The Division I-AA Football Governance Committee gave final approval to a new recruiting calendar among other legislative actions during its April 9 meeting in Indianapolis.

The committee reviewed Proposal No. 99-104, which would revise the current Division I football recruiting calendar as follows: (a) expand the spring evaluation period from April 15 through May 31 to permit four weeks of evaluation (Monday through Saturday) selected at the discretion of the institution; (b) permit two evaluations per prospect during the spring evaluation period (one evaluation to assess the prospect's athletics ability and one evaluation to assess the prospect's academic qualifications); (c) reduce the number of fall evaluations days from nine to six; and (d) modify the winter contact period to provide for a total of 42 contact days (six contact weeks Sunday through Saturday) and reduce from seven to six the number of contacts per prospect during the period.

The committee amended the proposal to specify that the winter contact period begins the last Sunday following the last Saturday in November; and gave final approval and forwarded the proposal as amended to the Division I Board of Directors for adoption.

The Division I-A members of the Management Council subsequently approved Proposal No. 99-104, with the amendment for Division I-A.

The committee also gave initial approval to two other proposals, including Proposal No. 99-58-1, which would require Division I-AA football institutions to meet the minimum scheduling requirements for a period of two years to be eligible to enter a team or an individual in the NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship.

The Management Council subsequently gave initial approval to Proposal No. 99-58, which applies the requirements to Division I championships in all sports.

The other proposal, Proposal No. 2000-15, would permit Division I-AA football student-athletes to view a maximum of two hours of game film per week as part of the permissible eight hours of required weight-training and conditioning activities that may occur during the academic year outside of the playing season.

The Division I-A members of the Management Council subsequently gave initial approval to this proposal for Division I-A football student-athletes.

In another legislative action, the committee supported Proposal No. 99-61, which would permit an institution to allocate $20 per day in incidental expense money to student-athletes who remain on-campus to practice for a postseason bowl game, but the Management Council subsequently referred the proposal to the Championships/Competition Cabinet to study the application of the proposal to all sports.

In other actions, the I-AA Football Governance Committee reviewed a proposed notification deadline for subdivisional movement and requested that the Management Council limit the recommendation from the Membership Subcommittee, which would establish a notification deadline for subdivisional movement, to Division I-AA institutions interested in moving to Division I-A. The Management Council subsequently gave initial approval to the legislation as recommended by the committee.

Finally, the committee reviewed a letter submitted by the promoter of the NAACP/HBCU Kick-off Classic, a proposed preseason exempted event for Division I-AA football, informing the committee that a final report regarding the event, including the information requested by the committee in January, would not be available for two to three weeks. The committee noted that October 15 is the normal deadline for completed applications, that flexibility had already been provided as this is the first request for a Division I-AA event, and that for an event to occur during the 2000 preseason, the certification requirements must be satisfied by the end of this academic year.

The committee agreed that April 28, 2000, is the final deadline for receiving the completed application, including the required letter of credit and confirmation that the specified travel expenses and guarantee will be provided. Any information received after this date will not be considered for certification for 2000.