12 -- In his annual "State of the Association" speech, NCAA Executive Director Cedric W. Dempsey urges the membership to be vigilant about continued progress with student-athlete welfare. Speaking to delegates at the 91st annual NCAA Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, Dempsey notes that although the Association has undertaken a number of initiatives to aid student-athletes, "the NCAA is perceived as acting against the interests of those student-athletes." He said the NCAA's often negative image is attributable to "our sometimes cumbersome process" and to "how we prioritize our principles."

In addition, the NCAA Presidents Commission passes a resolution that directs the Division I Board of Directors to examine postseason football in Division I.

At the annual NCAA honors dinner, William Porter "Billy" Payne is recognized with the Theodore Roosevelt Award , the Association's highest honor.

13 -- Convention delegates adopt Proposal No. 62, which will permit Division I student-athletes to work during the academic year and earn up to the cost of attendance. They also adopt legislation that will permit partial qualifiers in Division I to earn a fourth year of eligibility if they complete a baccalaureate degree before the beginning of their fifth year of collegiate enrollment.

14 -- The full membership of the NCAA meets for the last time as a legislative body. In August, the NCAA will employ a more federated structure. Delegates vote to protect Olympic sports that fall below minimum sponsorship figures from elimination.

Division II delegates react enthusiastically to news that brackets for five team championships likely will be expanded beginning in 1997-98. Division III members indicate a strong preference for restricting championships changes to enhancements that are already planned in seven of the eight team sports sponsored by more than 200 institutions.

Some Division I administrators express concerns about the possible unintended consequences of Proposal No. 62.

30 -- College and professional sports organizations band together to form the Citizenship Through Sports Alliance, which is designed to promote positive behavior in sports and coordinate efforts toward that end.

February

4 -- The first meeting of the NCAA Division I Management Council is devoted to structural matters and to assuring diversity of representation in the new Division I structure.

11-13 -- The NCAA Football Rules Committee recommends that two-point conversions be required after the second overtime to prevent games from becoming unduly lengthy.

13 -- The NCAA and the Collegiate Commissioners Association, the American Football Coaches Association, and the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics form NCAA Football, a coalition devoted to the promotion of the game.

15 -- The United States Olympic Committee agrees to create a pilot grant program to bolster emerging and Olympic sports threatened with elimination at universities and colleges.

18 -- Brown University announces that it will appeal a landmark Title IX case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

March

15 -- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, coach Dean Smith becomes the most victorious Division I men's basketball coach of all time with a 73-56 victory over the University of Colorado, Boulder, in the second round of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship.

20 -- Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, asks the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate whether the college football bowl alliance violates federal antitrust laws.

April

15 -- The NCAA Council meets for the last time.

21 -- The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear the appeal of Cohen v. Brown. A federal district court had found in March 1995 that the university, which offers an extensive women's program, did not meet any part of the three-part Title IX compliance test prescribed by the Office for Civil Rights. The district court decision had been upheld in November 1996 by a federal appeals court.

21-22 -- At the first of two NCAA-sponsored Title IX seminars, panel members encourage creative financing, a spirit of cooperation and long-range planning as the means for achieving better gender-equity solutions in the second 25 years of Title IX's existence.

21-25 -- The NCAA Special Events Committee certifies two new football bowl games for the 1997-98 postseason -- the Las Vegas Bowl, December 20 in Las Vegas, and the Motor City Bowl, December 26 in Pontiac, Michigan.

May

2-3 -- A drafting committee created by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws meets for the first time to work on a uniform state law to govern sports agent activity.

9 -- Longtime University of Nebraska, Lincoln, athletics director and football coach Bob Devaney dies at age 82.

22 -- A Senate hearing on the college football bowl alliance results in more than three hours of testimony. Senators admonish those involved in the alliance and those excluded from it to resolve their differences so the federal government does not have to intervene.

31 -- Indianapolis is selected over Kansas City as the future home of the NCAA national office. The site will be in White River State Park on the southwest corner of downtown Indianapolis. The move from the Association's current office in Overland Park, Kansas, will take place either in the summer of 1999 or the spring of 2000.

27-30 -- Almost 300 student-athletes from NCAA institutions gather in Orlando, Florida, to discuss critical issues facing student-athletes in the first NCAA Foundation Leadership Conference.

June

The decline for Division I men was 351,796, -- a drop of about 1.8 percent for the average member. However, more than 23 million attended games involving a Division I men's basketball team in 1996-97, the ninth consecutive year that has occurred.

