National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News Digest

Janaury 12, 1998


Revenue distribution and championships expense for Division I is expected to grow by more than $76 million between the 1997-98 fiscal year and 2001-02.

Revenue distributions and championships expense for the current year are budgeted at $181,072,000. By 2001-02, that total is expected to climb to $257,872,000, an increase of 42.4 percent.

Championships expenses are budgeted at $34.7 million throughout the projection period, which covers the life of the Association's current contract with CBS Sports.

The projections do not include any supplemental distributions, which are the result of excess revenues from the previous year.

In Division II, the budget allocation is projected to climb from $11.1 million in 1997-98 to $14.1 million in 2001-02, an increase of 27 percent.

Division III has a rate of increase similar to Division II. The budget allocation in that division is projected to climb from $8.1 million in this fiscal year to $10.2 million in 2001-02.

BASKETBALL


Committee settles on five cities as finalists for sites

The Division I Men's Basketball Committee has selected five cities as finalists to host NCAA Final Fours from 2003 through 2005.

The finalists are Atlanta (Georgia Dome, Georgia Institute of Technology, host); Indianapolis (RCA Dome, Butler University and the Midwestern Collegiate Conference, co-hosts); New Orleans (Louisiana Superdome, Sun Belt Conference and the University of New Orleans, cohosts); St. Louis (Trans World Dome, Missouri Valley Conference, host); and San Antonio (Alamodome, University of Texas at San Antonio, host).

The committee will invite representatives of the five cities to make presentations at its June meeting. The committee will then recommend three sites to the Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet for consideration later in the summer.

Staff contact: William R. Hancock.

FOOTBALL

College football sets attendance mark with 36.9 million fans

With an increase in Division I-A attendance leading the way, NCAA college football attendance set an all-time record of almost 37 million fans in 1997.

Home-game attendance totals for 1997 were 36,857,849 for Divisions I-A, I-AA, II and III -- a jump of nearly 775,000 fans from 1996. Division I-A totaled a record 27,565,959 home fans, an average of 42,085 per game, and a jump of nearly one million in total attendance from the previous mark.

The 581 NCAA teams experienced a jump of 774,796 from last season in overall attendance and surpassed the previous record total of 36,459,896, set in 1994. It was only the third time in history over the 36 million mark.

Home-game attendance in Division I-A accounted for almost 75 percent of the 1997 national totals.

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, led the nation with more than 106,000 fans per game. It was the first time in 24 years an institution other than the University of Michigan led the nation in football attendance.

Staff contact: Richard M. Campbell.

DIVISION II


January 20 deadline approaches for additional nominations

The Division II Nominating Committee has approved another call for nominations for committees that will have vacancies in September 1998, as well as for committees with current interim vacancies.

The deadline for submission of additional nominations is January 20, 1998.

The call is necessary because of the low number of nominations submitted by the December 5 deadline.

In an effort to increase the pool of eligible nominees, a memorandum from the Nominat- ing Committee was mailed to all Division II conference commissioners during the week of December 29. Commissioners have been urged to place the topic of conference vacancies on the meeting agendas of conference meetings during the NCAA Convention.

Staff contact: Nancy L. Mitchell.

DIVISION I

New NCAA Online service tracks progress of legislation

The NCAA has implemented a new feature that makes it possible for any interested individual to check the status of proposed legislation via the Internet.

The information can be accessed through the membership services selection on the NCAA Online home page (www.ncaa.org).

Updates will be made as necessary by the Division I governance staff.

The service became available December 9.

Staff contact: Stephen R. Morgan (Division I) or Wallace I Renfro (Internet).