The NCAA Executive Committee has announced that it will cancel future Association-sponsored events in South Carolina if that state doesn't take action to remove the Confederate battle flag from atop its state capitol.

At its quarterly meeting April 28 in Indianapolis, the Committee passed a resolution indicating that if the state fails to take action that will remove the flag by the Committee's next meeting August 11, the Association will cancel all future NCAA championships and meetings in the state. Championship events that might be awarded to schools in South Carolina for this spring will not be affected.

The resolution reads:

"Whereas, the Executive Committee is concerned that many coaches and student-athletes feel that an inhospitable environment is created by the display of the Confederate flag over the South Carolina statehouse; and

"Whereas, the NCAA supports the efforts of the Governor of South Carolina and many state citizens in their efforts to remove the Confederate flag from the statehouse.

"Therefore, should South Carolina fail to take action on this matter before the NCAA's Executive Committee meeting August 11, 2000, the Committee will take action at that time to cancel all NCAA-sponsored events in South Carolina until the flag is removed from the statehouse."

The Executive Committee had been asked to address this issue -- along with the failure of South Carolina to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a state holiday -- by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. The NABC specifically requested that the Division I Men's Basketball Championship first- and second-round games in the South Regional in 2002 be moved to an alternate site.

"Obviously, the Confederate flag means many things to different individuals, but there is no question that to a significant number of our constituents, the flag is a symbol of oppression," said Charles Wethington, chair of the Executive Committee and president of the University of Kentucky. "This has created an inhospitable environment for many coaches and student-athletes, and for some, it is an intolerable environment."

Wethington said the Association "should not continue to take NCAA-sponsored events into an environment that generates those feelings."

Beyond this spring, the only championship events with predetermined sites located in South Carolina are the Division I Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships in 2001 and the first- and second-round games in the Division I Men's Basketball Championship noted earlier.

The Executive Committee did not discuss an alternate plan should South Carolina vote to remove the flag from atop the statehouse but to place it somewhere else on the statehouse grounds.

"We simply signaled what the action would be on August 11 if conditions did not change," Wethington said. "Obviously, we all hope that the conditions would change by that time."

"I think the Executive Committee felt that the governor of South Carolina has been very proactive on this and wanted to give him the opportunity and the time he requested to address the issue," said NCAA President Cedric W. Dempsey. "We're still hopeful that the state will adopt legislation that will provide a solution."

Moratorium approved

Another significant issue that received the Executive Committee's attention concerned increased membership growth. The Association has seen growth since the adoption of legislation that established provisional membership in 1994, so much so, in fact, that a moratorium on provisional membership was put in place during the NCAA's restructuring phase three years ago.

Since that moratorium was lifted in January 1998, a number of applications for provisional membership have been approved -- primarily in Divisions II and III -- once again raising the issue of a membership moratorium.

The Divisions II and III Presidents Councils endorsed the establishment of a membership moratorium during their April 27 meetings, as did the Division I Board of Directors.

Based on those concerns, the Executive Committee approved a membership moratorium that would be effective immediately and run through September 1, 2002.

The moratorium also is applicable to institutions wishing to reclassify to Divisions I or II or becoming a multidivisional member with a Division I sport. It does not, however, affect institutions that, as of September 1, 2000, have completed at least one year of provisional membership or one year of the reclassification period.

The Executive Committee also supported each division's recommendation to grant moratorium exceptions to institutions that met criteria established by the applicable governance structure with NCAA legal counsel review.

2000-01 budget allocations

The Executive Committee's Budget Subcommittee presented the recommended budget allocations for 2000-01, which were approved. The allocations include distributions of more than $171 million to Division I, more than $13.5 million to Division II and more than $9.8 million to Division III.

The Executive Committee approved $4 million in programmatic increases in Division I, including $1.2 million in Division I championships. A number of the championship initiatives provide increased opportunities for women, including the establishment of women's ice hockey and water polo championships, field-size expansions in women's lacrosse and women's golf, and squad-size expansions in women's soccer, field hockey, softball and women's gymnastics.

A total of $1.8 million is allocated to Association-wide initiatives, including $1.05 million to the promotion of men's and women's basketball, $150,000 to gambling initiatives and $200,000 to ethnic diversity initiatives.

For the first time, the Executive Committee has recommended an accountability process to Association-wide budget requests in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the program being funded. The Association-wide committee responsible for the budget request also will be responsible for monitoring accountability.

Other allocations include $700,000 to implement long-term and short-term technology plans for redesigning current business practices to improve service to the membership and developing the technology infrastructure to support new business systems.

Included in the technology package are Web-based initiatives that provide a secured Web site for NCAA committees and the division governance structures; interactive membership databases that support Web submission of data from member schools; various publications online; and online calculation of revenue distribution by school.

The technology work plan should take about two years to implement.

In other action, the Executive Committee:

* Established a committee composed of the chairs of the Executive Committee and the three divisions' presidential bodies to annually evaluate the performance of the NCAA president. Also agreed that the president's performance would be based on a set of objectives and priorities that the Executive Committee would agree to at the beginning of the fiscal year.

* Approved waivers of NCAA legislation requiring no more than two meetings per year for Association-wide committees to the Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee, the Committee on Women's Athletics and the National Youth Sports Program Committee.

* Approved a policy regarding speaking agents for the Association. The president of the Association and the chair of the Executive Committee are the only individuals authorized to speak on behalf of the Association. In addition, committee chairs would be designated as speaking agents of their committees regarding actions within their committees' jurisdiction.

Divisional revenue distribution schedules

Division I distribution and Divisions II and III constitutional guarantees over the last two years, and the Executive Committee Budget Subcommittee recommendations for 2000-01:

*Includes an additional $30 million for Division I distribution, $1,748,000 for Division II and $1,272,000 for Division III as a result of a one-time payment from CBS Sports.