Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet
September 20-23/Indianapolis

• Supported a proposal from the Big 12 Conference to establish a permanent 12th regular-season game in Division I-A football.

• Recommended that the Division I Management Council use its emergency legislative authority to adopt a proposal to eliminate the April contact period in women's basketball and establish a five-day evaluation period during the third week in April. In 2005, the contact period would occur while prospective student-athletes are preparing for the ACT on April 9.

• Supported a recommendation from the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports to sponsor legislation in the 2005-06 cycle that clarifies the categories of nutritional supplements an institution may provide to student-athletes.

• Recommended that an exception to the policy requiring a playing surface without any professional sport logo be applied for men's ice hockey under the following condition: "If the hosting venue is holding a National Hockey League playoff game within the week of the NCAA championship and the professional team's logo cannot be removed from center ice without compromising the quality of the playing surface, the center ice professional team logo can remain on the ice but will be covered with NCAA marks in the television broadcast through virtual technology. The host institution/venue would bear the cost of such virtual technology."

• Supported a proposal from the Baseball Rules Committee to increase the penalty for use of tobacco during an NCAA contest to include the disqualification of the head coach, in addition to the disqualification of the offending individual.

* Reviewed automatic-qualification issues and confirmed that a conference shall remain ineligible for automatic qualification into a NCAA championship if the number of institutions competing in a conference drops below six members. Once a sixth member is added, the conference will have automatic qualification privileges restored only if all six members have competed together for a period of two consecutive years.