The NCAA group charged with conducting a comprehensive study of football concluded its two-year tenure with recommendations on an out-of-season football conditioning model and a plan to increase the pool of ethnic minorities in the football coaching ranks.

The NCAA Football Study Oversight Committee (FSOC), which conducted its final in-person meeting August 2 in Indi-
anapolis, also neared completion on its report that will be submitted to the Board of Directors this fall. The report includes a summary of actions the FSOC has taken to improve the sport, including legislation that enhances Division I-A membership requirements and policies that provide for stronger postseason bowl certification.

"The Board of Directors charged this group with conducting a coordinated analysis of college footballto determine the state of the sport and provide recommendations for change, where appropriate," said FSOC Chair Charles Wethington, president emeritus at the University of Kentucky. "This group has determined that the game is in good shape and that the changes we've made have strengthened the sport, but that we need to continue to monitor and evaluate issues to ensure the long-term viability of football."

Wethington's group may be able to add to its list of accomplishments if an out-of-season conditioning model for football student-athletes that the FSOC endorsed is approved. The model was developed by a working group composed of medical professionals, strength coaches, athletics administrators, student-athletes and football coaches, and is designed to minimize health and safety risks, reduce student-athlete time demands and provide adequate preparation time for the regular season.

The model divides the year into three calendar periods: January 1 until the start of summer conditioning, summer conditioning and preseason practice.

Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, presented the model to the oversight committee on behalf of DeLoss Dodds, who chaired the working subcommittee but was unable to attend the meeting. Teaff called the model "a positive and quick approach that would have a long-term effect on student-athlete welfare."

During the first period, institutions would designate eight weeks as student-athlete discretionary time, during which strength and conditioning coaches may monitor the facility used by the student-athletes for health and safety purposes only, but they may not conduct the workouts. Eight hours per week of required conditioning would remain permissible outside of the eight weeks, and spring practice would remain permissible.

The summer conditioning period would start nine weeks before a university's first permissible preseason practice date. One of the nine weeks would be student-athlete discretionary time. During the other eight weeks, prospects and student-athletes could participate in non-mandatory/recommended weight training and conditioning activities conducted by the strength coach for no more than eight hours per week.

The proposal recommends that all summer conditioning participants be required to undergo a medical examination and that all strength and conditioning coaches involved in weight-training and conditioning activities be required to have cardiopulmonary resuscitation certification.

Teaff said a member of the institution's sports medicine staff, such as an athletic trainer, must be present during conditioning activities. "And that person," he said, "would be vested with the unchallengeable authority to cancel or modify workouts for health and safety reasons."

The start of the preseason practice period would continue to be established using the 29 practice-opportunity formula. All participants would undergo medical examinations, and all would participate in a five-day acclimatization period in which student-athletes would engage in no more than one practice per day.

During the first two days of the period, helmets would be the only protective equipment allowed, followed by two days of helmets and shoulder pads. During the fifth day, full pads would be permitted. After that, institutions could not conduct two-a-days on consecutive days.

On days with multiple practice sessions, student-athletes would be provided with at least three hours of recovery time and could not attend meetings or other athletics activities beyond medical treatments and meals.

Teaff said on average schools have conducted two-a-days for about seven days in a row.

"This conditioning model gives five days the medical experts feel are very important for acclimatization and it gets rid of the consecutive two-a-days," he said. "It creates an environment where safety is the first priority and one in which the student-athlete has someone looking out for his medical well-being at all times."

The proposed legislation could become effective as early as January 2003. A subcommittee of the Championships/Competition Cabinet also is looking at out-of-season conditioning issues in all sports. That group is considering a model that would eliminate all supervised activities, including voluntary weight training and conditioning, and summer workouts in individual sports.

Diversity issues

Early in its study, the FSOC charged the Minority Opportunity and Interests Committee (MOIC) with investigating the lack of ethnic diversity in the Division I football coaching ranks and providing recommendations for the FSOC's consideration. The MOIC presented research showing that the number of black head football coaches has decreased from 4.8 percent in 1995-96 to 2.1 percent in 2001-02. The percentage of black assistant coaches has increased slightly from 18 percent to 22.1 percent during the same time.

"The diversity of football student-athletes is not reflected in the people who oversee them," said Eugene Marshall, athletics director at Ramapo College and chair of the MOIC.

The MOIC report outlined four primary recommendations:

Increase the pool of ethnic minority candidates by partnering with the American Football Coaches Association and Black Coaches Association to develop programs to recruit ethnic minorities and to incorporate materials in the NCAA's CHAMPS/Life Skills program that highlight coaching as a career.

* Increase exposure opportunities for ethnic minority football coaches at all levels by increasing networking opportunities, providing opportunities for ethnic minority coaches to work at Division I football camps, creating candidate profiles and a database of ethnic minority coaches and increasing media exposure for historically black football programs.

* Provide professional development opportunities for ethnic minority coaches by developing workshops to help build job preparation skills for ethnic minority coaches, a mentoring program and partnership with the NFL to select coaches to participate in the NFL's Minority Coaching Fellowship Program.

* Strengthen the hiring process and encourage institutions to include steps that would ensure a diverse pool of candidates.

The FSOC acknowledged the severity of the lack of diversity in football coaching, endorsed the four-part strategy and requested that it be further reviewed within the NCAA membership. The group also requested that the MOIC prioritize its recommendations, particularly those that have a budget impact, and determine those that would require legislative action.

Commercialism issues

The committee also revisited the issue of commercialism in postseason football after having told the Board of Directors last spring that the matter deserved more attention from presidents.

Wethington noted that postseason football "exerts a significant influence over the financial viability and image of the sport." In addition, Wethington said, 46 percent of Division I-A CEOs in a recent survey said they were concerned about postseason football.

"Given that," Wethington said, "It would seem logical that the NCAA work in collaboration with various stakeholders to study the commercialization and revenue aspects of postseason football."

Toward that end, the FSOC recommended that the Board appoint a panel that would review the issue of commercialism in postseason football and at the same time explore ways to enhance the financial position of every Division I football-playing institution.

"We're encouraging the study in response to a broad concern about the potential negative impact from excessive commercialism in football," Wethington said. "We believe there needs to be a collective review among all the stakeholders in college football, and we are recommending that the Board take the lead and appoint a representative panel.

"One of our charges was to address concerns that impact the health of college football. We think commercialism is an issue that merits additional attention."

The recommendation will be part of the FSOC's final report that the Board will receive at its November 1 meeting.