The NCAA News - News and Features

July 20, 1998

Strategic Planning Cabinet proposes new Convention format

The Division I Strategic Planning Cabinet has developed a format for future NCAA Conventions that is designed to involve the entire Division I governance structure as well as Association-wide committees that have winter meetings.

The cabinet will ask the Division I Management Council to propose legislation to adopt the format beginning with the 1999 Convention.

The four-day format allows various governance bodies and Association-wide committees that have winter meetings to conduct individual meetings during the first two days of the Convention. The format also affords the opportunity for those groups to conduct joint meetings as needed during the Convention's third day in order to encourage open communication on issues that transcend more than one cabinet or committee.

The fourth day of the Convention would be available for an open forum or an override vote, if necessary.

The cabinet based its proposal upon survey results gathered from the 1998 Convention as well as feedback from Division I conferences that conducted spring meetings.

Discussion regarding the Convention format -- particularly the itinerary for the fourth day of the Convention -- also led to the cabinet's recommendation that the Management Council propose legislation to allow chief executive officers to conduct override votes through written correspondence on occasions other than at the Convention in a process to be developed by the governance staff.

Such legislation would negate the need for the Division I membership to vote in-person to override a legislative proposal.

The cabinet created the proposal in part because it felt that the in-person debate at the Convention often had little impact on an institution's vote.

In another item regarding legislation, the cabinet reviewed Proposal No. 98-33, which would delete the requirement that no subdivision of Division I shall have more than 50 percent representation on any committee. The proposal was referred by the Management Council to each of the four cabinets for comment in April.

It was the sense of the cabinet that the proposal does not affect the Association-wide committees that report to it; however, the cabinet did agree that there are issues regarding membership composition of committees; specifically, whether or not the method of selection produces representatives who best serve the needs of the committee.

The cabinet will forward its position to the Management Council for consideration.

The cabinet received several committee reports, including a request from the Committee on Women's Athletics to recommend to the Management Council that the non-discrimination clause of NCAA Constitution 2.6 be made more descriptive by adding language that would forbid the Association to discriminate on the basis of age, ancestry, color, disability, handicap, national origin, race, religious creed, gender or sexual orientation.

The cabinet was concerned that the language is more specific than that contained in statements from institutions of several members of the Cabinet as well as that contained in current federal legislation.

Because of those concerns and the possible legal ramifications of the specificity of the language, the cabinet voted not to forward the proposal to the Management Council.

The cabinet also heard a report from the Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct, which included several proposals regarding gambling.

One was a recommendation that the NCAA Position on Gambling be amended to indicate that involvement in gambling-related activities or maintaining relationships with individuals who may have an interest in gambling is discouraged because it could lead, or appear to lead, to influencing athletics department staff members or student-athletes to alter the outcome of intercollegiate athletics contests.

Though the cabinet noted its strong opposition to gambling activities, it declined to forward the proposal to the Management Council because it believed that the language, particularly "individuals who may have an interest in gambling" is too difficult to define. The cabinet referred the proposal back to the committee for further clarification.

The cabinet also reviewed a proposal from the committee requesting that the Management Council take action prohibiting NCAA staff members from attending meetings or functions hosted by affiliated organizations in cities that have open or legal sports books.

The cabinet felt that the implications of this proposal were too far reaching and referred it back to the committee for further review.

The cabinet did agree to forward to the Championships/Competition Cabinet a committee
proposal that would require the Championships/Competition Cabinet to conduct background checks on those individuals named to officiate selected NCAA championships to ensure that those individuals do not have an affiliation with gambling-related activities.

Other highlights

Division I Strategic Planning Cabinet

June 29-30/Monterey, California