After months of deliberation, review and comment, proposals designed to change the culture of basketball are scheduled to come to a final vote.

The Division I Management Council at its April 10-11 meeting in Indianapolis will have its say on the proposals, which include those developed and supported by the Division I Working Group to Study Basketball Issues, as well as alternative proposals submitted by various conferences. The Council's recommendations then will be forwarded to the Division I Board of Directors for consideration at the Board's April 27 meeting, also in Indianapolis.

Specific legislation targeting change in basketball has been under membership scrutiny since October, when the Council approved the working group's original recommendations (and several alternative proposals from conferences) solely for the purpose of distribution to the Division I membership and without the Council showing support or lack of support on the package as a whole or on any individual proposal. The Council also agreed that any additional alternative proposals received by mid-December would be forwarded for membership comment in January, again without the Council indicating support or lack of support.

The basketball package also was a source for debate during the Division I forum at the NCAA Convention in January, and conferences have been encouraged since then to discuss and comment on the various proposals.

The proposals address several key areas, including the recruiting calendar, financial aid and scholarship issues. Among the 13 proposals originally submitted by the working group is one that would permit schools to provide financial aid for entering basketball students during the summer term before their first fall term, another that would limit the maximum number of scholarships a school could award per year to four, and one that would tie the number of scholarships awarded to schools' graduation rates. The working group also has proposed a reduction in the number of summer evaluation days.

Of the alternative proposals submitted, six deal with revisions to the working group's proposed recruiting calendar, and they range from varying the number of summer evaluation days to recommending that the summer recruiting period be eliminated altogether.

One of the alternative proposals also amends the maximum of four initial counters to eight over a two-year period, with no more than five in any one year.

NCAA President Cedric W. Dempsey in a recent letter to Association CEOs supported the summer financial aid allowance, the maximum of four grants-in-aid per year and the elimination of the summer recruiting period. Dempsey said in the letter that those three proposals are essential if the Association is truly committed to meaningful change in basketball.

Among other proposals Dempsey supports is an allowance for nonqualifiers to receive aid during their first year and earn a fourth season of eligibility providing they meet certain satisfactory-progress requirements. Dempsey also supports establishing the first Friday after Thanksgiving as the first regular-season playing opportunity; a three-tiered process for sanctioning violators of sports-wagering bylaws; and establishing a Division I Basketball Issues Committee to oversee basketball activities, including recruiting.

The Management Council is expected to review each proposal and make recommendations to the Board of Directors for possible adoption. The effective dates for the various proposals range from immediately to August 1, 2001.

Other business

The Council's meeting will be its second legislative meeting since the new legislative calendar was implemented last summer. That calendar calls for the Council to consider legislative proposals only during its October and April meetings.

In addition to the 31 basketball proposals, 33 other proposals are on the Council's agenda to receive a second review after being initially approved in October. Also, 36 proposals from conferences or cabinets will be appearing before the Council for the first time.

The Council also will review a report from the Division I Budget Subcommittee regarding the proposed Division I budget for 2000-01. The subcommittee is recommending that more than $1 million be allocated to championships expenses and nearly $200,000 to committee expenses and championships staffing needs.

A primary goal in the subcommittee's championships allocations is to increase opportunities for female student-athletes. The subcommittee is supporting expansion of championship opportunities for women until female championship participation is at least 50 percent. In 1998-99, 48 percent of the student-athletes participating in NCAA championships (including regional competition) were women. (In football, only the participants in the Division I-AA championship are included.)

If approved by the Council and the Board, the subcommittee's championships allocations would provide 897 additional opportunities for female student-athletes. In addition to funding new championships in women's ice hockey and women's water polo, the allocations include increased squad sizes in women's soccer, field hockey, softball and women's gymnastics; and bracket and field-size expansion in women's golf and women's lacrosse.

The squad-size increases and bracket expansions were high priorities on the list of recommended budget allocations submitted by the Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet in February. The cabinet also had asked for bracket expansion in men's soccer, men's ice hockey and men's lacrosse, but the Division I Budget Subcommittee is not recommending that those initiatives be funded at this time.

Council subcommittees

Also on the Council's agenda are reports from three important Council subcommittees, including the Subcommittee to Review Automatic-Qualification Requirements, which is submitting a proposal that would modify the requirements that member institutions or conferences must satisfy in order to receive automatic qualification into Division I championships. The subcommittee has proposed that a member conference must include eight core institutions to satisfy the continuity of membership requirement to be considered for automatic qualification into the Division I Men's Basketball Championship.

Conferences have been reviewing this proposal since the Council's January meeting, and the Council expects a few amendments to be proposed in April regarding a reduction in the number of core institutions to seven in men's basketball and providing a one-year grace period.

The Council also will hear from its Governance Subcommittee, which is recommending that the current 60-day comment periods following the initial approval of proposed legislation be increased to 90 days. The subcommittee also is recommending that a legislative impact statement be included with every proposal submitted to the Council for consideration.

The Council's Membership Subcommittee, which was appointed during the Council's January meeting, is recommending that the Council sponsor emergency legislation to establish a two-year moratorium applicable to institutions wishing to apply for Division I membership, reclassify from Division II or become multidivisional members with a Division I sport.

The subcommittee also is recommending that Bylaw 20.9.6.3 regarding football-attendance requirements be amended to require Division I schools to average more than 17,000 in actual paid attendance for home games over a four-year period.