In an effort to encourage institutions to take a more active role in advising prospective student-athletes about NCAA initial-eligibility requirements, the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee is recommending that legislation be proposed that would hold institutions more accountable for their actions at an earlier period in the recruiting process.

Meeting January 5-7 in conjunction with the NCAA Convention in Orlando, Florida, the SAAC agreed to ask the Division I Management Council to sponsor legislation that would require institutions to place prospects on an Institutional Request List (IRL) at the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse within 10 days after a prospect makes an official visit to the institution, signs an institutional financial aid agreement or signs a National Letter of Intent, whichever comes earliest.

The SAAC believes this would increase institutional awareness of the prospect's initial-eligibility status because placing a prospect on an IRL triggers a preliminary certification report from the Clearinghouse, which keeps the institution in the loop regarding what educational needs the prospect may have before he or she approaches college enrollment. The idea from the SAAC's perspective is to provide an earlier opportunity for schools to advise prospects on meeting NCAA initial-eligibility standards, and to decrease the number of instances in which prospects become partial or nonqualifiers because they discovered their educational shortcomings too late in the process.

The Division II Student-Athlete Advisory Committee joined its Division I counterpart in supporting the proposal.

"We believe that institutions have an obligation to track the educational progress of all recruited prospects," said Division I SAAC Chair Brian Dillon, a golf student-athlete from the University of the Pacific (California).

The SAAC will forward its request to the Management Council in April.

In a related matter, the SAAC asked the NCAA staff to consider including more questions about the initial-eligibility aspects of the recruiting process on the coaches certification examination in order to emphasize this goal.

Most agreed that sports other than football or basketball would have difficulty fielding full rosters without freshman eligibility, and the measure also might open the floodgates for coaches to increase their efforts to recruit junior college players in order to fill immediate roster needs. Other more specific situations were cited as well, including the possibility for Olympic sport athletes to have to sit out the year before the Olympic Trials, or gymnastics athletes missing their freshman year -- considered by many to be a prime performance age in that sport. Also, in some instances, such as with conferences that do not provide athletically related financial aid, student-athletes or their parents would have to fund another year of college in order for student-athletes to enjoy all four years of eligibility.

"We also talked about research pointing to the fact that academic performance actually increases in-season, which tends to refute the claims that freshman ineligibility would increase the educational focus," Dillon said. "In short, the SAAC didn't think freshman ineligibility would be the kind of educational panacea the Knight Commission seems to be looking for."

In other action, the SAAC reviewed proposed legislation currently in the comment phase of the legislative process. In particular, the SAAC strongly supported Proposal No. 2000-90, which specifies that a student-athlete must successfully complete at least six credit hours during the immediate preceding academic term (excluding summer) to be eligible for postseason competition. The SAAC believes this proposal strengthens academic integrity. SAAC members will ask for an amendment to the proposal, however, which would exempt those student-athletes who are graduating in the current term.

The SAAC also continued to unanimously support the amateurism deregulation package currently under review in Division I.

Other highlights

Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee
January 5-7/Orlando, Florida

Reviewed a referral from the Division I Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet Subcommittee on Recruiting relating to electronic greeting cards and agreed that an electronic greeting card should be considered similar to electronic mail and not equivalent to a hard-copy greeting card. The group noted that electronic greeting cards do not impose an additional cost to the institution and that institutions would continue to be bound by current legislation that relates to the time period in which recruiting materials may be sent to prospects.

Reviewed the history of four-year college transfer regulations, as well as the current regulations, to see if the committee should consider making any recommendations for change. In particular, the committee noted its concern that all student-athletes are not afforded the opportunity to use the one-time transfer exception. The group agreed to discuss this matter further during its April meeting.

Received a report from its recruiting subcommittee on continuing efforts to work with the AEC Cabinet's recruiting subcommittee regarding deregulation of Bylaw 13.

Elected Mike Aguirre, a football student-athlete from Arizona State University, as vice-chair to replace Bola Bamiduro, a lacrosse student-athlete from Columbia University. Bamiduro is succeeding Brian Dillon, a golf student-athlete from the University of the Pacific (California), as committee chair.