Photo courtesy: Twitter
Charles Chaney
Student Sports Media
It took four hours but at the end of the day, the Jayhawk Conference continues.
All 19 presidents voted unanimously and drafted two new bylaws, that set into motion a new frontier in KJCCC athletics.
On Thursday, Oct. 20, presidents of the Kansas Jayhawk Conference met at the Hubbard Welcome Center to discuss whether to break up the conference in lieu of other benefits.
“The No. 1 goal was to keep the conference together,” Pratt Community College President Dr. Mike Calvert said.
Currently, the 19-member conferences bylaws are much different than those for other National Junior College Athletic Association schools. There are out-of-state restrictions for each sport, as well as the amount of money that can be awarded on scholarships.
Two-thirds vote was needed to make any changes, 13 of 19 schools, and the task of allowing school to potentially leave the conference seemed monumental. This would have affected KJCCC football more than other sports, as it was reported that four of the eight football playing schools were reportedly wanting to leave the Jayhawk Conference, led by Garden City Community College.
“There was no real threat of the conference breaking up,” Calvert said.
Beginning with the 2017-18 academic year, the KJCCC will be compromised of institutions competing at the NJCAA Division I and Division II levels and will follow NJCAA roster limits for all participating sports. This change removes KJCCC out-of-state and roster size limitations.
This means there is no more in-state, out-of-state talk. Any school can recruit as many as they would like.
“This conference has a rich history of athletic success,” Calvert said. “We’re in a great position to see that move forward.”
Currently, football teams are limited to 63 scholarships, 20 from outside of Kansas. The change would allow rosters to go to 85, with no limitations on out-of-state students. In baseball, a change will allow rosters to expand to 75 from the conference limit of 35.
“We’re good, but when you are short-handed due to scholarships, you go to nationals and you’re one and done,” Men’s Basketball Head Coach Bryan Miller said. “The addition of full out-of-state and financial scholarships really puts us on even footing.”
The KJCCC also passed scholarship changes to begin with the 2018-19 academic year. These changes align with NJCAA guidelines, which provide the ability to grant full-ride scholarships in Division I sports.
The caveat of everything is the presidents do not ratify the new bylaws in their April 2017 meeting, all of this becomes null-and-void. Then, the conference will be back to square one.
“Not everyone was 100 percent satisfied,” Calvert said. “We still have work to do.”