National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News - News and Features

April 7, 1997

Committee makes recommendations regarding review process

In its final meeting as a standing committee, the NCAA Committee on Review and Planning agreed to make a number of recommendations to the new Executive Committee on the process for reviewing issues and activities in intercollegiate athletics.

Discussion of the review process, which took place at the March 17 meeting in Destin, Florida, came as a result of the Committee on Review and Planning's comments last fall to the NCAA Presidents Commission regarding that part of the committee's charge. In a report to the Commission, the committee observed that its role of planning appears to have been assigned to various groups within the new structure.

However, the committee noted that there is no readily apparent body that is composed in such a way as to take advantage of the leadership experience and institutional history possessed by former officers, who largely constituted the committee, or that is specifically charged with the responsibility to review and evaluate activities of the Association or identify and examine trends and problems and make recommendations.

The Commission agreed and asked the committee to discuss how the review function could be provided in the new structure. The Commission asked the committee to report its findings to the new Executive Committee.

In its discussions, the committee made the following observations:

  • At a minimum, there needs to be good written documentation of how the previous governance structure evolved to the current policy positions and procedures on all significant issues.

  • As the new structure begins to create its own history, written documentation will continue to be important in passing along the rationale for new policy. And the new structure should look for ways to involve current leadership in providing continuity.

  • The new Executive Committee should have a meaningful role in the review process for the future because of its unique Association-wide membership. Documents containing the history of each committee's evolving recommendations should be developed and maintained and passed on to new committee members as they assume their roles to provide the Executive Committee with continuity as the latter's membership changes.

  • The use of expertise from specific disciplines should be considered in the makeup of new committees as appropriate (for example, using admission counselors and registrars in initial-eligibility discussions).

    Other actions

    In other actions, the committee agreed to recommend to the new Division I governance structure that the fourth year of English in the core-course requirements for initial eligibility should be reconsidered. The committee recommended that the requirement for 13 core courses be maintained but that the fourth year of English not be a requirement, based on the experiences of the past year.

    The committee also applauded the efforts to conduct video conferences to explain the initial-eligibility requirements to high-school counselors and urged the membership to host the conferences on their campuses. The committee recommended, however, that the Association should work with the National Federation of State High School Associations to schedule the video conferences on dates when the majority of high schools are in session.