WASHINGTON, D.C. -- With the theme of shaping intercollegiate sports toward the goals and mission of higher education and away from a professional sports model as the backdrop, Division I-A members of the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association (FARA) discussed strategies that will allow their voices to be heard in matters such as proposed NCAA legislation.

The Division I-A faculty athletics representatives met separately on the first day of the FARA Fall Forum November 11-13 in which they formulated a plan to have more input in legislative decisions.

The group formed a steering committee composed of one representative from each Division I-A conference. The steering committee will meet again January 8 at the NCAA Convention in Dallas.

Division I-A faculty reps stressed that the formation of a separate committee isn't an attempt to break away from FARA; rather, they said it is to create a more unified voice for university presidents and athletics administrators on the policy-making Board of Directors and Management Council to hear before they vote on legislation that affects student-athlete academic performance.

"When we had the one-institution, one-vote structure, we'd get into a room and there would be four delegates there from each school,'' said FARA President Greg Naples, the faculty athletics representative at Marquette University. "We would come to that meeting already having debated what the issues are. At that meeting we would stand up and address proposals. It would be an athletics director over here, a president over there and a faculty rep from somewhere else. You would start to generate discussion. That was the time when a lot of perspective that hadn't been anticipated emerged.''

Stronger voice

There has been a sense of disenfranchisement among some Division I FARs with the current legislative structure. Because Division I has implemented a representative form of governance, many faculty representatives believe their once-strong voice at the Convention has been diminished. FARA members believe the new Division I-A group will help restore that voice.

"It's all about conferences,'' Naples said. "If you have a conference of 12 schools and seven say yes and five say no, the concerns of the five aren't heard. We end up casting all the votes for the other seven. In corporate life, you could never do that. These conference commissioners are smart enough to figure out that it's only the presidents they have to worry about. They know all they have to do is get a majority of the schools to go their way.''

Division I-A FARs cited several examples of the escalation of big-time college athletics they would like to see minimized. They talked about the over-commercialization in football and men's basketball, and the increase in expenditures in big-time sports programs.

One area members discussed was the proliferation of Division I-A football games on weeknights. The recent "19 Days of Football" on ESPN and ABC included several dates filled by college games on weeknights, including Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday and Friday games already have been common in recent years.

"I don't expect for us to influence everything,'' said former FARA President Percy Bates of the University of Michigan. "But there ought to be somebody saying, 'I don't think that is educationally sound.' For example, I was on a committee four or five years ago that addressed a conference wanting to play football games on Friday nights. We said, 'Friday night is for high school, Saturday is for college and Sundays are for the pros.' Now look where we are. We have a college game practically every night of the week. It looks to the public like nobody cares or is interested (in academics). It looks like someone needs to say no.''

Several FARs also reacted against a proposal in this year's legislative cycle to add a 12th football game to Division I-A schedules.

"I understand why every Division I-A athletics director in the country will vote for a 12th football game,'' said Jerry Kingston, a former FARA president from Arizona State University. "That will solve the problem this year, but the next year they will need 13 or they'll need something else. We need to confront the issues and not just continue to send our athletics directors out to find ways to raise more money.

"I saw the stuff that said student-athletes don't get hurt any more with a 12th game than in 11, but even if they get hurt the same amount, my math tells me that's 10 percent more injuries. It's all about balancing budgets.''

Fiscal responsibility

Speakers at the Fall Forum included NCAA President Myles Brand, whose remarks emphasized fiscal responsibility in Division I-A athletics. Brand said the idea of increasing athletics budgets to produce more wins, which in turn would produce more revenue, is unfounded and outdated.

Brand said Division I-A sports is not in a crisis situation, but that the escalation of spending needs to slow before another factor forces institutions to deal with a financial catastrophe.

"Cost control is only part of fiscal responsibility,'' Brand said. "To be fiscally responsible, an athletics program must add value to the university mission. It means more than trying to operate with self-sufficiency in mind. It means using the resources provided in ways that go beyond the job of winning. It means supporting the goals, the work and the motivation for which universities exist.''

Brand emphasized three critical areas in recentering Division I-A athletics: urging college presidents to take a more long-term view of athletics; reminding FARs of the important role they play in promoting the educational value of intercollegiate athletics on a campus-by-campus basis; and convincing individual athletics departments to change their approach concerning the amount of money needed to build programs.

Brand said the latter has resulted in a "no-holds barred" approach to recruiting, escalated coaches' salaries and scandalized behavior, all based on unsupportable assumptions. He pointed to a NCAA study that showed no correlation to increased spending leading to increased wins or revenues.

"Those of us involved in both higher education and intercollegiate athletics have a responsibility for preserving this uniquely American experience,'' Brand said. "We do that by recognizing and supporting college sports as a value-based contribution to the mission of higher education.''

FARA also heard from Tom McMillen, an original member of the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and former U.S. Congressman, and U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana.

Both men stressed the importance for FARs to be involved in the legislative process.

Naples said the high-profile speakers at this year's Fall Forum spoke well for the visibility of the organization.

"Having someone of (Lugar and McMillen's) stature, people who influence legislation in the U.S. Congress, say, 'I'm aware of this group, and if I need to consult with them, I've opened that avenue so I can be of service' means something. Both of those men were highly involved in academics.''

Legislative review

Breakout meetings at the Fall Forum included legislative-review sessions for all three divisions to discuss proposed legislation that will be voted upon either at the NCAA Convention (Divisions II and III) or in April (Division I).

In Division I, the FARs opposed all 13 of the recruiting and access reform proposals from the National Association of Basketball Coaches. The NABC this summer charged a special committee to develop a comprehensive plan to address recruiting and access of prospective and current student-athletes. In general, though, FARA members felt none of the proposals had enough impact on the academic side of the ledger.

In other legislative matters, Division I FARs did support allowing a nonqualifier to compete in a fourth season provided the student-athlete has completed 80 percent of a designated degree program before the fifth year of collegiate enrollment.

They also supported a proposal that defines the responsibility of a head coach with regard to compliance with NCAA rules.

In Division II, a joint FARA/NCAA initiative to enhance FAR roles was a primary point of conversation. Part of the plan is to develop model FAR position descriptions for campus administrators and FARs to use as templates to develop their own job descriptions. It also calls for development of case studies or a collection of "best practices" that show how FARs can play effective roles in key areas such as compliance, investigation of alleged rules violations, campus- and conference-wide educational programs, and working with campus athletics boards and student-athlete advisory committees.

In Division III, FARs opposed proposals involving gymnastics and spring football. The gymnastics proposal seeks to re-instate the "safety exception'' that allowed coaches to instruct student-athletes with off-season workouts. Those involved in the sport don't feel gymnasts can work out in the off-season without their coaches. Division III FARs opposed that proposal, citing the need for consistent rules for all sports.

The football proposal seeks to allow the use of footballs during off-season workouts. Currently, Division III football programs can set up a strength and conditioning program for their student-athletes to follow, but no pads or other equipment are allowed. The Division III FARs support the rule as it is.

In other actions at the Fall Forum, members:

• Recognized Diane Husic of Moravian College as the recipient of the first annual David Knight Award, named for the longtime faculty athletics representative at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, who died last year after a long illness. Husic, former president of FARA who spent 15 years as the faculty athletics representative at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, was honored for her extraordinary contributions to FARA through the years.

• Honored NCAA Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarship recipients Corrin Drakulich of the University of Georgia and Joaquin Zalacain of the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras.

• Conducted seminars on minority participation in athletics at the coaching and administrator level; health and safety issues regarding hazing, and drug and supplement use; sports-wagering issues; and an update regarding the work of the NCAA Recruiting Task Force.