Representatives of colleges in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division III voted here on Monday to reduce pressure on athletes by restricting the number of games that teams can play and practices they can hold. But the delegates backed away from some changes that had been proposed.

The new rules represent a major shift in policy, and the division's leaders claim that the proposals will enable the division to stay together.

Among the rules approved was a measure to eliminate "redshirting," the practice of allowing athletes to sit out a year and still be eligible for four years of athletics competition. Under the new rule, students must use up their four years of eligibility in four years, except in hardship cases.

The delegates also voted to reduce the length of seasons of competition, and to limit practices and competition in "nonchampionship" seasons, such as fall for baseball and spring for soccer.

Members defeated, however, by a 318-to-93 vote, a proposal to reduce by 10 percent the maximum number of games permitted.

They also decided to allow eight institutions, including the Johns Hopkins University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, to continue awarding athletics scholarships in the Division I sports they offer but to prohibit other institutions from doing so.

Despite concerns that those colleges were gaining an unfair advantage in Division III by offering athletics scholarships in Division I sports, the delegates approved the exception by a vote of 304 to 89, granting the eight institutions permission to continue a practice they have engaged in for decades.

"I'm delighted we got so much support from so many friends," said a relieved William R. Brody, president of Johns Hopkins. He helped lead the campaign against the proposed change, which would have affected the institution's Division I lacrosse team. "It was important to have an overwhelming vote because we'd be concerned this issue would keep coming up year after year," he said. "It reaffirms in a positive sense the waiver."

Immediately after the vote, Mr. Brody said he called his men's-lacrosse coach and told him, "We won."

Also after the vote, RPI announced plans to elevate its women's ice-hockey team to Division I and begin awarding scholarships in the near future.

Division III athletes present at the convention also supported the measure. "We just thought this was a detriment and a loss of tradition" at these colleges, and the waiver was more important than having them "aligned with some words written on a piece of paper," said Brad Coffey, an Amherst College senior and member of the Division III Student-Athletic Advisory Committee.

But his mother, Suzanne R. Coffey, director of athletics at Bates College and a member of the Division III Management Council, disagreed with him, urging delegates before the vote not to allow "for business as usual." Granting the colleges an exception, she said, "ignores the reform effort undertaken by Division III."

Before the vote on reducing the number of games, several athletics administrators said the issue was a bellwether for the division. If it failed, they said, it could force some members who wanted to scale back the intensity of their athletes' sports experience to leave Division III, the largest and most diverse of the NCAA's three divisions. After the vote, though, the division's leaders scoffed at the possibility of a split.

"I don't see anything in the votes taken today that threatens to drive a wedge into the division," John M. McCardell Jr., president of Middlebury College and chairman of the Division III President's Council, said at a news conference after the session. "That wasn't the tone of the discussion."

Susan Bassett, director of athletics at William Smith College and chairwoman of the Division III Management Council, said that the changes were ones that "schools who might want more restriction can live with, yet those who are anxious for more playing and practice seasons can be comfortable with them because they're relatively modest cuts."

"Division III is solid now," she added.

Mr. Coffey said that he didn't think the number of games needed to be reduced and that members of the student advisory committee were pleased to see that measure fail. "As student athletes, we love to compete," he said. "It's not the practices we're going to remember" when we graduate, he said. "It's the contests that we hold sacred."

But Stephen F. Ulrich, commissioner of the Centennial Conference, said the votes might still indicate a future split. "I have a hard time reading it any other way," he said. "We can all be very sympathetic to schools in a tuition-driven environment, where athletics is a major part of the recruitment effort, but what's hard is for those of us not in that situation to run our programs that way.

"We'll go back to our campuses, and the question will be, did we reform?," he continued. "The answer is yes, we reformed today, but we may think we could have gone farther. The future of Division III has not been cleared up at all."

Michael F. Walsh, the athletics director at Washington and Lee University, had a larger concern about the NCAA headquarters staff's advocacy of the reform proposals. Myles Brand, president of the NCAA, endorsed them in his State of the Association speech on Sunday night, and had written letters to Division III presidents in favor of them.

"Did you see that story in USA Today talking about Division I-A football getting a 12th guaranteed game?" Mr. Walsh asked. "And here in Division III, we need to reform ourselves and go down to only nine games?" The NCAA was ignoring problems in Division I, such as the recent relaxation of academic standards for incoming athletes, and instead forcing Division III to change its path, he said.

"I'm a skeptic of the word 'reform,'" Mr. Walsh said. "To think reform needs to come in Division III ignores so much of what's going on elsewhere."

Welch Suggs contributed to this report.

Following are the proposed rules changes considered by Division III members at the National Collegiate Athletic Association's annual convention on Monday, and how the members voted on the proposals:

Proposal 55. Eliminates an exemption that allowed Division III colleges to award athletics scholarships if they had endowments specifically for that purpose established prior to 1979. Passed, 414-3.

Proposal 56. Requires colleges to submit annual audits comparing financial-aid packages of athletes and other students. Passed, 356-61.

Proposal 57. Eliminates "redshirting," or allowing athletes to sit out of competition for a year and retain their eligibility. Amended to specify that athletes who do not compete in a specific season for a legitimate academic reason, such as class-time conflicts or study abroad, can practice with their team at other times of the year without using a season of eligibility. Passed, 249-163.

Proposal 58. Calls on colleges to ensure that athletics recruiting takes place in conformance with established institutional admissions policies. Passed, 392-22.

Proposal 59. Allows athletes who wish to transfer to another Division III college to contact such institutions without consulting with their current coaches or athletics directors. Passed, 221-195.

Proposal 60. Would have reduced the maximum allowable number of games by 10 percent in all sports and limited the length of the playing season to 18 weeks in the fall and 19 weeks in the winter and spring. Failed, 151-262.

Proposal 61. Limits the length of the playing season to 18 weeks in the fall and 19 weeks in the winter and spring. Passed, 238-180

Proposal 62. Would have eliminated competition in "nontraditional" seasons, such as fall for baseball or spring for soccer. Failed, 182-233.

Proposal 63. Limits practices in nontraditional seasons to 16 days in most sports, including only one day for competition. Passed, 218-196.

Proposal 64. Eliminates out-of-season workouts in fencing, gymnastics, rifle, rowing, skiing, and swimming. Passed, 315-68.

Proposal 65-1. Forbids Division III institutions to allow athletes to receive scholarships to compete as a team in Division I. Exceptions will be granted for eight colleges with Division I teams that have scholarships: Clarkson University, Colorado College, Hartwick College, Johns Hopkins University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rutgers University at Newark, the State University of New York at Oneonta, and St. Lawrence University. Passed 296-106.