National Collegiate Athletic Association |
The NCAA News - News and FeaturesThe NCAA News -- January 4, 1999 1998 Year in Review
January * Three new research reports based on data from the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse show an increase in academic performance for prospective student-athletes, along with an increase in the percentage of prospective Division I and II student-athletes who are not academically eligible to compete. * A federal appeals court upholds a U.S. district court judge's ruling that the NCAA violated antitrust law with its restricted-earnings coaches legislation. The action clears the way for a hearing of the coaches' claims of damages in the case. 4 -- Earl M. Ramer, former NCAA president, dies in Nashville, Tennessee. Ramer, who was 84, was NCAA president in 1971 and 1972.
10-13 -- The Association conducts its first Convention since restructuring was implemented in August 1997. Attendance at the Convention was down by about 20 percent, a drop that had been indicated by preregistration figures. Attendance by Divisions II and III delegates appeared to be up slightly while Division I figures dropped sharply. Media representation also dropped significantly. 11 -- NCAA Executive Director Cedric W. Dempsey outlines priorities for the NCAA to focus on in his "State of the Association" address. The priorities include continued implementation of the new governance structure, managing the office transition to Indianapolis, developing a public relations plan, and balancing the Association's mission and values with marketing and promotional initiatives both domestically and around the world. 12 -- Division II members at the 1998 Convention vote to strengthen student-athlete involvement in regional and national administration of athletics and to exclude Pell grants from being included in a full grant-in-aid. 13 -- The Division I Board of Directors approves a plan to modify the approach to certifying core courses required for initial eligibility. The changes will permit high-school principals to determine which of their core courses meet the NCAA's definition of a core course. February 3-5 -- The Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet recommends expansion of five Division I men's and women's championships (baseball, women's soccer, women's softball, women's volleyball, and men's and women's cross country) in 1998-99. 9-12 -- The Division I Women's Volleyball Committee asks Division I schools to experiment with three formats designed to increase excitement for players, fans and coaches and to control the length of matches. The three formats are a 14-minute game format, a 50-point game and a game/set format. 11 -- The Division I Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet agrees to sponsor legislation that would reduce both the time spent in summer basketball recruiting and the influence of individuals not involved in education on the entire process. 14-17 -- Two hundred CHAMPS/Life Skills coordinators and athletics administrators gather in Atlanta to focus on student-athlete development issues. About 62 percent of schools that have a CHAMPS/Life Skills program participate in the continuing-education conference, the largest percentage of participating institutions in the history of the conference. 19-22 -- The annual NYSP workshop in Washington, D.C., focuses on the observance of the 30th anniversary of NYSP. The 185 institutions supporting the program in 1998 marks the largest number of schools to sponsor NYSP. March * A Taylor Research study about college basketball reveals significant interest in a game that is highly regarded by the public. The study also shows, however, some concerns about commercialism in the men's game and evidence that the women's game needs to broaden its appeal. 9 -- Groundbreaking ceremonies are conducted for the NCAA's new national office building in Indianapolis. 16 -- A U.S appeals court rules that Title IX applies directly to the NCAA because the Association receives dues money from institutions that receive federal aid. The NCAA, however, claims that the ruling is flawed. 26-31 -- The NCAA sponsors Hoop City, the Association's first step into interactive fan festivals, at the Men's and Women's Final Fours. April 2 -- The NCAA settles a legal dispute with former University of Nevada, Las Vegas, men's basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian for $2.5 million. 5-6 -- Robert Bradley Gray, a football player at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and basketball player Marsha Ann Harris of New York University are awarded $12,500 Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarships. 8-9 -- The Wrestling Rules Committee recommends further changes in weight classes and weigh-in times designed to increase the safety of student-athletes in the sport. 21 -- The Division III Presidents Council defeats a Management Council proposal to expand the football season by adding bowl games. The Management Council had recommended retaining the 16-team national-championship format while adding the opportunity for eight teams to play in four bowl games.
