The NCAA News - News & Features

Review and planning group focuses on amateurism rules

The report was one of several items reviewed by the committee during its September 9 meeting in Kansas City.

In its report to the NCAA Council, the committee will note that the study should continue. A number of discussion points were listed by various members of the committee.

* The major concerns of the Association should be whether the recruiting process is fair and has integrity, whether prospective student-athletes are prepared for college-level work and participation in sports, and whether student-athletes meet eligibility standards at their institutions.

* The committee noted that many individuals in college athletics still do not favor "pay for play" of student-athletes.

* There may be nothing inherently wrong with a student-athlete having an agent.

* Student-athletes should have the same opportunities for personal gain that other students on campus have.

Some members of the committee observed that other college students are not penalized or withheld from extracurricular participation because they gain monetarily from personal activities associated with such participation.

For example, musicians are not made ineligible to perform in their school's musical ensembles by earning pay for musical performances not associated with their college or university.

In other business, the committee reviewed the work of the NCAA Transition Oversight Committee with regard to standing committees. It noted that the Committee on Review and Planning Committee is not one of the Association-wide committees designated to continue under the new structure.

After reviewing the proposed committee structure for each division, the committee observed that the planning function of its work appears to have been assigned to other groups in the restructured format.

However, the committee agreed to advise the NCAA Presidents Commission of the importance of maintaining a process in which individuals with Association leadership experience provide the review function that the committee has performed in evaluating the activities of the Association.

The committee's most recent review of Association issues included a discussion of initial-eligibility requirements for Division I and the effect of the new requirement for 13 core courses.

Although the committee declined to comment officially on the effect of the change, some members expressed concern over the number of waivers that the change had generated.

Other reports presented to the committee included reviews of the restricted-earnings coach litigation, the NCAA Outreach Program, accommodations for learning-disabled students, governmental affairs, Division I certification program, U.S. Olympic Committee conference development grants program, technology and the Internet, and the NCAA 2000 headquarters project.

The committee also received information on conference alignments for men and women, legislative analyses and NCAA Convention attendance, and data on NCAA staff gender and ethnic representation.