The NCAA News Digest

July 21, 1997

• GRADUATION-RATE COMPARISON
• FOOTBALL -- Interested groups agree on spring practice changes
• STAFF -- Rose selected to head NCAA public affairs group
• ELIGIBILITY -- Committee plans to reinstated repayment rule in tennis

GRADUATION-RATE COMPARISON

Comparison Graphic

The biggest gains in Division I graduation rates over a seven-year period have been made by African-American student-athletes.

A comparison of the graduation rates for the 1984 entering class of Division I student-athletes (the first to be studied) and the 1990 entering class (the most recent) shows six of 16 subgroups with increases of 10 percent or more in graduation rates. Five of those subgroups are composed exclusively of African-Americans and the sixth is largely the result of gains made by Blacks.

The biggest increase for any subgroup studied was for black female basketball players, whose graduation rate went up 16 percent from the first study to the most recent one (42 percent to 58 percent). That jump helped boost the increase for all female basketball players to 10 percent (57 percent to 67 percent).

Other increases in African-American subgroups from the first study to the most recent one are black female student-athletes, 14 percent, and black male student-athletes, black male basketball players and Division I-A black football players, 10 percent.

FOOTBALL

The NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports, the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) and the Collegiate Commissioners Association have announced a joint proposal on spring football practices.

The proposal is in response to the NCAA's national Injury Surveillance System data, which show a two to three times higher risk of total injuries and also serious injuries in spring football practice compared to fall practice.

The committee and the AFCA propose that that modifications relating to the amount of contact in spring football be made through NCAA legislation in Divisions I and II.

Staff contact: Randall W. Dick.

STAFF

Celeste Rose, assistant vice-president for university relations and special assistant to the president of the University of California, has been named NCAA group executive director for public affairs.

Rose, the first black woman appointed to the NCAA's senior management staff, will join the Association August 25.

Her new responsibilities for the Association's public affairs efforts include broadcast services, federal governmental relations, graphics, The NCAA News, public information and communication, publishing, and statistics.

Named to her present position in 1992, Rose is also special assistant to the president of the nine-campus University of California system.

ELIGIBILITY

Committee plans to reinstate repayment rule in tennis

The NCAA Eligibility Committee is preparing to reinstate a requirement that international tennis student-athletes repay impermissible prize money in order to regain eligibility for NCAA competition.

The committee has agreed to apply that condition for restoration in all eligibility cases in which a student-athlete competes after January 1, 1998, and receives impermissible prize money based on place finish.

The Eligibility Committee is authorized to apply that condition without the approval of the Association's governing bodies, but it has agreed to ask the Divisions I, II and III Management Councils to endorse the action.

The repayment condition for reinstatement of eligibility currently is applied by the committee in all NCAA sports except tennis.

International student-athletes in tennis have been subject since 1994 to a temporary minimum condition for restoration that was implemented following objections from the international tennis community that many student-athletes were unable to repay the oftentimes large amounts of prize money they received without knowledge of NCAA restrictions.

Staff contact: Carrie A. Doyle.