May
* The NCAA announces that it will appeal a judgment of almost $67 million in the restricted-earnings coaches case. * The NCAA and the U.S. Department of Justice reach agreement on a consent decree related to initial- and continuing-eligibility standards for student-athletes with learning disabilities. The agreement removes any dispute as to the Association's compliance with federal law in this matter. 6 -- The U.S. House of Representatives votes down a provision from the Higher Education Act that would have required all colleges and universities to predict on an annual basis changes that may occur in a collegiate sports program over the next four years. 16 -- Lisa Coole, 1997 NCAA Woman of the Year, is killed in an automobile accident in Champaign, Illinois. Coole, who had completed her first year at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Illinois, Champaign, was a two-time NCAA champion swimmer at the University of Georgia. 25-28 -- Leadership, image and the media were topics discussed by more than 370 student-athletes at the NCAA Foundation Leadership Conference in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The conference featured sessions on leadership-related topics such as communication, collaboration and ethics. 26 -- Eight members of the Western Athletic Conference announce that they will leave the 16-team league after the 1998-99 academic year. The eight departing schools are the U.S. Air Force Academy; Brigham Young University; Colorado State University; University of Nevada, Las Vegas; University of New Mexico; San Diego State University; University of Utah; and University of Wyoming. June * S. David Berst is named the Division I chief of staff, replacing Stephen R. Morgan, who announced he will not be moving when the national office relocates to Indianapolis. Berst had headed the enforcement staff since 1988. * Brown University agrees to settle a federal lawsuit, ending a six-year legal battle that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Under the terms of the agreement, Brown must ensure that its women's intercollegiate athletics participation rate is within 3.5 percentage points of the women's undergraduate enrollment rate at the university. * Women's basketball attendance reaches an all-time high for the 17th consecutive year. The total of more than seven million was nearly a 10 percent increase over the 1996-97 total. Men's basketball attendance for 1997-98 eclipses the 28 million mark, the first increase in four years. Division I attendance increased by more than 90,000 spectators. * The Division I Financial Aid Committee submits several proposals to the Management Council that would assist institutions in complying with Title IX. 6 -- The University of Southern California slugged five home runs in the College World Series title game to down Pacific-10 Conference rival Arizona State University, 21-14. The game caps a series in which 42 records were broken and another 26 were tied. 13-14 -- The Division I Football Issues Committee develops a proposal that would allow Division I-A schools to play a 12th regular-season football game in years in which there are 14 playing dates from the first permissible playing date through the last playing date in November. The group also recommends that exempted preseason football games be eliminated after the 2002 season. 14 -- University of Tennessee, Knoxville, women's basketball player Chamique Holdsclaw, who led the Lady Vols to their third consecutive Division I Women's Basketball Championship, is awarded the Honda-Broderick Cup as the nation's top collegiate woman athlete. July * Ninety-nine requests to override Proposal No. 98-32 regarding Sunday competition in NCAA championships are received, one shy of the number needed to suspend the legislation but enough to require the Division I Board of Directors to revisit the legislation at its August meeting. * The Division II Men's Golf Committee recommends that spikeless shoes be used by participants in 1999 regional and championship competition. * The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issues a technical assistance letter to the 25 institutions named in complaints regarding the equitable allocation of athletics scholarships. The letter specifies that any unexplained disparity in the scholarship budget for athletes of either gender is more than 1 percent for the entire budget for athletics scholarships is in violation of the "substantially proportionate" requirement. 15-16 -- The first NCAA regional diversity education seminar is held in Indianapolis. 20 -- Louis J. Spry, the senior member of the national office staff, announces he will retire in April 1999. Spry, who serves as associate executive director, will have completed 33 years of service with the Association. August 1 -- The Association's new catastrophic insurance coverage becomes effective, providing $20 million in lifetime medical benefits to varsity student-athletes who are catastrophically injured during play or practice or during travel related to those activities. 5-6 -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the NCAA join to conduct the Southeastern Sports Gambling Summit at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Speakers at the summit include former University of Notre Dame football player Kevin Pendergast and former Northwestern University basketball player Dion Lee, who were indicted as part of a point-shaving scandal at Northwestern. 11 -- The Division I Board of Directors amends Proposal No. 98-32 regarding Sunday competition in NCAA championships by allowing schools with written policies against competition on any particular day--not just Sunday--for religious reasons to have their needs accommodated. The amended proposal also establishes a waiver process for a sports committee to appeal the rule if it believes the success of a championship might be compromised. 11 -- The Division III Presidents Council approves the next two years of the Division III strategic plan. Included in the plan are scorecards compiled from the operations plans for all Division III and Association-wide committees that will be used to assess progress toward achievement of the division's goals. 12 -- The NCAA Executive Committee approves the Association's 1998-99 operating budget. For the first time since the NCAA revenue-distribution plan was implemented in 1991, distributions to Division I members will not increase over the preceding year. 31 -- David Price, associate commissioner of the Pacific-10 Conference, is named to lead the NCAA's enforcement and student-athlete reinstatement staff. September
* The NCAA News, in an effort to emphasize its online delivery, reduces its printed frequency to 26 issues and es-
* The NCAA establishes the Division I Working Group to Study Basketball Issues, a 27-member panel of Division I educators and sports administrators charged with conducting a thorough review of current issues that significantly im- 1 -- Total NCAA membership reaches an all-time high of 1,251 active, provisional, conference, affiliated and corresponding members.
