The NCAA's membership gathers January 9-12 in Nashville, Tennessee, with "reform" serving as the word of the day for the Association's 98th annual Convention.

Perhaps the greatest interest will be directed at Division III, which will consider a nine-proposal "Future of Division III" reform package during its January 12 business session.

Division I also will consider important academic-reform issues during a January 10 session designed to acquire more membership input on legislative proposals under consideration.

In addition, the membership will be apprised of a strategic plan that will guide Association decision-making for years, and perhaps decades, to come.

Division III

The Division III "future" proposals are the culmination of a two-year effort to align practices at member institutions more closely with Division III philosophy. The proposals, sponsored by the Division III Presidents Council, seek to address concerns relating to financial aid, eligibility and recruiting, playing and practice seasons, membership classification, and obligations of membership.

The legislative grouping is likely to result in an attendance spike. Division III advance registration was up about 40 percent compared to last year; in addition, more than 100 chief executive officers have registered to attend, more than double the 2003 total.

See page A1 for more details.

Division I

In Division I, the most important story may be the re-emergence of the Convention as an important part of the legislative process.

In Division I's new single annual legislative cycle, the Convention becomes a more important opportunity for the membership to become better informed about prospective legislation.

One especially significant new addition will be a January 10 legislative forum hosted by the Management Council's legislative review subcommittee. After the forum, many conferences will meet to develop positions for their Management Council representatives to take with them to the Council's January 11 meeting.

The new approach may have a positive effect on Division I Convention attendance. The number of delegates registering in advance was up about 25 percent from last year, which is a dramatic shift for a division in which attendance has consistently fallen since the Association adopted a more federated system of governance in 1997.

One of the principal items that Division I delegates will discuss will be the proposed academic-reform package made up of Proposal Nos. 03-112, 03-113, 03-114 and 02-72.

Proposal No. 03-112 would establish an Academic Progress Rate (APR) to measure academic performance for all sports teams on a term-by-term basis. Proposal No. 03-113 would put penalties (disincentives) in place for teams that do not perform according to APR parameters. Proposal No. 03-114 would establish a contemporaneous penalty for poor academic performance by prohibiting a team from re-awarding the athletics aid of a student-athlete who fails to meeting academic eligibility requirements and withdraws from the institution to an incoming prospect at the next opportunity. Finally, Proposal No. 02-72 would establish a Graduation Success Rate (GSR), which would be an alternative for the current federally mandated graduation-rate methodology required by the Student Right-to-Know Act.

For more information about the Division I Convention agenda, see page A1.

Strategic plan

The development of the Association's strategic plan began last spring. Since then, thousands of stakeholders within intercollegiate athletics have been asked for their thoughts on what the Association should stand for and what goals it should pursue.

In late summer and fall, themes for the plan were discussed with various leadership groups inside and outside the Association.

In Nashville, the final draft of the plan will be presented to the membership during two January 11 sessions. The first will be a 45-minute program exclusively for CEOs that begins at 1:30 p.m. The second, for the membership in general, will be during the opening business session, which begins at 4:30 p.m. A booth near the registration area will be staffed throughout the Convention to provide delegates with the opportunity to provide feedback.

A booklet detailing the entire plan will be provided to Convention delegates. Key points appear in a summary on page A16 of this issue of The NCAA News.

The Executive Committee is expected to give final approval to the plan at its April meeting.