The NCAA Executive Committee on August 9 approved an operating budget of $422,233,000 for the coming year, which represents an increase of more than $75 million over the 2001-02 budget.

The increase can be attributed primarily to increased television and marketing rights, since this is the first year of the Association's new bundled-rights agreement with CBS and ESPN. The budget for championship revenue also is expected to increase by about $1.5 million due to ticket revenue in men's and women's basketball, baseball, men's ice hockey and wrestling.

That means Division I distributions will increase by about $63.3 million or 35 percent. The distribution includes the newly established $17 million student-athlete opportunity fund, which will be distributed next summer.

Championships expenses in Division I will increase by about $4.2 million. That includes a 25 percent increase in per diem allowances for participating institutions and increases in travel expenses. New initiatives for Division I championships include expansion in men's and women's outdoor track and field, softball, men's ice hockey and men's lacrosse. The allocation also includes funding for predetermined sites in women's basketball.

Divisions II and III have been budgeted at their allocations of 4.37 percent and 3.18 percent of the revenue budget. Because of the revenue growth, the Divisions II and III allocations will increase by $3.8 million and $2.76 million, respectively.

Total Association-wide expenses represent 21.3 percent of the budget, compared to 23.6 percent last year. Those include insurance adjustments of $3.0 million in new dollars and $800,000 in reallocated funds to cover increases in the catastrophic-injury insurance and event cancellation programs. Other allocations include $1.4 million in order to add ephedrine as part of the year-round drug-testing program, expanding student-athlete research, expanding women's and ethnic minority programs, and providing additional resources for student-athlete scholarships and leadership programs.

In addition to approving the new budget, the Executive Committee also reviewed the third-quarter fiscal-year 2001-02 budget-to-actual report and noted that the Association is on track to meet its revenue budget for the fiscal year. Of note, Division I men's basketball ticket revenue has exceeded the budget by 13 percent due to increased attendance in preliminary-round games; also, championships travel expenses decreased due to temporary changes in bracketing, travel policies and lower airfares after September 11. Those gains were slightly offset, however, by decreased investment revenue as a result of federal interest rate reductions.

Foundation Board role

In addition to budget approval, the Executive Committee approved a plan to restructure the former NCAA Foundation Board of Directors into an advisory group that reports to the NCAA president.

In July, the Foundation Board, after receiving input from the Executive Committee, unanimously voted to dissolve the Foundation and agreed, in accordance with Foundation bylaws, to distribute Foundation assets to the NCAA. The Executive Committee had recommended such action in April after reviewing research indicating that the Foundation would continue to have difficulty raising private gifts since it does not have a clearly defined constituent group of donors and it lacks a strong case for giving.

However, the research also concluded that the Foundation had a distinguished board that can be a positive influence for the NCAA.

Thus, the Executive Committee approved a plan to replace the Foundation Board of Directors with a Leadership Advisory Board that will comprise corporate leaders who can provide broad-based advice and counsel to the NCAA president. Board members will be expected to contribute at least $10,000 annually to the NCAA Leadership Conference or NCAA scholarship programs and will be expected to participate in the Leadership Conference and assist the NCAA to delivering messages about preparing student-athletes for productive and meaningful lives through athletics and higher education.

The NCAA president, in consultation with the Executive Committee, will begin work immediately to select the advisory board members.

Ad hoc review

The Executive Committee also reviewed a report from an Ad Hoc Review Committee appointed two years ago to obtain membership feedback on Association governance issues. The Executive Committee also asked the three Management Councils and the three presidential bodies to review the report and provide a prioritized list of issues in several areas.

Based on the feedback from all three divisions, the Executive Committee voted to:

Articulate its priorities as part of the transition to new NCAA leadership to include a more focused agenda to address critical issues.

Work with the three Management Councils and presidential bodies to present a set of recommendations for Executive Committee action in April 2003 that would (1) identify ways to strengthen the NCAA Convention; (2) identify ways to continue to advocate for equal opportunity for minority and female constituents in intercollegiate athletics; (3) propose initiatives designed to improve communications and education, and build support among various constituent groups; and (4) identify options for improving the effectiveness of the Executive Committee to reflect membership interests that span all divisions.

The Executive Committee also requested that each division consider the following issues and report its actions to the Committee in April 2003:

Membership concerns about the legislative process and recommendations for improvement.

Identify a process to increase CEO participation and involvement in the governance of the Association.

Clarify the role of conference commissioners and the NCAA staff.

The ad hoc committee's report has been distributed to the membership. It also is available in the publications section of NCAA Online (www.ncaa.org).