The NCAA News - News & Features

Oversight panel develops staffing principles

The discussion grew out of the possibility of a restructured Division III championships program. Governance groups in that division are considering a number of championships options, including subdividing the division in team sports, which would result in additional championships.

If Division III were to establish more championships, there is no question that funding for the competition per se would come from Division III's 3.18 percent allotment of the Association's general operating revenue. However, the Transition Oversight Committee requested information on how additional staffing necessitated by such changes would be paid for.

The following principles were agreed upon by the oversight committee during its May 28 conference call and will be forwarded to the NCAA Presidents Commission, which will consider them at its meeting later this month:

* The restructuring legislation approved at the 1996 NCAA Convention guarantees national office services at levels that were in existence when the legislation was adopted (January 9, 1996).

* Staff members should serve the entire Association, not specific divisions. It is neither cost effective nor efficient to federate the national office staff. It is not desirable to develop a precedent whereby divisions "own" specific staff members. A precedent to hire division-specific staff would be inconsistent with the authority of the executive director that is described in the NCAA Constitution.

* Accordingly, all new staffing needs, including those for new or expanded division-specific programs, ultimately must be addressed by the NCAA Executive Committee in its authority to resolve Association-wide issues.

* If the Executive Committee concludes that the addition of staff members is necessary, it will have at least two options: (a) Assign the expenses related to the new staff members to the Association's general operating budget, or (b) assess the expenses to the applicable division.

* If the Executive Committee selects (b) and it proves necessary to assess costs to a division related to staff growth to serve new or expanded division-specific programs, that assessment should occur on an incremental-cost basis.

For instance, in the example involving Division III championships, the costs related to the amount of work the new staff member performs for Division III would be paid for out of Division III's 3.18 percent allotment (as opposed to Division III paying the entire cost of employing that staff member). The basis of the assessment would be only the salary, benefits and travel expenses of the new staff member.

In other business, the Transition Oversight Committee also discussed the Association-wide committee structure. In reviewing the issue, it consulted a survey of chairs of NCAA general committees and staff liaisons to those committees.

The survey provided information such as the composition (by division) of the committees, the number of Convention proposals sponsored over the last three years, an estimate of the percentage of work done for each division and the recommendation of the committee chair as to whether the committee should be Association-wide or federated.

Based on that information, the Transition Oversight Committee has formulated recommendations for 26 committees (25 general committees, plus the Special Committee to Oversee Implementation of the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse). The oversight committee is in the process of advising chairs of its recommendations, which will appear in The NCAA News later this month.

The oversight committee also agreed that administration of existing National Collegiate championships should be placed with the Division I Championships Committee because most teams and individuals participating in National Collegiate championships represent Division I institutions.

However, how such championships are to be established in the future has not been determined, and the oversight committee placed the matter on the agenda for its June 18 meeting.

At that meeting, the oversight committee also will discuss student-athlete representation in the new structure. The Division III Task Force to Review the NCAA Membership Structure recently recommended that two student-athlete representatives should hold voting memberships on that division's Management Council. Divisions I and II are in the process of examining the issue.