The NCAA News - News & Features

Committee sets sights on reducing 140-page Bylaw 17

NCAA Bylaw 17 -- all 140 pages of it -- was targeted in March as the next step in the committee's attempt to simplify portions of the NCAA Manual.

At its May 6-7 meeting in Kansas City, Missouri, the Legislative Review Committee reviewed recommendations from various coaches associations, the committee itself and the NCAA staff.

The committee is focusing on three areas as it studies Bylaw 17.

The first area is the possible reformatting of sections 17.01 (general principles), 17.02 (definitions and applications) and 17.1 (general playing-season regulations). The committee wants to streamline those sections for administrative ease. For example, the committee is considering recommending an all-inclusive definition of what constitutes a countable athletically related activity, which will eliminate the need to list noncountable athletically related activities. The thinking is that if an activity is not on the list of countable activities, the membership automatically can assume that it will not be countable.

In addition, the committee would like to clarify exactly what activities can occur during the playing season, outside the playing season but still within the academic year, and during the summer.

The second area under review by the committee is the possible elimination of references to traditional and nontraditional segments while maintaining two distinct segments of a playing season. Each sport would have one specified date for the beginning and end of the playing season.

In addition, the committee is considering a recommendation to simplify the length of the playing season by establishing a season based on a set number of days instead of the current set of playing-season options.

The committee also hopes to eliminate any unnecessary provisions within each sport's legislation. For example, references within each sport's section to outside competition already can be found in Bylaw 14.

Finally, the committee discussed but rejected the idea of removing legislation that is repeated from sport to sport. The committee noted that although repeating the legislation increases the number of pages in the Manual, it makes it easier for a sport's section to stand alone, and thus easier for administrators to copy the section and give it to coaches of that particular sport.

The committee will formulate final recommendations in July for consideration by the NCAA Council at its August meeting.