The number of legislative proposals Division I will consider in 2005-06 is two fewer than last year but still high enough to make for a lengthy voting session when the Division I Management Council considers legislation for the first time in January.

A total of 129 Division I proposals were submitted before the July 15 deadline. This is the third year that Division I has operated a single annual legislative cycle. Before that, the division considered proposals on a semi-annual basis.

The 2005-06 proposals include 63 generated from within the Division I governance structure and 66 submitted by conferences. All will undergo cabinet review this fall, then discussion and initial Management Council review at the NCAA Convention in January. The proposals will receive final consideration from the Council and Board of Directors in April.

Among the conference-submitted proposals is one from the Big 12 Conference that excludes graduates with remaining eligibility from Academic Progress Rate calculations. Another from the Ohio Valley Conference would grant five seasons of competition for football student-athletes.

Other proposals that figure to stir debate include one from the Ivy Group requiring all institutional need-based financial aid to count toward team limits. Ivy Group officials also have submitted a financial aid proposal that would exempt non-athletics aid for football and basketball student-athletes until they engage in varsity competition. Those proposals join others in a broader financial aid deregulation discussion already underway in the governance structure that attempts to balance costs and competitive-equity concerns with what is in the student-athletes' best interests.

The Big 12 and Pacific-10 Conferences are proposing that beginning in 2007, postseason bowl games could be played through the second Monday in January. The proposal accommodates a new Bowl Championships Series format that features a "double hosting" model.

Two other proposals affect football -- one from the Pacific-10 that allows teams with 6-6 records to be bowl-eligible in 12-game seasons, and another from the Ohio Valley that would allow Division I-AA institutions to schedule 12 regular-season games. Division I-AA defeated the latter concept when Division I-A approved it last spring.

The Pacific-10 also is proposing that men's rowing become an NCAA championship sport. The proposal provides for five equivalencies and three total coaches, two who can recruit off campus. Sponsors see the budget impact as minimal, since most institutions that sponsor women's rowing already have a men's program.

Divisions II and III proposals

Division II has only two membership-sponsored proposals for the Convention, including one from the Lone Star and Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conferences that would provide limited additional telephone and in-person contacts with prospective student-athletes.

In Division III, institutions submitted 13 proposals, compared to three last year and eight two years ago. Several of the proposals address issues that have been part of recent Future of Division III-Phase II discussions, including membership growth and championships access.

Two proposals are sponsored by the North Coast Athletic Conference, which directly addresses growth in one proposal by seeking to impose a cap on the size of the Division III membership -- currently approaching 450 schools. The cap would be based on the total of active members, plus provisional members and exploratory institutions as of September 1, 2005, and any Divisions I and II institutions initiating reclassification by June 1, 2006.

The NCAC's other proposal seeks an increase in the number of sports that Division III members are required to sponsor. The conference proposes increasing the minimum from the current 10 (five men's and five women's sports) by one sport for every 100 students beyond an enrollment of 1,100, up to a minimum of 14 sports for institutions with 1,400 or more students.

Under that proposal, schools with an undergraduate enrollment between 1,100 and 1,199 would be required to sponsor a total of 11 sports; between 1,200 and 1,299 enrollment, 12 sports; between 1,300 and 1,399 enrollment, 13 sports; and 1,400 enrollment and above, 14 sports.

Other proposals include two addressing student-athlete eligibility, two that would affect championships selection criteria (including one to revise the Division III philosophy statement), two seeking changes in executive regulations governing automatic qualification for championships, and four proposals impacting playing and practice seasons.

One of the eligibility proposals, sponsored by the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference and four other institutions, would reinstate the "season of eligibility" standard. The standard, which would replace the "season of participation" standard adopted at the 2004 Convention as part of the initial Future of Division III legislative reform agenda, in essence would permit "redshirting."

The other eligibility proposal, from the Midwest Conference, would broaden the current legislation by specifying that "participation" at any collegiate institution -- not only a Division III institution -- shall constitute the use of a season of eligibility.

