The Committee on Women's Athletics (CWA) will delve into several issues facing women's intercollegiate athletics through different subcommittees appointed at its tri-annual meeting in Indianapolis last month.

Committee Chair Darlene Bailey, associate athletics director and senior woman administrator at Southwest Missouri State University, asked subcommittees during the group's January 24-25 meeting in Indianapolis to examine issues presented to the committee during the two-day meeting. One subcommittee will concentrate on research into the role of the senior woman administrator on campuses, one will analyze the use of male practice players, one will look at the Woman of the Year award and another will study the emerging-sports process.

Wendy Walters, NCAA director of membership services, spoke to the group about emerging sports for women, the Association's criteria for emerging sports and the relationship to the work of the joint NCAA/United States Olympic Committee task force studying declining sports.

The new subcommittee will investigate which institutions are sponsoring emerging sports. The group will consider several options: continuing with the same process for adding and dropping emerging sports, changing the emerging-sport criteria or dropping sports that are on the list that do not fit the original criteria for emerging sports.

Walters told the group that there is a sunset provision for sports added to the emerging list: If the sport has not gained a championship in 10 years, it could be removed from the list. However, action is required to remove a sport from the list.

The committee also expressed concern that the only women's sport identified on the joint NCAA/USOC task force list of declining sports was gymnastics. CWA members noted that other sports have low participation numbers, even if the number of teams aren't declining, and need to be protected.

The task force, formed last year, is charged with devising a set of recommendations for maintaining and even expanding the Olympic sports sponsored at the NCAA level. The committee is about midway through its process, and officials hope to make their proposals in September.

Male practice players

Also at its January meeting, the CWA revisited the issue of male practice players, hoping to come to a better understanding of the scope and frequency of the longtime practice in women's athletics. Bailey appointed a subcommittee to scrutinize the issue.

Committee members discussed the positive aspects of male practice players, including an enhancement of competition for female student-athletes, but also debated whether the practice reduced opportunity for women in collegiate athletics. They concluded, however, that more information is needed before they take any action or make any recommendations.

The committee hopes to learn in which sports male practice players are commonly used, why they are used and how often scholarships are awarded for practice players. Members also discussed the fact that other programs besides women's teams were known to bring in outside players occasionally to practice against collegiate teams. Bailey said it was important that the committee examine the issue in its entirety, not just as it relates to a specific sport or gender.

"We need to look at whether we are providing an appropriate experience, and it's not just for women's sports. There are other sports where outside entities come in to practice. We don't want to address this issue in a vacuum," she said.

Bailey said using male practice players could have ramifications on health and safety, Title IX and equal opportunity compliance as well as the quality of the experience for female athletes.

The committee will seek specific information about the use of male practice players in all three NCAA divisions and in all sports.

Role of the SWA

Another subcommittee will examine research into the role of the senior woman administrator. The CWA reviewed research showing that athletics directors and SWAs often had widely divergent views of the role of the SWA in the athletics department. Athletics directors often believed the SWA had a more vital role and contributed more than SWAs thought was an accurate portrayal of the expectations of the responsibilities they were given.

The research was done through surveys of athletics directors and senior woman administrators in Divisions II and III. Bailey said a similar survey should be completed for Division I. Suggestions on improving the role of the SWA will not be made until the data have been collected and analyzed.

Another subcommittee will study the Woman of the Year selection process, criteria for winners and the awards banquet.

The committee also heard a presentation about the planned commemoration of the 25th anniversary of women's championships in the NCAA, which will be celebrated in 2006 along with the NCAA Centennial. While Bailey said it was ironic that the two anniversaries fell in the same year, she believes the 25th anniversary of women's championships will not be lost in Centennial festivities.

"We have a lot of confidence that (NCAA staff) will make sure that doesn't happen," she said.

The anniversaries will be celebrated in similar fashion to major milestones marked by other championships, with signage, welcome banners, championship logos, public service announcements and other promotional materials. Select championships also will receive special items and other enhancements based on specific criteria.

The Committee on Women's Athletics will meet next in July.