As expected, the Division I Board of Directors during its April 27 meeting in Indianapolis approved a package of basketball proposals that had been recommended by the Division I Management Council two weeks earlier, but took steps to strengthen the proposals in addition to recommending others that further address academic reform in the sport.

The Board approved a package of eight proposals that include allowing schools to provide financial aid during the summer term for entering basketball student-athletes, restricting the number of initial scholarships schools can award annually and dramatically revising the summer recruiting calendar by the summer of 2002.

While the Board approved the Management Council's recommendations, it felt that the eight-proposal package did not go far enough in changing the academic expectations for those who compete in the sport.

The Board recommended that the Council and other bodies within the Division I governance structure revisit some proposals that had not been supported by the Council and that target academic reform.

Among those proposals is an incentive-based financial aid model that ties men's basketball scholarships to an individual school's four-year average graduation rate in men's basketball.

Specifically, the Board is recommending that the Council support legislation stipulating that schools whose adjusted graduation rate for men's basketball student-athletes falls below 50 percent would be able to award only 12 grants-in-aid each year, rather than the current maximum of 13. The Board also agreed that for the purposes of calculating graduation rates for men's basketball student-athletes, institutions may exclude any men's basketball student-athlete who leaves the institution in good academic standing. The Board also asked the Council to further define what constitutes good academic standing in that calculation.

"We sent this one back to the Management Council because we want the Council to develop the details and determine the best method for tying scholarships to some measure of graduation," Spanier said. "What the Board has said, however, is that we want to send a strong signal to our schools that graduation rates matter, and that schools that fall below the 50 percent threshold will lose a scholarship, but we won't hold against them players who were making normal academic progress. The details beyond that will be worked out when the proposal comes back from the Council."

Basketball Issues Committee

Spanier also said one of the keys to improving graduation rates was to make a strong commitment to strengthening academic standards as early in a student-athlete's college career as possible.

To that end, the Board revisited a measure that was defeated by the Council that would require male basketball student-athletes to successfully complete a minimum of 12 hours acceptable toward a degree by the end of the first term of their freshman year. The Board believes the proposal is appropriate to consider in part because of the newly adopted legislation that allows entering basketball student-athletes to receive athletics aid for up to six hours in the summer term.

Accordingly, the Board recommended that a mechanism for measuring satisfactory academic progress be developed for male basketball student-athletes after the fall term for entering freshmen. The Board referred the matter to the Basketball Issues Committee, which will be chaired by Syracuse University Chancellor Kenneth A. Shaw.

The Basketball Issues Committee will be appointed by the Board as a basketball reform committee that at least in its first two years of existence will provide status reports to the Board after each of its meetings. One of the first and most urgent assignments for the new committee will be to develop an alternative for the current summer recruiting system.

Summer recruiting alternatives played a large part in the Management Council's package. The package included an agreement to scale back the summer evaluation period with an interim structure for summer 2001 before implementing an entirely new system for summer 2002. The adopted proposals are intended to replace the current summer recruiting environment with a substitute system by 2002, but without legislation to implement an alternative in 2002, summer recruiting would be eliminated. Spanier said he expects that to be incentive enough for the Basketball Issues Committee to develop an effective replacement.

"A new plan should be on the table about a year from now," Spanier said.

The first part of the committee's effort will be staff driven during the research and evaluation stages, and the Board has asked for that report by its annual meeting in January. It is anticipated that the committee will then take the research, analysis and staff recommendations and develop a new summer structure that will be submitted to the Management Council in April 2001, be distributed for comment and then voted on again by the Council and Board in October 2001 to become effective for summer 2002.

Other refinements

The Board also addressed cost issues associated with the Management Council's approved proposal on summer financial aid to entering men's and women's basketball student-athletes. The proposal, which is part of a five-year pilot program that will allow basketball student-athletes to be acclimated earlier into the college academic environment, had raised some financial concerns among the Division I membership after being approved earlier this month.

