As Division II seeks to grow its ranks, the committee established as the gatekeeper wants prospective members to have more than a shopping-cart mentality when they apply.

The Division II Membership Committee loves its new streamlined progression of two exploratory years and at least one provisional to efficiently assimilate qualified institutions into active status, but the committee is realizing that the new process is requiring schools to have done more homework before they even consider exploring.

The best part of the new process adopted at the 2007 Convention is that it clears the procedural clutter for schools that make a serious commitment to being good Division II members. Done correctly, prospective institutions need just three years to comply, and only during the provisional period (which can be as brief as one year) are student-athletes not eligible for championships competition (they can compete in the previous affiliation’s championships during the exploratory years).

Reaching the finish line, though, may take more of a commitment from schools on the starting block. When the Division II Membership Committee was processing its latest batch of applications and evaluations, members received one from a school that didn’t yet have a fully operating athletics program, and another from an institution that wasn’t awarding four-year baccalaureate degrees.

To be fair to the institutions, the term “exploratory,” taken literally, is akin to grocery shoppers reaching for a new skillet meal in aisle 5 — albeit an expensive one (the application fee is $24,000).

“The exploratory period shouldn’t be when you’re thinking about whether you want to be in Division II — quite frankly, you should be farther along in your strategy before you seek exploratory status,” said Membership Committee Chair Glenn Stokes, the faculty athletics representative at Columbus State.

Stokes acknowledged that the previous five-year membership progression attracted a range of institutions — from those with no history of athletics to those that had been awarding athletics aid and complying with eligibility standards for several years. For the latter, Stokes said, it was just a matter of aligning the institutional philosophy and tuning in on what Division II expects — certainly accomplishable in three years if the school is prepared.

“But expecting to get from no athletics to full compliance in three years isn’t reasonable,” he said.

Membership Committee member Jim Johnson, who Stokes replaced as chair in July, said the committee may need to have a philosophical discussion about the terminology.

“I’m not sure ‘exploratory’ is the right word,” said the commissioner of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association. “We know that ‘provisional’ is the right word — it means you’ve made it through this other period and are ready for active membership, but you need to meet a provisional mark of one year of full compliance before you’re cleared. Maybe that other period preceding ‘provisional’ should be ‘preparatory’ or ‘educational,’ or something like that.”

The Membership Committee moved a dozen institutions from provisional to active status as of September 1. Though Division II is hungry for new members, the Membership Committee is not letting just anybody through.

“The Membership Committee has an expectation that schools allowed into the exploratory period will be able to succeed, and there’s a level of accomplishment that these schools need to demonstrate before being allowed to pursue active membership,” Stokes said.

Division II Management Council Chair Debbie Chin, the AD at New Haven, called the Membership Committee Division II’s most important governing body outside of the Presidents Council. “They are the gatekeepers of Division II,” she said. “They more than anyone else are responsible for ensuring that our growing membership aligns with our new strategic-positioning platform.”

With an effective process in place, all that’s remaining may be to make sure prospective schools know the expectations.

“The exploratory period should be more of a teaching process and a time during which some of the rough edges are smoothed out rather than a period in which an institution is deciding whether it wants to sponsor athletics,” Stokes said.