9-10 -- The Division I Academics/Eligibility/ October * The NCAA distributes to the membership the Basketball Marketing Subcommittee's first comprehensive national research study specifically targeting college basketball fans. The data was compiled to assist the Association in marketing NCAA basketball and to help schools and conferences plan future promotions for their men's and women's basketball teams. * The NCAA's offer of a cash settlement of $44 million to plaintiffs in the restricted-earnings coaches case is rejected by the plaintiffs' attorneys. * The U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear a case involving the NCAA on what constitutes the receipt of federal funds. The court will hear the Association's appeal of Renee M. Smith v. NCAA, which is based on the denial of an eligibility waiver for a postgraduate student. The federal law that Smith alleges should apply to the NCAA is Title IX.
* The latest study of NCAA revenues and expenses at Divisions I and II institutions shows that financial deficits for intercollegiate athletics programs are growing at an increasing rate. The deficit for the average Division * The Kentucky High School Athletic Association enters into an agreement with the NCAA to allow the Association a shared use of the trademarks "Sweet Sixteen" and "Sweet 16." 18 -- Peggy Boutilier, a senior lacrosse and field hockey player at the University of Virginia, is named the 1998 NCAA Woman of the Year at the eighth annual NCAA Woman of the Year awards dinner in Indianapolis. 19-20 -- The Division I Management Council adopts several wide-ranging principles regarding a possible method of payment for expenses related to the restricted-earnings case. 27 -- The Division II Presidents Council approves a plan for distributing the division's $3 million enhancement fund. November * The NCAA, CBS Sports and DirecTV reach an agreement for DirecTV to offer CBS-produced broadcasts of out-of-market games from the first three rounds of the Division I Men's Basketball Championship on a pay-per-view basis. * Division I graduation rates from student-athletes who entered college in 1991 are the sixth consecutive class to have graduated at a higher rate than the general student body. * Eight member institutions formerly of the Western Athletic Conference name their new league the Mountain West Conference, which will officially launch July 1, 1999. * Kevin C. Lennon is named NCAA vice-president of membership services 14 -- The Official Notice of the 1999 Convention is mailed to the membership. It contains 24 legislative proposals in Division II and 24 in Division III. December * Danita V. Edwards, director of public relations for Anthem, Inc., in Indianapolis, is named NCAA vice-president for public affairs. * College football attendance in 1998 soars to a record 37.5 million, with the primary increase being in Division I-A. * The Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet adopts two recommendations from the Division I Baseball Committee regarding performance standards for bats for the 1999 Division I Baseball Championship. The cabinet agreed to reduce the maximum allowable bat diameter and the length-to-weight unit differential. 3 -- A federal grand jury indicts four former Northwestern University football players, alleging that the athletes committed perjury by lying to a grand jury in an earlier investigation of sports gambling at the university. 19 -- The University of Massachusetts, Amherst, beats Georgia Southern University in the Division I-AA Football Championship to complete the second greatest turnaround in Division I-AA football history. The Minutemen, 2-9 in 1997, culminate a 12-3 season with the 55-43 win. |
8 -- A series of Wrestling Rules Committee telephone conferences culminates in several rules changes that deal with wrestlers making weight. The changes are in reaction to three deaths in the sport that occurred during the preceding fall.
