The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- March 15, 1999

Business/Finance Cabinet to recommend reconfiguration

Responding to concerns regarding its place in the governance structure, the Division I Business/Finance Cabinet has taken the position that it would be premature to eliminate the cabinet after only two years.

The cabinet, meeting February 22-23 in Indianapolis, addressed issues raised by the Division I Management Council's Subcommittee to Review the Governance Structure, including an evaluation of the role of the cabinet and whether the cabinet should continue to exist or whether the functions the cabinet performs could be addressed as effectively by the Council or a committee that reports directly to the Council.

The cabinet opposed its elimination but agreed to recommend that it be reconfigured to better meet marketing, promotional and financial needs within the structure.

In its review of its role, particularly with regard to marketing, the cabinet believes it has been instrumental in furthering the work of the NCAA Special Committee to Study Marketing, Licensing and Promotions, which in 1996 emphasized the importance of those functions to the Association -- both in terms of revenue generation and promotional opportunities. The cabinet believes that the marketing guidelines and policies approved by the special committee must be monitored, reviewed and updated through a membership group within the structure.

The cabinet also believes that it is critical, especially in the finance and marketing areas, to maintain membership representation, and that to eliminate the cabinet would serve only to delay progress made in those areas.

Reconfiguration

Thus, the cabinet is recommending that the Management Council transform the existing cabinet into a Marketing/Public Affairs Cabinet to perform marketing and promotional functions and to establish a new Budget Development Committee that would provide a framework to process individual budget requests to the Division I Budget Subcommittee.

The new Marketing/Public Affairs Cabinet's charge would be to act as a marketing, licensing and promotional liaison with the membership and to develop public affairs initiatives for the Association. It also would evaluate the public affairs activities of the national office.

The cabinet would continue to be composed of 26 members and would retain the same representation requirements currently in place. The cabinet, though, would consist of two committees, one for marketing and one for public affairs. Each committee would review proposals or suggestions pertaining to its specific area and make recommendations to the Management Council.

The new Budget Development Committee would be appointed to review and make recommendations concerning the budget of the Association available to Division I and to review proposals from Division I cabinets or committees that have financial implications to the division.

The committee would solicit input and recommendations from each Division I cabinet and appropriate sports committees as necessary. The committee generally would work at the developmental level and would not engage in policy decisions or the establishment of budget parameters, unless directed.

The group would consist of 11 members, six from Division I-A, two each from Divisions I-AA and I-AAA, and the Division I Management Council chair. In addition, one nonvoting member from each Division I cabinet would be included to identify their respective cabinet's funding priorities and requests.

The cabinet believes the new committee would carry on the existing Finance Committee's role in reviewing budget issues. The cabinet cites the committee's input and research in the favorable negotiation of the catastrophic-injury insurance program and the identification of additional cost-cutting initiatives for 1998-99 as examples of the committee's value within the structure.

The proposal to reconfigure the existing cabinet and to establish the Budget Development Committee will be forwarded to the Management Council for review in April.

Other highlights

In other action, the cabinet heard a report from the Marketing Committee, which agreed to deny Gillette, an NCAA corporate partner, the opportunity to conduct a promotion between semifinal games of the 2000 Division I Men's Basketball Championship. NCAA policy prohibits this type of commercial identification inside the competition venue.

On that basis, the NCAA staff denied Gillette's request to conduct the promotion this year for the Final Four, although the staff did agree that the promotions could be conducted this year during the men's Hoop City activities. The committee did agree, however, to review the Association's policy regarding such promotions during its June meeting.

The cabinet also approved a Finance Committee recommendation to allow gambling-education initiatives to be included as permissible expenses for the NCAA conference grant program. That recommendation will be forwarded to the Management Council for its April 1999 meeting.

In addition, the cabinet reviewed and made minor modifications to the its strategic plan. The revised plan will be forwarded to the Strategic Planning Cabinet for review.