The Division III football season will remain at 10 games and the eight schools that sponsor a Division I scholarship sport will be allowed to continue to grant those scholarships under legislation passed Monday afternoon, Jan. 12, at the NCAA Convention.

A proposal to essentially eliminate non-medical redshirting passed with 60% of the votes cast. The intent of the proposal was "To specify that a student-athlete will be charged with a season of participation if he or she practices or competes during or after the first contest following the student-athlete's initial athletics participation at the institution; effective for any athletics participation occurring on or after August 1, 2004.

Proposal 60, which would have limited the football practice and playing season to 18 weeks and cut the number of games in every sport by 10%, was defeated. Proposal 61, an alternative sponsored by the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin and Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, passed.

Proposal 61 limits the season to 18 weeks. However, this does not necessarily shorten the regular-season. The NCAA Manual states an institution's last contest shall not be played outside the traditional segment, except for those games played in the Division III Football Championship. Pending formal clarification from the NCAA Interpretations and Legislation Committee, it appears schools could use two weeks of preseason, 11 weeks to play up to 10 games and five in the spring for strength and conditioning.

The basketball season would be limited to 19 weeks, cutting into preseason practice opportunities, although the full 25 permissible games would be maintained.

Proposal 65, which would have limited five Division III football schools (Colorado College, Hartwick, Johns Hopkins, RPI and St. Lawrence) and three non-football schools (Clarkson, Oneonta State and Rutgers-Newark) from offering scholarships in one Division I sport per gender, was amended by Proposal 65-1, which allowed those eight schools to continue to be grandfathered in. The amended proposal passed soundly.

"We are extremely grateful for the support that we received from our partners in Division III," Colorado College president Richard F. Celeste said. "We were confident that, once the Division III membership was able to study Proposal 65 and the negative effect it would have on our athletic programs, they would agree that the proposed legislation would do nothing to bring our academic mission and athletic participation into greater balance."

Scholarship athletes at Division III schools cannot also participate in the school's Division III sports. That loophole was closed in the early 1990s.h