National Collegiate Athletic Association |
The NCAA News - News and FeaturesJanuary 6, 1997 Schools again try to protect Olympic sport championshipsThis is the last in a series of seven articles on legislation that has been submitted for the 91st annual Convention January 11-15, 1997, in Nashville, Tennessee. The article reviews proposals in the general grouping and in this year's deregulation package. NCAA members again are seeking to prevent discontinuation of championships in Olympic sports due to insufficient institutional sponsorship. The proposal is one of a handful of measures -- involving topics varying from championships to special events to drug testing -- that appear in this year's general grouping of legislation. Many of the institutions behind this year's proposal to exempt championships in Olympic sports from the minimum-sponsorship-percentage requirements of Bylaws 18.2.3 and 18.2.4 sponsored an identical proposal that was defeated at last year's Convention. The sponsors argue that adoption of the proposal would aid the United States' Olympic effort while preserving championships opportunities for student-athletes. The NCAA Executive Committee again opposes the measure, saying that it would weaken the criteria for maintenance and establishment of championships that were adopted by that group during the early 1990s. The general grouping also features a proposed resolution in Division II involving automatic qualification for championships. Sponsors of the resolution are seeking restoration of automatic qualification in sports where it has been discontinued by the Division II Championships Committee and expansion of the program to include all sports but football. The sponsors believe automatic qualification would help achieve more objectivity in selecting teams for championships and would reaffirm the importance of conference competition. The resolution would direct the championships committee and the Division II Championships Project Team to attempt to develop championship structures that would ensure the inclusion of conference champions, and direct those groups to prepare appropriate legislation for the 1998 Convention. Restructuring The Association's continuing movement toward restructuring is behind two proposals in the general grouping -- one involving governance of championships and the other relating to certification of special events. The NCAA Council and Executive Committee have joined three Division I conferences as sponsors of a proposal that would assign responsibility for establishing Division I championships' field sizes to the new Division I Management Council. The proposal also would put the Management Council in charge of reviewing sports committees' actions involving automatic qualification Those duties are performed by the Executive Committee in the current governance structure. The other restructuring-related proposal would establish a reporting line for the NCAA Special Events Committee as it conducts certification of special events in Division I. Under the proposal, the committee would forward certification recommendations involving previously exempted events through the new Division I Championships Cabinet to the Division I Management Council and Division I Board of Directors. It also would submit recommendations regarding the certification of new or revised events through both the Championships and the Academics/Compliance/Eligibility Cabinets. Drug testing The general grouping also includes two Council-sponsored proposals relating to the Association's drug-testing legislation, but one of those proposals is expected to be withdrawn. The Council has indicated it will withdraw a measure that would authorize drug testing of student-athletes who have tested positive for use of banned substance in testing conducted by another athletics organization. Each NCAA division, however, will be asked to consider a proposal designed to prevent student-athletes who have tested positive in NCAA testing from transferring to another institution to avoid a loss of eligibility. Under the measure, the institution from which an ineligible student-athlete transfers would be required to notify the athlete's new institution of his or her ineligibility. Deregulation A package of eight proposals to deregulate or simplify legislation relating to playing and practice seasons also is on the Convention agenda. As with similar deregulation packages recommended in recent years by the NCAA Legislative Review Committee, these proposals are listed in a separate grouping. The proposals, however, will be considered alongside other proposals in the playing-and-practice-seasons grouping, which was previewed in the December 23 issue of The NCAA News. Seven of the eight proposals address division-specific legislation and will be considered in the appropriate division business sessions. The other proposal -- a measure to delete legislation preventing schools from scheduling a contest in conjunction with a professional sports contest or exhibition -- will be considered by the entire membership in the general business session. The package features an effort to simplify the definition of playing seasons in Divisions I and II. That proposal would:
The proposal would continue to provide institutions with the option to divide a playing season into two district segments of competition -- one segment concluding with the NCAA championship in a sport and the other scheduled separately from that segment. The Legislative Review Committee notes that adoption of the proposal would result in a significant reduction in the number of pages in the NCAA Manual, without substantively modifying the method by which institutions compute their playing seasons. Proposals to delete legislation Five proposals in the package would delete existing division-specific legislation. Two of those proposals ask all three divisions to delete the following legislation:
Two other proposals would delete the following legislation in Divisions I and II:
Division III is being asked to delete the following:
The deregulation package also includes a proposal for all three divisions that would change the basis upon which a student-athlete's eligibility for a hardship waiver is calculated. Hardship waivers can be granted by a conference or the NCAA Eligibility Committee in instances where a student-athlete is incapacitated by an injury or illness. Eligibility for a waiver currently is based in part on the percentage of the number of varsity events in a season that the student-athlete misses as a result of the incapacity. In sports that are subject to dates-of-competition limitations, the proposal would change the basis for that calculation from the number of varsity events to the number of contests or dates of competition. Summary Following is a summary of each of the proposals in the general grouping and in the deregulation package, including sponsors, committee positions (if any) and the business session in which a proposal will be considered. General No. 135: Authorize NCAA testing of student-athletes who test positive for banned substances by a non-NCAA athletics organization. Sponsored by the Council; recommended by the Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports. General