The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- May 24, 1999

Division III weighs risks for all-star participants

Insurance, sponsor issues raise concern

BY KAY HAWES
STAFF WRITER

When Division III seniors take the field in all-star games, they're looking for some fun, some recognition and a chance to play the sport they love one last time on the collegiate level.

What they may find, however, is a completely different matter. They may be participating without personal medical insurance, in a facility with no insurance and for an organization that has not taken out an insurance policy to cover the event.

The student-athletes -- generally seniors whose eligibility has expired -- often don their institutions' uniforms, helmets or other equipment. And, since all-star games in Division III aren't always high-profile events, the institutions' athletics directors may have no idea the student-athletes are participating.

If one of these student-athletes is seriously injured, who will bear the costs of the injury? Who may be among the first to be sued? Does the institution bear some of the liability since its equipment was used?

Apart from the potential legal issues involved, there also are student-athlete welfare issues. Are the student-athletes signing up with a trustworthy event promoter? Will they travel across the country at their own expense -- as some did this year -- only to find that the event has been canceled? Will there be adequate, trained medical personnel staffing the games?

It is apparent that these are serious concerns with tremendous potential ramifications for both institutions and student-athletes.

The Division III governance structure has been examining the issue, and the Management Council and Presidents Council are urging members to do likewise. The Division III All-Star Contest Certification Subcommittee has forwarded numerous related recommendations to the Management Council and Presidents Council, and the membership is expected to see proposed legislation on the topic at the 2000 NCAA Convention.

An issue to examine

The Division III Management Council first discussed the issue of all-star games at its April 1998 meeting when it reviewed a problematic legislative "loophole" left over from NCAA governance restructuring.

Under the old governance structure, all-star games in all sports had to be certified by the NCAA for institutional staff to be involved, and there was a committee that handled those requests for all divisions -- although few requests ever came for Division III certification.

Under the new, federated governance structure, the rule remained, but there was no process to certify events in Division III.

There was a rule -- which is still on the books -- prohibiting member institutions from using its facilities for noncertified college all-star contests in football and basketball, as well as a rule prohibiting student-athletes with remaining eligibility in football and basketball from participating. Other sports are not addressed in the current legislation.

When the Management Council began examining the issue, the members of the Council had numerous questions. How prevalent were Division III all-star contests? Who was running them? Were the organizations that sponsored them insured? Had the student-athletes participating exhausted their athletics eligibility? Were the student-athletes wearing institutional equipment? Were Division III institutions involved, either in terms of facilities or personnel? And, did NCAA catastrophic-injury insurance cover the student-athletes or the institutions involved?

The Management Council forwarded its concerns to the Presidents Council, which agreed that the issue needed to be examined further. In July 1998, the Management Council formed the Division III All-Star Contest Certification Subcommittee to review the matter.

In September, the subcommittee sent out a survey to all Division III conference commissioners, athletics directors at selected independent institutions and coaches associations. One reason for the diverse group of recipients was that Management Council members had an increasing amount of anecdotal evidence indicating that athletics directors often were the last to know about a student-athlete's involvement in an all-star game.

"There probably has been little communication among the student-athletes, coaches and administrators on this topic," said John S. Biddiscombe, athletics director at Wesleyan University (Connecticut) and chair of the Division III Management Council. "Administrators aren't really aware of the amount of activity that's going on and what their student-athletes are doing."

That lack of awareness certainly doesn't reflect a lack of interest in the students' welfare, Biddiscombe said, but rather an overall lack of knowledge about the number and variety of all-star games in Division III. "Many times these events occur outside of the normal NCAA or institutional realm," Biddiscombe said. "And we're generally talking about student-athletes whose eligibility has expired."

Albert D. Bean Jr., director of athletics at the University of Southern Maine, member of the Division III Management Council and chair of the subcommittee, said the survey was intended to provide actual documentation for some of the anecdotal evidence the Management Council had gathered. "We all had a good sense that there were all-star games out there, but we didn't know how widespread the practice was. We wanted to get a handle on how many games there were, how many sports, who sponsored them and how or if they were insured.

"We found, generally, that the games are sponsored by coaches associations and other organizations that don't necessarily carry insurance. The student-athletes are generally traveling on their own and the student-athletes are wearing institutional equipment."

And while some events are run responsibly by organizations that have secured the necessary insurance and medical services, others are not.

"There have been ongoing examples -- just since we've begun examining the issue -- where student-athletes have had at least a bad experience with a Division III all-star game," Biddiscombe said.

Reportedly, many student-athletes paid their own way to an all-star game in New Orleans only to find it canceled when they arrived.

"I'd like to think that something happened, that it was planned in good faith and then canceled for some legitimate reason," Biddiscombe said. "But those student-athletes and their families made plans, bought plane tickets, had hotel rooms they had to pay for. It's just a lot of expense and trouble for them, and they didn't even get to play."

Catastrophically incorrect assumptions

While it is clear that many athletics administrators simply have not thought about or discussed the issue of all-star games at length, another discovery made during the subcommittee's fact-finding process has been the fact that some athletics administrators think that NCAA catastrophic-injury insurance applies to all-star games. It clearly does not.

"We've consulted our program administrator, and NCAA catastrophic-injury insurance does not apply," said Daniel T. Dutcher, NCAA chief of staff for Division III. "It will not cover any activities not directly a part of a 'qualifying intercollegiate sport.' So, an all-star game or any activities such as camps, clinics or other events not conducted by the participating school -- like a captain's practice during the summer -- are not covered."

The NCAA catastrophic-injury insurance program will not cover any participants in all-star events or competitions, even if the events include institutional facilities, equipment or personnel, nor will it cover institutions hosting all-star events.

In this situation, making incorrect assumptions could have tragic consequences, both for the institution and the student-athletes, points out Carlyle Carter, executive director of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and member of the Division III Management Council. "The scary thing is, some people think they are covered because they haven't read the fine print. People assume that they are, but they are not," he said.

Liability and student-athlete welfare

Now that there is a better picture of all-star game activity in Division III, there is a clear need to make Division III members aware of potential liabilities to their individual institutions.

"Liability is the marquee issue here," Dutcher said. "As the situation currently exists, it creates a potential institutional liability, and we need to educate people about this issue.

"We just want institutions to understand that if the student-athlete takes this helmet and goes off on his own to participate, the institution may be assuming some liability for that."

Added Biddiscombe, "The concern regarding liability includes a situation where a student-athlete's parent comes back to an institution and says, 'Because our son or daughter used your equipment or your facility or some of your personnel, you have in some way sanctioned this activity.'

"The institution doesn't have a lot of leverage with student-athletes who have completed their eligibility, but we wanted to advise administrators and coaches of the risks involved, both in terms of potential liability and in terms of the health and welfare of student-athletes," Biddiscombe said.

Because of these concerns, the subcommittee has developed several recommendations that have been forwarded to and endorsed by the Division III Management Council and Presidents Council. Because of issues raised in the clarification of coverage of the NCAA catastrophic-injury insurance program, some of the recommendations are broader and include more than simply all-star contests.

Since the issues are so serious, the NCAA Division III governance staff has asked that institutions seriously consider these recommendations: