The NCAA News - News and Features

January 20, 1997

Administrative Committee minutes

1. Acting for the Council, the Administrative Committee:

a. Approved requests from 20 institutions to appeal in writing to the Council decisions by the Council Subcommittee on Initial-Eligibility Waivers.

b. Approved the following Council procedures:

(1) A Council member may not participate in the discussion of or the decision on any appeal or other case specifically involving his or her institution (or, in the case of a conference administrator serving on the Council, involving a member of that conference). It also was noted that the conflict-of-interest provisions of Bylaw 21.1.4 should be generally applicable to a Council member who (or whose institution or conference) might receive a direct or indirect financial benefit from a Council action.

(2) Deferred action until the January 10 meeting on the recommendation that Council members who serve on the Council Subcommittee on Initial-Eligibility Waivers be permitted to vote with the other Council members on initial-eligibility waiver cases being reviewed by the full Council or a division steering committee.

(3) Noted that historically, all appeals of initial-eligibility waivers have been heard by the full Council because the Divisions I and II rules were nearly identical; agreed, however, that the initial-eligibility rules for Divisions I and II are now sufficiently different to change the traditional approach, and affirmed that such appeals would be heard through a process consistent with general Council policy (i.e., a rule governing only one division shall be acted upon by that division's steering committee); and noted that this would apply to appeals considered by the initial-eligibility subcommittee as well.

2. Acting for the Executive Committee, the Administrative Committee:

Approved the following recommendations from the Division I Men's Basketball Committee:

a. Determined that all competition in the Division I Men's Basketball Championship within a region would be conducted on the same day of the week, effective with the 1998 tournament.

b. Changed the site of the 1998 East region first-/second-round session from USAir Arena (Landover, Maryland) to the new MCI Center (Washington, D.C.).

c. Changed the site of the 1998 Southeast region first-/second-round session from The Omni to the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

d. Realigned the Big Twelve, Southwestern Athletic and Southland Conferences from the Midwest to the Southeast region, and renamed the Southeast region the South region.

e. Revised the formula for determining the dates of the championship as follows, effective in 2003, in order to allow for additional time for regular-season play after January 1 (bold type indicates new wording; italicized type indicates wording removed): "The first and second rounds national-championship game shall take place Thursday through the 11th Sunday after January 2 the Monday after the first Sunday in April. First and second rounds and regionals shall take place Thursday through Sunday of the two preceding weeks."

f. Agreed to revise the student-athlete affidavit signed by participants in the championship to include several questions related to gambling activities.

3. Acting for the Council and Executive Committee, the Administrative Committee confirmed that it will meet at 7 a.m. Friday, January 10, prior to the Council meeting to review the agenda and handle routine business.

4. Report of actions taken by the executive director per Constitution 4.3.2.

a. Acting for the Council:

(1) Granted waivers per Bylaw 14.7.6.1-(c) to permit student-athletes from various institutions to participate in competition involving national teams in men's baseball, men's cross country, men's and women's fencing, women's field hockey, men's golf, men's ice hockey, women's lacrosse, men's rifle, women's rowing, women's soccer, men's and women's swimming, men's tennis, men's and women's track and field.

(2) Granted waivers per Bylaw 16.13.1 to permit institutions to provide incidental expenses in the following situations:

(a) To student-athletes for transportation expenses to attend the funeral of former teammate.

(b) To student-athletes to attend funerals of members of the student-athletes' families.

(c) To provide flowers to families of those involved in funerals.

(d) To provide flowers to a student-athlete who has been hospitalized.

(e) To a student-athlete to rent a tuxedo for a banquet where the student-athlete will be honored.

(f) To student-athletes to return to their homes to be with family members who were terminally ill, seriously injured or hospitalized.

b. Acting for the Executive Committee:

Approved a recommendation from the NCAA Men's and Women's Swimming Committee that the University of Texas at Austin serve as the host institution for the 1998 Division I Zone D diving qualifying competition scheduled for March 13-14, 1998.