But the Board announced that it will allocate funding to provide 50 percent of an institution's cost for the program, which will become effective August 1, 2000 (for the summer of 2001).

In all, the Board either adopted or re-emphasized 10 of the 13 original proposals developed by the Division I Working Group to Study Basketball Issues, a group also chaired by Shaw.

Shaw said the Board's actions reflect its opinion that the proposals best address academic reform as a package and not in parts.

"The reason I think the package is better now is that it's a much stronger statement on the summer evaluation period and the summer financial aid program," Shaw said.

Following is a complete list of the basketball proposals forwarded by the Management Council and approved by the Board:

* Proposal No. 99-120-C (as amended), permitting a university to provide athletics aid to a student in the sports of men's and women's basketball to attend the school's summer term before full-time collegiate enrollment. The student would be required to enroll in six hours of academic work, excluding physical education courses. (Effective date: August 1, 2000, for summer terms beginning in 2001.)

* Proposal No. 99-122-A (as amended), establishing a limit of eight on the number of initial counters in men's basketball during any two years with a limitation of no more than five initial counters in any given year. The legislation would not apply to institutions that do not provide athletically related aid. (Effective date: August 1, 2001.)

* Proposal No. 99-125-A, specifying that all midyear transfer student-athletes (two-year and four-year student-athletes) in men's and women's basketball would not be eligible for competition until the following academic year. (Effective date: Amended to August 1, 2001.)

* Proposal No. 99-127, specifying that all Division I schools will conduct a life skills program or equivalent for all student-athletes. (Effective date: August 1, 2000.)

* Proposal No. 99-128-B (as amended), revising the Division I men's basketball recruiting calendar to replace the summer evaluation period and, among other changes, increases the number of evaluation days during the academic year from 40 to 70. (Effective date: August 1, 2001 for summer 2002.)

* Proposal No. 99-128-D (as amended), revising the Division I men's basketball recruiting calendar to reduce the summer evaluation period from 24 to 14 structured days (10-day dead period surrounded by two seven-day evaluation periods) and increase evaluation days during the academic year from 40 to 50. (Effective date: August 1, 2000 for summer 2001.) Also permits coaches to contact prospects for 18 days within a 30-day period beginning the Thursday after Labor Day and establishes a contact period beginning the Friday following the Division I Men's Basketball Championship through nine days following the initial spring signing date.

* Proposal No. 131-B, establishing a two-tiered process of sanctions for violations of NCAA sports-wagering legislation. (Effective date: August 1, 2000.)

* Proposal No. 132-B, establishing a Division I Basketball Issues Committee to ensure oversight of basketball with emphasis on recruiting, enhance the development and public perception of the sport and make recommendations on policy issues unrelated to legislative and playing rules changes. (Effective date: Immediately.)

Other highlights

Division I Board of Directors
April 27/Indianapolis

* Approved legislation that will establish a two-year moratorium on new membership. The moratorium will begin immediately and would continue until September 1, 2002, and would apply to institutions interested in applying for provisional membership, reclassifying from Division II to Division I or establishing a new Division I sport as a multidivisional member.

* Defeated Proposal No. 99-119, which previously was given final approval by the Management Council and would have allowed members of the Council to be eligible for immediate re-election.

* Acted to change Proposal No. 2000-36 regarding football attendance requirements from emergency legislation to initially approved legislation that will be distributed for membership comment and reviewed again by the Management Council in October.

* Approved the Division I budget recommendations submitted by the Division I Budget Subcommittee, which included expansion in several women's championships initiatives. The Board did not support a recommendation from the Management Council to increase the men's soccer bracket from 32 to 40 teams.

* Adopted automatic-qualification legislation, as amended, which will require seven "core" conference members for automatic qualification in men's basketball, and provides a one-year grace period in men's basketball for a conference that is unable to meet the "core" requirement.