The NCAA News Digest

February 17, 1997

• INITIAL ELIGIBILITY -- High schools to receive information on core courses
• DIVISION I -- Meetings address diversity; Iowa's Bowlsby elected chair
• FOOTBALL -- Coalition of related groups to promote college football
• STAFF -- Cryder rejoins Association as group executive director
• SPECIAL EVENTS -- Committee suggests changes in contest-exemption limits
• STUDY -- Federal athletics participation study

INITIAL ELIGIBILITY

High schools to receive information on core courses

A packet containing information about the NCAA core-course approval process will be mailed to high schools soon.

All high schools in the country should receive a packet by March 1, when the 90-day window begins for adding new courses for approval as core courses for initial-eligibility certification purposes.

A high school will have until May 31 to return its 48H form -- the form that lists the courses currently approved as core courses -- to the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse with any changes.

Staff contact: Kevin C. Lennon

DIVISION I

Meetings address diversity; Iowa's Bowlsby elected chair

University of Iowa athletics director Robert A. Bowlsby was elected as the first chair of the Division I Management Council February 4 at the group's first meeting.

Much of the discussion during the Manage-ment Council meeting, as well as during a January 30 conference call of the NCAA Division I Board of Directors, focused on achieving diversity of representation on the Management Council and in the four Division I cabinets.

The Division I Board of Directors directed the Division I-A conferences to appoint an additional woman to the Management Council, which at the moment has 13 men and five women from Division I-A.

The Management Council also determined that more ethnic-minority representation was required on the Division I cabinets.

Staff contact: Stephen R. Morgan

FOOTBALL

Coalition of related groups to promote college football

The NCAA and other groups with an interest in college football have joined together to form NCAA Football USA, a coalition devoted to the promotion of the college game.

NCAA Football USA, which was announced February 13 in Atlanta, is designed to heighten interest in college football and serve as a brand mark for the college game.

Staff contact: Alfred B. White.

STAFF

Cryder rejoins Association as group executive director

C. Dennis Cryder has rejoined the Associa-tion as group executive director for marketing, licensing and promotions. Cryder currently is vice-president of administration/development/broadcasting for the Kansas City Royals baseball team.

Cryder previously served at the NCAA as director of productions from 1977 until 1983. His responsibilities included administration of the NCAA football television plan, non-network television rights negotiations and related program production, serving as liaison with the ESPN cable network, and serving as executive producer of programming for NCAA Produc-tions.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Committee suggests changes in contest-exemption limits

The NCAA Special Events Committee has re-commended changes in legislation that would give more institutions the opportunity to participate in contests exempt from limits on the maximum number of contests or dates of competition.

The committee recommended to the NCAA Council that institutions be permitted to participate in one exempted event in Alaska, one exempted event in Hawaii and one exempted event in Puerto Rico over a four-year period.

The Council approved the recommendation at its January 15 meeting. However, it deferred until April another Special Events Committee recommendation that institutions be limited to no more than two exempted events -- an annual and a one-in-four-year exemption -- during the same season in football and basketball.

STUDY

Federal athletics participation study

The National Center for Education Statistics has released a study that would seem to support the belief that young people should treat athletics as something other than a means to an end.

The study showed that for the approximately three million students enrolled in the eighth grade in 1988, the proportion reporting any intercollegiate athletics participation by 1994 was 5.2 percent. The proportion was reduced to 2.2 percent if participation at NCAA Division I institutions was examined separately.

The numbers were reduced further still if only athletes receiving athletically related financial aid were considered.

The study also revealed that males from the 1988 eighth-grade class were almost twice as likely to participate in Division I athletics by 1994 as their female cohorts (2.8 percent to 1.5 percent) and that students from high socio-economic situations were 10 times more likely to participate in Division I than those from low ones (5.0 percent to 0.5 percent).

The National Center for Education Statistics is part of the U.S. Department of Education.