National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- April 12, 1999

Council, Board prepare to continue review of litigation issues

The status of NCAA initial-eligibility standards and a method of payment for the settlement in the restricted-earnings coaches case will impact the agendas for both the Division I Management Council and Board of Directors meetings this month.

The Council, which meets April 12-13 in Newport Beach, California, and the Board, meeting in Washington, D.C., April 20, will review recommendations regarding methods for funding the restricted-earning coaches settlement. Also on the agendas will be a continued review of initial-eligibility standards in light of a stay granted by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals regarding a federal judge's ruling that overturned Proposition 16 (see story, page 1).

Central to the discussion regarding the restricted-earnings coaches case will be the determination of a method of payment for the $54.5 million settlement. The Division I Budget Subcommittee, which includes members from the Management Council and the Board of Directors, was charged with developing recommendations for the allocations.

The Management Council members of the subcommittee are reviewing a range of options that would be a compromise between equal allocation for every Division I school or allocation based only on the Association's revenue-distribution plan.

A decision on the subcommittee's recommendations could come from the Board during the April meeting, but it also is possible that the decision could be delayed so that conferences would have an opportunity to provide input during their spring meetings before a final determination is reached.

Items from cabinets

Much of the rest of the Council's agenda is expected to emerge from the cabinet reports. Included is a review of the roles of the Business/Finance and Strategic Planning Cabinets, which had been charged by the Council with reviewing whether they should continue to exist or whether the functions the cabinets perform could be addressed as effectively by the Council or a committee that reports directly to the Council.

Both cabinets have submitted recommendations as to how the cabinets might be reconfigured to better meet the Association's needs within the structure.

The Management Council has charged a subcommittee to submit recommendations regarding the cabinet structure after considering the input received from these two cabinets. Given the importance of the issue and the complex nature of the decision, the Council will review the cabinet recommendations during the April meeting but likely will not take any action until July, when recommendations of the Management Council subcommittee would be available.

Several items from the Championships/Competition Cabinet will require immediate attention, including the cabinet's request to move the start of the Division I Baseball Championship back by one week, effective in 2001.

The cabinet also has asked for bracket expansion in five sports, including three women's sports. Team sports affected by the proposed expansion would be field hockey (from 12 to 16 teams) and men's soccer (from 32 to 48 teams). The proposals also include adding women's sabre as an event in the National Collegiate Men's and Women's Fencing Championships, which would add 24 participants to the field, and adding participants in men's and women's golf. If approved, the new brackets and field sizes would become effective for the 1999-00 playing season.

The cabinet also has asked to establish predetermined sites for the first- and second-round sessions for the 2000 Division I Women's Basketball Championship. If approved by the Council and Board, sites for the 2000 championship would be selected in October 1999, and sites for subsequent championships would be selected in the same cycle as regional tournaments.

Other significant proposals from the Championships/Competition Cabinet include:

Funding from the 1999-00 general operating budget for additional officiating expenses resulting from expansion of the Division I Baseball and Division I Softball Championships brackets.

Establishing an officiating-improvement program in women's softball, effective with the 1999-00 academic year.

Increasing officiating fees for the Division I Women's Basketball Championship to equal those paid for the Division I Men's Basketball Championship.

Conducting background checks on game officials in the Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Championships.

The Council also is expected to address two items related to automatic qualification. One is a request from the Championships/Competition Cabinet to amend Bylaw 31.3.4.1.-(f) relative to Sunday competition, to specify that if the champion of an automatic-qualifying conference declines to compete in an NCAA championship due to the fact that it has a written policy precluding competition on Sunday or other religious day, automatic qualification will not be withdrawn from the conference and the conference will be permitted to send its second-place team to the NCAA championship.

The Council also will review the official interpretations and policies concerning automatic qualification for the Mountain West Conference.

The Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet's report includes a proposal to permit a student-athlete to be employed as an academic tutor within the student-athlete academic unit controlled or operated by the athletics department and earn compensation (not to exceed $2,000) without considering such earnings as institutional aid.

Legislative calendar

Among legislative items to be reviewed are Proposal Nos. 99-13 through 99-16, which address the Division I legislative process and the composition of both the Council and the Board of Directors. All four proposals received initial approval from the Council in January and were distributed for membership comment.

The proposals would reduce the number of times that the Council would receive and act on legislation from four to two times per year (October and April) and would eliminate the 60-day comment period following cabinet actions.

Proposal Nos. 99-15 and 99-16 would expand the Board from 16 to 18 members and the Council from 34 to 51 members, respectively. The Board has expressed concern with the proposal to expand the Council and has asked that the Council explore alternative options for expansion and to develop general principles for how positions are allocated.

The Management Council Subcommittee to Review the Governance Structure is expected to present a report to the Management Council addressing the concerns raised by the Board and containing alternative recommendations, in addition to those previously supported.

Other significant legislative proposals that have received initial approval from the Council and are up for second approval include Proposal No. 98-41, which permits institutions to pay certain withholding taxes of foreign students, and Proposal No. 98-90, which in Division I-AA would permit a 12th regular-season football game during years in which there are 14 Saturdays from the first permissible playing date through the last playing date in November. Division I-A members of the Management Council and Board of Directors adopted a similar proposal for Division I-A in January.

The Council also is expected to address Proposal No. 98-91, which had received initial approval from the Council but was tabled in January. The proposal would permit football student-athletes in Division I under certain conditions to participate in individual skill-related instruction outside the playing season but during the academic year.

The proposal was tabled in order to solicit feedback from the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. That group has since indicated that it does not support the proposal.