business session; all divisions voting. No 136: Indicate that when a student-athlete who is declared ineligible due to a positive drug test transfers to another NCAA institution, the institution from which the student-athlete transferred must notify the new institution of the student-athlete's ineligibility. Sponsored by the Council; recommended by the Executive Committee. Divisions I, II and III business sessions. No. 137: Create a protected status to continue all men's and women's NCAA championships in Olympic sports. Sponsored by 11 member institutions. Executive Committee position: Oppose. General business session; all divisions voting No. 138: In Division I, strengthen championship access under a restructured NCAA governance system by mandating that the size of all NCAA championships fields be established by the Management Council. Sponsored by the Council, Executive Committee and the Northeast, Metro Atlantic Athletic and Mid-Continent Conferences. Division I business session. No. 139: Clarify the role of the Special Events Committee under the restructured Division I governance system as specified. Sponosored by the Council and the Southern Conference. Division I business session. No. 139-1: Amend No. 139 to further clarify the role of the Special Events Committee related to exempted events under the restructured Division I governance system. Sponsored by the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Division I business session. No. 140: A resolution directing the Division II Championships Committee and the Division II Championships Project Team to consider developing championship structures in all team sports except football that would guarantee championship participation by every conference champion, subject only to standards to be set on minimum conference size and minimum number of conference contests (but not precluding the committee from making "at large" selections to complete the championship field) and with no guarantee that all expenses for all rounds of the championship will be funded by the NCAA; and to submit legislation, if appropriate, to establish such structures at the January 1998 Convention. Sponsored by the Great Lakes Valley Conference. Division II business session. No. 141: A resolution directing the Division III Steering Committee to consider whether it is appropriate to propose legislation, consistent with the intent of the current provisions of Bylaw 17, to permit an institution in Division III to engage in its first date of regular-season competition (excluding exhibition scrimmages) in the sports of cross country, field hockey, soccer and volleyball during the traditional season on September 1 or the preceding Friday if September 1 falls on a Saturday, Sunday or Monday, inasmuch as such competition would be conducted over Labor Day weekend when September 1 falls on a Monday. Sponsored by the the University Athletic Conference. Division III business session. Deregulation The NCAA Legislative Review Committee has identified the following proposals to facilitate the deregulation of the Association's playing-and-practice-season legislation. The NCAA Council has approved the submission of these proposals to the membership as a "deregulation package." While these proposals are being submitted as a package, they each will be voted on separately in the appropriate business session. No. 142: Specify that the percentage calculation for purposes of meeting the hardship waiver in those sports that are subject to date-of-competition limitations shall be based on the institution's number of completed dates of competition (as opposed to varsity events). Sponsored by the Council; recommended by the Legislative Review Committee. Divisions I, II and III business sessions. No. 143: Delete the general principle set forth in Bylaw 17.01.2 that precludes an institution from scheduling intercollegiate athletics contests in conjunction with professional sports contests or exhibitions (e.g., as a preliminary event). Sponsored by the Council; recommended by the Legislative Review Committee. General business session; all divisions voting. No. 144: Delete the general principle set forth in Bylaw 17.01.3 that the Association's legislation may prescribe limits on the number of student-athletes in a particular sport who may be employed (e.g., as counselors or lecturers) or otherwise participate in camps and clinics. Sponsored by the Council; recommended by the Legislative Review Committee. Divisions I, II and III business sessions. No. 145: In Divisions I and II, simplify the legislation related to the length of playing seasons, the beginning of preseason practice, first date of competition and the end of the regular season by deleting all references to traditional and nontraditional playing seasons in Bylaw 17 and establishing a single date for the start of preseason practice, competition and the end of the regular season in each sport; further, eliminate the "week option" and establish a single option using a specific number of days in determining the length of an institution's playing season [i.e., 132 days in Divisions I and II team sports (other than football and basketball); 144 days in Divisions I and II individual sports; 156 days for Divisions I and II institutions that sponsor both indoor and outdoor track and count both sports in meeting division membership requirements; and 156 days in Divisions I and II women's rowing]. Sponsored by the Council; recommended by the Legislative Review Committee. Divisions I and II business sessions. No. 146: Delete the legislation that permits the Council to approve waivers to the length of the playing season for an institution that has suffered extraordinary personnel losses to its team due to an accident or illness of a disastrous nature. Sponsored by the Council; recommended by the Legislative Review Committee. Divisions I and II business sessions. No. 147: Delete the exception to out-of-season basketball practice that permits members of an institution's basketball team to participate in a wheelchair basketball game against an established wheelchair team following the close of the institution's regular basketball season. Sponsored by the Council; recommended by the Legislative Review Committee. Divisions I and II business sessions. No. 148: Delete legislation applicable in each Division III sport in which a Division III championship is conducted that prohibits a Division III institution located outside of Hawaii, Alaska or Puerto Rico from exempting from counting toward the maximum number of contests or dates of competition those contests or dates scheduled on a foreign tour taken in a sport in the same four-year period that the institution participated in contests or dates of competition in that sport on a single regular-season trip to Hawaii, Alaska or Puerto Rico. Sponsored by the Council; recommended by the Legislative Review Committee. Division III business session. No. 149: Delete the requirement that the Council must approve participation of sanctioned outside-team tours in the sport of basketball. Sponsored by the Council; recommended by the Legislative Review Committee. Divisions I, II and III business sessions. |