National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News - News and Features

March 24, 1997

Committee proposes changes for next certification cycle

A set of proposed changes for the second cycle of the Division I athletics certification program has been mailed to selected groups in the membership.

The proposed modifications, which were developed by the NCAA Committee on Athletics Certification, relate to the program's operating principles and to the interim report that will be required when the certification process goes to the 10-year cycle that was approved at the 1997 Convention.

The recommendations were provided to Division I conference commissioners and Division I members of the the NCAA Council, Presidents Commission and committees with an interest in the athletics certification process.

Frederick W. Obear, chancellor of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and chair of the Handbook and Self-Study Instrument Subcommittee of the certification committee, said that the committee hopes to submit a proposal on athletics certification revisions to the Division I Management Council for it to consider at its first meeting in August.

According to the new legislative process, any changes approved by the Management Council will be published and provided to the Division I membership for a 60-day review and comment period. The committee hopes to have final legislative changes approved by the Division I Board of Directors no later than January 1998.

Proposed changes appear throughout all of the operating principles. Some of the more notable recommendations include:

  • A change in the academic integrity section that would require analysis "if the graduation rate of student-athletes, as a whole or for any subgroup, is significantly lower than that of other student-athlete or student-body groups." The principle previously required analysis if the student-athlete graduation rate as a whole was lower than that over the overall student body.

  • Substantial changes in the section on commitment to equity, welfare and sportsmanship. In the first cycle, in almost all cases in which the committee has denied full certification, the decision has involved matters pertaining to gender or minority equity. The new operating principles would clarify that the institution must demonstrate progress toward both gender and minority equity and that it must have in place a written plan "to ensure (that) the institution maintains a program, or continues progress toward a program."

    The section also includes new operating principles for sportsmanship and ethical conduct, as approved at the 1997 Convention.

    The committee also has discussed the interim status report, which is supposed to (1) serve as a measuring tool for both the committee and the institution regarding the institution's progress and key developments since its initial certification decision and (2) provide feedback and guidance from the committee, where appropriate, to assist the institution in preparing for its next self-study.

    The certification committee is proposing a legislative change that relates to the amount of time institutions have between self-studies.

    To make the transition from a five-year to a 10-year cycle without a substantial gap between the cycles, the committee is proposing that Division I institutions be scheduled in a sequence for the second cycle that will result in varying periods of time between their first and second self-studies.

    According to the proposal, institutions would have anywhere from five to 10 years between self-studies. To help ensure the equal treatment of each institution, the committee is proposing that the interim report would not be required for institutions that have less than seven years between self-studies. For institutions that have at least seven years but less than 10 years between self-studies, an interim report would be required at the midpoint between their self-studies.

    The committee also provided recommendations for the content of the interim report.