The NCAA News - Digest

June 24, 1996

• I Management Council moves forward with cabinet concept
• Nominations sought for Division II Commission position
• Task force recommends expansion of brackets
• Oversight committee settles on Association-wide functions
• Drug reference information sent to athletic trainers
• Institutional drug survey

DIVISION I

I Management Council moves forward with cabinet concept

The Division I Management Council Transition Team has agreed to move forward with the cabinet structure that was developed by the Division I Task Force to Review the NCAA Membership Structure.

The Management Council's recommendations will be passed along to the Division I Board of Directors Transition Team. The Division I subcommittee of the Commission will review the Board's recommendations.

The Management Council modified the task force's original recommendation but kept in place the principal idea: a group of four cabinets to administer committee functions for the division.

The Management Council also made significant recommendations to the Board regarding the diversity of membership on the Council and within the Division I substructure.

Staff contact: Stephen R. Morgan.

DIVISION II

Nominations sought for Division II Commission position

The Division II subcommittee of the NCAA Presidents Commission is seeking nominations for an at-large vacancy on the Division II subcommittee.

The individual selected to serve on the subcommittee also will serve on the Division II Presidents Council Transition Team, which will function as the Division II Presidents Council when the new governance structure begins operating.

The vacancy must be filled by a chief operating officer of a Division II institution.

Nominations are to be submitted to Nancy L. Mitchell, chief of staff for Division II, and must be received by July 5.

Staff contact: Nancy L. Mitchell.

DIVISION III

Task force recommends expansion of brackets

The Division III Task Force to Review the NCAA Membership Structure has recommended enhancing Division III championships through bracket expansions. However, it says the division should continue to study the possibilities of subdividing or subgrouping.

Meeting June 8, the task force reviewed results of a survey sent in May to all Division III member institutions soliciting input on the direction of Division III championships under a restructured Association.

Staff contact: Daniel T. Dutcher.

RESTRUCTURING

Oversight committee settles on Association-wide functions

The NCAA Transition Oversight Committee has recommended that the functions of 10 general committees continue to be handled on an Association-wide basis once the new governance structure becomes effective.

Committees whose functions would be designated as Association-wide under the oversight committee's recommendation are Basketball Officiating, Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports, Honors, Minority Opportunities and Interests, National Youth Sports Program, Olympic Sports Liaison, Postgraduate Scholarship, Research, Walter Byers Scholarship, and Women's Athletics.

Staff contacts: Mike L. Racy.

SPORTS SCIENCES

Drug reference information sent to athletic trainers

The Athletic Drug Reference '96 been mailed to head athletic trainers at all NCAA member institutions.

Glaxo Wellcome Inc. provided an educational grant for development and maintaince of this informational reference and database. The pocketbook edition benefits amateur and professional athletes, their coaches and athletic trainers, physicians, pharmacists, and drug and poison information centers throughout the United States.

The Athletic Drug Reference '96 has been created to increase awareness of the drug-education programs and testing policies of the NCAA and the USOC.

Additional copies can be obtained by ordering from Clean Data, Inc., at 919/544-8752.

Staff contacts: Cindy Thomas.

SURVEY

Institutional drug survey

Institutions responding to a survey on their drug-testing policies indicate that they test more for cocaine than for any other substance.

Of the institutions responding to the NCAA survey, 89 percent said they tested for cocaine. Of the institutions with testing programs, only two percent did not test for cocaine. Other so-called "recreational drugs" were commonly tested by institutions; 88 percent tested for marijuana (only two percent of those who test did not) and 86 percent tested for amphetamines (three percent did not).