The NCAA News - News Features

Additional $15 million for Division I members

Budget excess results in supplemental distribution

The NCAA Executive Committee approved the distribution at its meeting December 5-6 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Of the $15 million, $1.8 million is investment earnings through August 31, 1996, from the $50 million payment received from CBS in January 1996. The remaining $13.2 million of the supplemental distribution was derived from excess revenues for the 1995-96 fiscal year.

The $15 million will be disbursed through the basketball fund and broad-based fund -- including the grant-in-aid and sports-sponsorship components -- of the revenue-distribution plan.

The Executive Committee also approved transferring $1.3 million to the funded operating reserve, in order to meet the previously stated goal of maintaining a balance equal to operating expenses for one year. For these purposes, operating expenses are defined as the current amount budgeted for administrative services.

The Executive Committee also approved a transfer of $1 million to the investment reserve as part of its commitment to build that endowment fund.

Approval of the four uses for the unallocated surplus left $2.3 million in unallocated surplus.

The Executive Committee also approved a clarification of the formula for distribution of the special-assistance fund. The formula provides that the funds will be disbursed based 70 percent on the number of student-athletes receiving Pell Grants, 15 percent on athletics grants-in-aid and 15 percent on sports sponsorship.

The special-assistance fund is distributed to Division I conferences every August and is designed to help Division I student-athletes with special financial needs. The NCAA specifies permissible uses for the funds but the conferences administer the funds.

The Executive Committee noted that a two-year restriction for conferences' use of special-assistance moneys remains in force. The restriction is intended to encourage conferences to distribute their special-assistance funds, and prohibits a conference from accumulating more than the amount allocated during the previous two years. If a conference does not use its funds, it will not receive more.

The NCAA last December increased the allocation to the special-assistance fund from $3 million to $10 million annually, effective with the 1996-97 fiscal year.

Championships

The Executive Committee also took action regarding championships matters.

It approved an expansion of the Division I Women's Volleyball Championship field from 48 teams to 56 teams, effective for the 1997 championship.

Division I championships in women's indoor and outdoor track were expanded to allow 16 more participants in the indoor championships and 15 more for the outdoor championships, effective in 1998. Women's pole vault will be added as an event, giving the Division I women's championships the same number of events as the men's championships.

Other highlights

NCAA Executive Committee

December 5-6/Kansas City, Missouri

* Heard informational reports from Cedric W. Dempsey, NCAA executive director, regarding the status of a proposed United States Olympic Committee/NCAA grant program for emerging and endangered sports and on NCAA Project 2000 (the evaluation of the national headquarters site).

* Received a strategic plan for development of the NCAA's Internet capabilities and World Wide Web site, including development of a broadcast e-mail delivery system for institutional and conference personnel and a listserver that would make governance updates and press releases available to member institutions.