The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- February 1, 1999

SAAC lays groundwork for creating conference student-athlete groups

A review of several legislative proposals and the development of communication links within the governance structure highlighted the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee's January 10 meeting in San Antonio.

Among legislative items generating discussion was Proposal No. 98-99, which requires all Division I conferences to establish a conference student-athlete advisory committee.

The proposal gained final approval from the Management Council and Board of Directors in October and will become effective August 1, 1999.

The SAAC began a comprehensive study of general principles to be followed when establishing conference SAACs and the development of models to assist conferences in creating these groups.

At the core of the process, the SAAC stressed, are communication links between the conference SAACs and the national SAAC, as well as between the conference SAACs and campus SAACs. The Division I SAAC began establishing methods to ensure such communication would be ongoing.

The group also continued its review of the four initial-eligibility models submitted by the Initial-Eligibility Subcommittee of the Division I Academics/Eligibility/
Compliance Cabinet. Included in the review was a discussion of alternative models that might be considered at the cabinet's February 18-19 meeting in San Diego.

Though the SAAC did not finalize an alternative model, it is the group's hope to determine a method that would provide access to the "triangle" of student-athletes who became nonqualifiers with the creation of the sliding scale. The SAAC believes a model can be created that will allow those prospects to receive athletics scholarships and participate in collegiate athletics without lessening academic standards.

In other action, the SAAC met with representatives from the Management Council in order to further establish lines of communication with that group. One desired outcome of the meeting was strengthening links between conference representatives within each body. As part of the increased-communication initiative, both groups agreed to make this an annual meeting.

The SAAC also reviewed several initiatives for the upcoming year, which include strengthening student-athlete representation within the NCAA committee structure.

It was noted that several Association-wide committees do already include student-athlete representation, though those representatives aren't necessarily SAAC members. In such instances, the SAAC stressed the importance of communication between those non-SAAC representatives and the SAAC, par- ticularly in reporting issues discussed during the respective Association-wide committee meetings.

Other highlights

Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee
January 10/San Antonio