Topeka ? The Kansas Board of Regents is expected to vote next month on a proposal that would give the three NCAA Division II schools in Kansas the same authority that Division I schools have to sign multiyear contracts with their athletics coaches.

But there is concern among some regents as well as other university presidents that such a move would open the way for what they call the “excesses of Division I,” where coaches routinely earn vastly higher salaries than the university presidents and chancellors, to spread to smaller universities.

One of those expressing concern is Regents Chairman Kenny Wilk.

“I think every governing board in higher ed ought to be asking themselves that question, and yeah, there’s some concern about that,” Wilk said. “There’s really not much we can do at Division I. “The horse is out of the barn with that one. It’s national. That’s part of the reason why we want to put some parameters on this and keep a close eye on it.”

Much of the push for the change is coming from Pittsburg State University, whose football Gorillas are a perennial contender for the Division II national title.

“We want to make sure we can keep our coaching staff intact by providing them security,” said PSU President Steve Scott. “If they stumble a year or two, they know we’re with them.”

Under head coach Tim Beck, the Gorillas have compiled a 21-4 record for the last two years. They won the national title in 2011 and have either taken the title or been the runner-up four other times since 1991.

Scott said other Division II institutions are offering their coaches multiyear contracts, and the Division II schools in Kansas risk losing their coaches if they aren’t able to do the same.

Kansas Board of Regents used to have a longstanding policy prohibiting universities from offering multiyear contracts to any employee. Regents president and CEO Andy Tompkins said that changed several years ago when the Kansas University Medical Center asked for an exception so it could offer long-term contracts to doctors on faculty who were hired for tenure-track positions.

In the course of updating that policy, Tompkins said, officials learned that the Division I schools — notably KU and Kansas State University — had been out of compliance for years by offering multiyear contracts for their coaches. So an exception was made retroactively for those athletic departments.

The proposal coming before the board next month will include two conditions that Wilk said he believes are necessary to keep Division II athletic programs under control: a limit of either two or three years on the length of the contract; and a prohibition against paying a coach more than the university president.