For the women, it was the 16th consecutive year for record-breaking attendance. The 1996-97 jump of 28.7 percent was
especially pronounced because of a new method of computing attendance, which permits attendance from men's/women's double-headers to be counted under some conditions.

2 -- The National Women's Law Center files sex-discrimination complaints against 25 colleges and universities based on the distribution of their athletics scholarship dollars.

23 -- The football bowl alliance agrees to virtually guarantee teams from the Western Athletic Conference and Conference USA a bid if they are ranked in the top six.

24 -- The NCAA Division I Board of Directors agrees to seek reaction from Division I chief executive officers to the implementation of 1997 Convention Proposal No. 62, which would permit Division I student-athletes to earn employment income during the academic year.

27 -- William J. Flynn, former director of athletics at Boston College and NCAA president in 1979 and 1980, dies at age 82.

July

27 -- Participants say they are pleased with the first Division II Student-Athlete Summit, which is that division's method for involving student-athletes in the governance process.

28-29 -- The final report of the NCAA Special Committee on Agents and Amateurism recommends addressing agent control through a three-part strategy: a comprehensive program of education; attention to student-athlete welfare, especially their financial needs; and increased sanctions for agent-related violations.

August

1 -- The NCAA's new governance structure becomes effective.

1 -- The NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Rules Committees approve the use of an experimental four-quarter format for exempted men's and women's basketball contests that occur before December 1.

5 -- President Clinton signs into law legislation that will provide favorable tax treatment of corporate-sponsorship payments made to all tax-exempt organizations, including most colleges and universities. Among other things, the law provides relief for football bowl games that rely on corporate sponsorships.

12 -- The Division I Board of Directors votes to impose a one-year moratorium on implementation of Proposal No. 62. It also authorizes an expedited examination of how to improve the review of high-school core-course work.

13 -- The new NCAA Executive Committee approves an overall NCAA budget for 1997-98 based on operating revenue of $267.0 million, an increase of 11. 5 percent of 1996-97.

September

1 -- The number of NCAA active member institutions is 933, an all-time high.

15-16 -- The Division I Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet endorses a new recruiting model for Division I basketball proposed by the National Association of Basketball Coaches.

October

5-10 -- The Kansas City Star runs a six-part series on the NCAA that claims the Association has strayed from its mission and become excessively influenced by money. In response, the NCAA notes that while the series focused on some legitimate controversial issues, it contained numerous inaccuracies and was frequently imbalanced.

9 -- University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, men's basketball coach Dean Smith announces his retirement.

19 -- Lisa Ann Coole, a University of Georgia swimmer, is announced as the 1997 NCAA Woman of the Year.

20 -- A Texas jury rules that a paralyzed former Texas Christian University football player was not an employee of the university when he suffered a catastrophic neck injury in 1974. Had he been classified as an employee, Kent Waldrep would have been eligible for worker's compensation benefits.

20-21 -- The Divisions II and III Management Councils delay a decision on whether to end a moratorium on new NCAA members.

28 -- The Division I Board of Directors acts on 12 proposals that come through the division's new legislative process. The most significant proposal to be approved will permit a Division I-A football program to count under certain circumstances a win against a I-AA opponent toward the number of victories needed to qualify for a bowl game. The change will take effect in the 1998 season.

November

4 -- The Citizenship Through Sports Alliance helps develop a discussion on sportsmanship that is broadcast nationally on ESPN.

12-13 -- The new NCAA Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct meets for the first time and agrees on a five-part approach for improving sportsmanship in intercollegiate athletics.

14 -- The Official Notice of the 1998 Convention is mailed to the membership. It contains only 19 legislative proposals for Division II and seven for Division III.

29 -- Eddie Robinson of Grambling State University, the most victorious college football coach ever, retires with a record of 408-165-15.

December

9 -- A new feature of NCAA Online permits any interested individual to check the status of proposed legislation in Division I.

10 -- Tom Osborne, whose University of Nebraska, Lincoln, teams have won two of the last three national championships, announces he will retire after the Cornhuskers' January 2 Orange Bowl appearance against the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

16 -- The NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports, the NCAA Wrestling Committee and USA Wrestling meet to determine if changes in rules and guidelines regarding weight loss are necessary. Between November 7 and December 9, three college wrestlers collapsed and died after workouts.