Proposals affecting championships selection criteria include one sponsored by three conferences -- the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin, the Northwest Conference and the University Athletic Association -- to eliminate the current emphasis on in-region competition in the Division III philosophy statement and championships selection criteria. The conferences believe current criteria prevent institutions from seeking opponents outside the region and thus inhibit institutions in choosing who they will play and where.

Another proposal addressing championships selection criteria would include a strength-of-season index among primary selection criteria for Pools B and C selection. The sponsors -- the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin, the Ohio Athletic Conference and the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Association -- believe the additional criterion, which could help teams playing in arguably more difficult leagues, would give sports committees more information to use in the selection process.

The proposals addressing automatic qualification include one to permit a new conference to be eligible for a limited time to receive automatic qualification and one granting conferences that fall below the minimum of seven conferences requir ed for AQ a two-year grace period to regain compliance (so long as the institution maintains at least four members during that period).

The sponsor of the first proposal, the Commonwealth Coast Conference, believes adoption would permit institutions to evaluate current conference membership on the basis of institutional mission, academic philosophies and commitment to athletics, and to choose to join with similar institutions in creating a new conference without losing the opportunity for automatic qualification.

The other proposal, sponsored by the Empire 8, seeks to protect institutions from losing the opportunity for automatic qualification during any realignment that may result from institutions' re-evaluation of conference membership.

The four proposals addressing playing and practice seasons would:

• Permit an institution to play its first football contest on the Thursday before Labor Day when the first permissible contest date falls on that holiday weekend (sponsored by the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference)

• Restore a 17th date of competition in lacrosse during the traditional segment that inadvertently was eliminated by recent adoption of playing- and practice-seasons legislation (Empire 8).

• Permit four additional days of athletically related activity -- as well as a second and third day of competition -- during the nontraditional segment in baseball, field hockey, lacrosse, soccer, softball and women's volleyball (Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference and four other institutions).

• Exclude from the playing season and exempt from maximum-contest limitations one postseason championship event in every sport. The provision would include events such as Eastern College Athletic Conference championships for teams that are not selected for NCAA championship competition (Allegheny Mountain College and New Jersey Athletic Conferences and the Empire 8).

To view the Divisions I, II and III proposals, see the Legislative Services Database at NCAA Online (www.ncaa.org).

Legislative proposals on track for membership evaluation

Division I proposals have been posted on NCAA Online as part of a Web-based Publication of Proposed Legislation (POPL). Also, the Management Council's administrative committee is referring the proposals either to the two cabinets or other committees for review during their fall meetings.

The first of two amendment periods will last from August 15 to the end of the Management Council's October 17-18 meeting. During this time, the cabinets or any conference (whether it sponsored the proposal or not) may amend a proposal.

At its October meeting, the Management Council will review proposals that have been amended but not agreed to by the original sponsor. In those cases, the Council may choose to support the original proposal or the amendment(s), or develop its own proposal.

A printed Official Notice will be distributed by November 15 and will list all pending legislative proposals sponsored by conferences, cabinets or the Council. The Council will give initial formal consideration to the proposals at its January meeting.

A number of proposals proposed by conferences in previous legislative cycles are being carried forward for consideration during the new legislative cycle. Those proposals also appear in the Web-based POPL, along with proposals originating in the Division I committee/cabinet structure.

In Divisions II and III, proposals have been published by division in PDF format in a Web-based Initial Publication of Proposed Legislation (IPOPL).

All membership-sponsored proposals will be evaluated by an appropriate Association-wide or Division II or III committee before they are included on the agenda for the 2005 Convention. A committee may indicate support for or opposition to a proposal or suggest an alternative proposal as a result of its review.

The Second Publication of Proposed Legislation (which includes amendments submitted by the Presidents Councils and those properly modified by sponsors) will be provided online for each division in September, and the Official Notice for each division will be provided not later than November 15.