If Seattle University decides to join next year, the conference will balloon to nine schools (click here for an update on Seattle University).
Whitman made its first attempt at joining NCAA Division III in the mid- to late-1980s. That attempt, which included a three-year dual membership in the NCAA and NAIA, failed when too few of the other conference schools followed suit. One of the complicating factors at that time, according to NCIC Commissioner Arleigh Dodson, was that the conference was still in its infancy. "There were too many issues at that time for us to focus on just one issue," Dodson said.
"We were disappointed," Whitman athletic director Max Seachris said. "We felt then, and we still do, that NCAA Division III is where Whitman belongs."