Three months after agreeing to establish an oversight group for basketball, the Division I Board of Directors endorsed appointments for a committee that will convene for the first time in October to undertake its primary charge of developing an alternative for the current men's summer recruiting calendar.

The Board, meeting August 10 in Indianapolis, approved the 32-person Basketball Issues Committee as a standing body to review matters related to Division I college basketball for both men and women. In April, the Board had named Kenneth Shaw, Syracuse University chancellor, as chair for the new committee.

The committee is divided into two 16-person subcommittees, one that will address issues in men's basketball and the other in women's basketball. Both subcommittees will include two student-athletes, who are yet to be named.

The men's subcommittee includes two college presidents, three conference commissioners, four athletics directors and five head coaches. The women's subcommittee has a similar makeup with one college president, four conference commissioners or assistant/associate commissioners, four athletics directors or assistant/
associate athletics directors and five head coaches.

Before appointment of the student-athletes, there are a total of 17 men and 15 women on the committee, along with 10 ethnic minorities.

Rebecca Stafford, president of Monmouth University, will chair the women's subcommittee in that group's separate meetings.

"I'm pleased with the makeup of the committee," said Graham B. Spanier, president at Pennsylvania State University and chair of the Board of Directors. "This is one of the NCAA's most important initiatives in recent years, and we have appointed a blue-ribbon group to follow up on the Board's earlier actions.

"An overriding concern for us was putting together a committee that fairly represented the basketball constituency of Division I," he said. "It is important that all voices are heard."

Many voices already have been heard. The NCAA staff has been busy attending summer evaluation camps and collecting as much information as possible to better allow the Basketball Issues Committee to perform its work. Among groups that have been contacted are assistant and head coaches from the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), the Amateur Athletic Union, the National Federation of State High School Associations, the National Basketball Association, the National Basketball Association Players Association, the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and NABC Student Basketball Council, Nike, adidas and various media entities.

The Board authorized the committee in April as part of a package of measures adopted to address issues in Division I basketball. For its first two years, the committee will report to the Board. Among other things, it has been directed to develop an alternative for the current summer recruiting system in men's basketball.

The first meeting of the men's subcommittee will be in October, when it will review the research and recommendations from the NCAA staff that have been gathered over the summer and early fall. The subcommittee will begin developing a new men's summer recruiting calendar at that time.

The Board will receive a report from the committee in January. The Management Council initially will review proposed recruiting-calendar legislation in April, send the proposals to the membership for comment and give final consideration to the new calendar in October 2001. The Board is expected to review the final proposals in November 2001.

The Basketball Issues Committee's proposals also will be discussed during the Division I forum at the annual Convention in January.

Football issues

In other action, the Board approved a waiver that would allow universities to participate in one of four preseason football games (Pigskin Classic, Kickoff Classic, BCA Football Classic, Eddie Robinson Football Classic) in 2002, in addition to playing a 12th regular-season game.

This is a one-year waiver. Proposal No. 98-90, which was adopted in January 1999, will eliminate all preseason exempted football games after the 2002 football season to accommodate the terms of pre-existing contractual agreements between the sponsoring agencies and television networks.

The Division I Management Council in 1999 modified the wording of Proposal No. 98-90 to clarify that a school could not participate in both a preseason game and a 12th regular-season contest during the 2002 season. The sponsors of the preseason games, however, documented that the Council's clarification restricts their ability to meet pre-existing contractual obligations for the 2002 season.

The waiver will allow schools to participate in a preseason game in 2002 without compromising their ability to participate in a 12th regular-season game.

The Council during its July meeting also determined that July 25, 2000 (the date of the public release of the Council's action), will be considered the date of public notice and the deadline date for entering into binding contracts to participate in exempted events in any sport, and that no exceptions or waivers will be granted for contracts entered into after July 25, 2000, to participate in exempted contests.

In addition to preseason football events, the Board also discussed other football matters, including a comprehensive study of the sport proposed by the Football Issues Committee earlier this summer. The committee recommended the study in part to deal with Proposal No. 2000-36, which would require schools to average more than 17,000 in actual paid attendance over a four-year period to satisfy Division I-A football attendance requirements.

Proposal No. 2000-36 had been forwarded to the Board as emergency legislation last April, but the Board preferred that the proposal continue within the normal legislative cycle.

The Management Council will review the proposal and membership comments at its next legislative meeting in October. The Football Issues Committee's recommendation, which will be considered first by the Championships/Competition Cabinet in September, asks that further review of Proposal No. 2000-36 be suspended until the comprehensive study is completed. The Board suggested that any recommendation for the study should clearly specify the issues to be included (and not included) in the study.

'Education' for administrators

The Board also heard a report from NCAA President Cedric W. Dempsey on a variety of issues, including an update on the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, which is reconvening after having issued a report nine years ago on the status of intercollegiate athletics.

The NCAA has been involved in ensuring that the new commission is more diverse than the original group. The Association also will have representation on the group, which will meet for the first time August 28.

In another matter, Dempsey urged the Board to consider two future educational concepts that would address growing concerns in intercollegiate sports.

One initiative would be educational sessions or seminars that NCAA coaches and athletics administrators would attend to be reminded of the goals of higher education and how to achieve them within the parameters of intercollegiate sports.

Another would charge a group to establish a "financial model" for schools to follow in order to combat what Dempsey referred to as an "arms race" in college sports, particularly in facilities, corporate involvement and marketing.

"We need to refocus education at the grass-roots level," Dempsey said. "I have a growing concern that we have fewer and fewer people who understand that intercollegiate sports is an integral part of the mission of higher education.

"So many athletics staff members have been hired not out of the desire to promote higher education but to raise money and market college sports.

"We also need to explore some financial model about what is an appropriate expenditure for intercollegiate athletics. Those two areas -- education and finances -- need a renewed focus."

Other highlights

Division I Board of Directors
August 10/Indianapolis

Adopted Proposal No. 2000-45 as emergency, noncontroversial legislation to specify that the vice-chair of the Management Council shall be one of the four members of the Administrative Committee and shall serve as its chair, effective immediately.

Adopted Proposal No. 2000-43 as emergency, noncontroversial legislation to eliminate the certification process for Division I all-star football games, effectively immediately.

Adopted Proposal No. 2000-44 as emergency, noncontroversial legislation that establishes a process for the Championships/Competition Cabinet to request Management Council Administrative Committee approval of waivers of sports committee composition requirements, except subdivisional requirements, and to stagger or extend terms for sports committees members when necessary, effective immediately.