The Division I Management Council has approved a set of reinstatement policies for amateurism violations for individuals initially enrolling in college for the 2003-04 academic year and thereafter.

The policies relate to violations involving professional contracts, compensation and professional competition.

In a statement accompanying the new standards, the Division I Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee noted that "the NCAA's Principle of Amateurism specifies that student participation in intercollegiate athletics is an avocation. This is a bedrock principle for the NCAA.

"The Division I membership recently defeated proposals to significantly change its amateurism rules, indicating that the current rules need to be consistently upheld. An individual who pursues sport as a vocation, even if the individual fails at that pursuit, should not be permitted to compete in intercollegiate athletics. The individual's intent is no longer relevant with respect to whether the individual actually became a professional athlete."

The new standards replace guidelines that were implemented in December 1999 (see the January 3, 2000, issue of The NCAA News). The 1999 policy involved a two-pronged test that focused on an individual's intent to professionalize and whether any competitive advantage was gained from the individual's actions.

Professional contract

The new standard regarding professional contracts states: "An individual who enters into an agreement shall not be permitted to compete in intercollegiate athletics."

A student-athlete always may request reinstatement, but the new standard makes clear that the burden for an individual who has signed a contract is high. "The act of entering into an agreement to participate in professional athletics carries with it the understanding that the individual is abandoning his or her amateur status," the committee noted. "Only exceptional mitigating circumstances should be considered when reviewing the request for reinstatement."

As an example, if a prospective student-athlete signed a contract with a professional basketball team but did not accept a salary or compete on the team after changing his or her mind, the individual would not be reinstated because signing the contract made the individual a professional athlete.

Compensation

The new standard for compensation states that "an individual who accepts compensation (for example, prize money above actual and necessary expenses, salary, benefits, etc.) shall not be permitted to compete in intercollegiate athletics."

The committee noted that the acceptance of a salary to compete in professional athletics always has been regarded as an abandonment of amateur status, a policy that should continue. The acceptance of prize money, however, has been less clear.

In 1994, the Division I Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee (SAR) issued a directive that impermissible prize money not exceeding expenses received before January 1, 1998, would result in a 10 percent withholding condition (instead of repayment). Any prize money exceeding expenses should be repaid. Prize money received after January 1, 1998, would have to be repaid regardless of whether the expenses exceeded prize money received.

In April 2002, the Division I Management Council adopted legislation permitting individuals to accept prize money (not to exceed expenses) before initial college enrollment. The legislation also provided that prize money could not exceed expenses on an event-specific basis (that is, an athlete would not be permitted to aggregate prize money and expenses over time and claim that the overall expenses equaled or exceeded prize money even though the prize money may have exceeded expenses in certain events). The effective date was August 1, 2002, for all individuals initially enrolling in college on or after August 1, 2002.

Under the new standards, prize money in excess of expenses received by an individual before initial enrollment after September 1, 2002, would result in permanent ineligibility.

The committee provided the following examples of how the compensation policy would apply:

* Accepting prize money above expenses (the prize money compared to expenses is a calculation done for each event in which an individual participates). Facts: A tennis player accepts $1,000 in prize money beyond her expenses for a tournament; however, her total expenses for that year are more than the prize money earned for that year.

Decision: Not reinstated, absent strong mitigation.

* Accepting expenses from a professional team. Facts: A basketball prospective student-athlete competed on a professional team the summer immediately following high-school graduation and accepted expenses. He then enrolled in college at his first opportunity.

Decision: Repayment of all expenses; withholding condition tied to the amount of inappropriate expenses. Also, it must be determined how the student-athlete benefited from the provision of the impermissible expenses (that is, what was the student-athlete permitted to do as a result of receiving impermissible expenses?).

* Accepting salary from a professional team. Facts: A soccer student-athlete accepts a $2,000 salary from a professional soccer team for participation for a season.

Decision: Not reinstated.

* Accepting educational expenses from an impermissible source (that is, professional team/organization, agent).

* Facts: A basketball student-athlete accepts educational expenses from a professional team while competing for the team as a high-school student.

Decision: Repayment of expenses; withholding condition is based on the prospect's culpability (that is, did the prospect know, or should he or she have known, that the expenses were impermissible?).

Professional competition

The new standard for professional competition has two parts. First, an individual who participates on a professional team after his or her first opportunity to enroll in college (based on the certifying institution's first date of classes) shall not be permitted to compete in intercollegiate athletics. Second, an individual who participates on a professional team before his or her first opportunity to enroll in college will be withheld from competition on a one-for-one basis, not to exceed the equivalent of the number of contests (for example, 28 in basketball) in an NCAA season for that sport.

The SAR provided three examples:

* Facts: While enrolled in high school, a basketball prospect competes in 20 contests on a professional team but does not sign a contract with the team or accept any expenses.

Decision: Eligibility is reinstated upon the prospect being withheld from the first 20 regularly scheduled contests of the basketball season. The contests must be among those used for consideration for team selection for the NCAA championship.

* Facts: While enrolled in high school, a basketball prospect competes in 20 contests on a professional team and signs a professional contract with the team, agreeing not to participate with any other team. There is no salary agreement.

Decision: Eligibility not reinstated because the prospective student-athlete signed a professional contract.

* Facts: A prospect graduates from high school in May 2003 and decides to take a year off from school. The prospect competes in three contests on a professional team during fall 2003 and then decides to enroll in college in January 2004.

Decision: Eligibility not reinstated; the professional competition occurred after the prospect's first opportunity to enroll in college.

Effective dates

The effective dates for the reinstatement condition for all penalties applies to all individuals initially enrolling in college after August 1, 2003, except for cases involving prize-money violations. The reinstatement condition for prize-money violations will be for any impermissible prize money received after September 1, 2002.