SDSULAX wrote:This is from the Draft MCLA Operating Procedures, modified to change the designations A & B only to correspond with current designations.
"(a) MCLA sanctioned play shall be divided into conferences. Each conference shall have a minimum of 10 teams, which may be divided into separate “1” and “2” divisions (each, a “Division”). Teams in each conference will be separated into Divisions based on the NCAA designation of the varsity football team of the institutions at which teams are located. Teams at institutions with NCAA Division 1-A football teams will be placed in Division 1, all others will be placed in Division 2. Teams may petition their conference, in accordance with applicable conference regulations, to be placed in a different Division. " It is clear to me.
One mistake in that draft that will need to be corrected if we keep our current system: Division 1 teams cannot petition to be placed in a different division. Only Division 2 teams can make that petition...to be moved up. Division 1 teams that are allowed by their conferences to play Division 2 schedules are still Division 1 by definition.
I am growing more and more convinced, however, that our current model needs some serious rethinking. It's working, but it's broken. We either need to hold all of our teams to a very high standard, and start losing teams that can't toe the line, or we need to redefine our split to better serve both the elite teams and the developing teams by separating them, perhaps regardless of school size or perhaps further subdivided by school size or a similar designation. Until we do that I do not believe we can serve any of our teams to the extent they need.
I'm sure this will be an ongoing discussion by our membership and our Board no matter what decisions are made in the short term.
