The NCAA relies on a cadre of constituents to be the caretakers of playing rules, but perhaps none more important than the men and women charged with interpreting those rules on a daily basis.

They are called "secretary-rules editors" -- an outdated term rooted in the function they performed when the position was created decades ago -- but the contemporary SRE does much more than take notes and edit rules books.

Indeed, the early secretary-rules editors recorded actions from rules committee meetings and, with the help of a national office publishing staff member, coordinated the production of that sport's annual rules book. While those tasks were demanding in and of themselves, SREs were taxed further by the daily chore of answering correspondence from coaches, officials, administrators and fans who wanted to know more about the nuances of playing rules.

That latter role has become more prominent now with the advent of electronic communication. Rather than letters of inquiry arriving periodically, SREs now are bombarded with
e-mails and phone calls from anyone with access, including from the most casual of observers who open their correspondence with, "A buddy and me are trying to settle a bet..."

To be sure, if playing rules were a company, SREs would be its public relations staff. Often referred to as the people "in the trenches," the Association's 16 SREs are indispensable to officials and coaches who must know whether a foul is a block or a charge, whether a player is offside or on, and whether a runner is in or out of the baseline.

Playing rules matter. And they matter for all sports, not just basketball and football.

Take swimming and diving, for example. Most people might assume that sport doesn't even need an SRE -- until they find out that stroke turns and diving positions are just as intricate as charging fouls and clipping penalties, or until they find out that thousands of YMCA and age-group swimmers rely on NCAA rules to administer meets.

One of the hundreds of calls swimming SRE Susan Petersen Lubow fielded early in her career was from an age-group swimmer's father who was upset that his daughter wasn't declared the winner of a race when in fact his personal videotape showed that she touched the wall first.

"He admitted it was close, but according to the way he saw it, she won," said the athletics director at U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.

Petersen Lubow said the parent went on about how it was a crime that his daughter did not win the gold medal and that he in fact wanted Petersen Lubow to reverse the result. Rather than taking evasive action as many in her situation would have done, Petersen Lubow saw it as a teachable moment.

"I spent 45 minutes on the phone talking with him about how lucky he is to have a healthy child who has picked up the sport," she said. "I said that he should embrace and encourage her to keep swimming and not look at the gold, silver or bronze aspect of it -- but the fact that she's a winner in life and that she's able to do this well at such a young age.

"As he was ready to get off the phone he actually thanked me for talking with him. When I got off the phone, I said to myself, 'Good lord, is this what I'm going to have to deal with in this job?' "

Petersen Lubow has performed her "job" for almost 15 years. Several of her SRE peers have been at it for at least that long. Wrestling's Bob Bubb will begin his 16th year in two months. Ice hockey's Paul Duffy is a 17-year veteran. Soccer's Cliff McCrath started in 1974.

Such continuity is not surprising. First, it's a tough task that only a few people seek. Softball SRE Dee Abrahamson said her duties take her out of the office for six weeks in the spring as she attends to business at NCAA championships. McCrath said he receives five to 10 calls or e-mails a day. Marcy Weston, who was the women's basketball SRE from 1985 to 1998, said, "Instead of writing a letter and dropping it in the mailbox, now it's pound out a few thoughts and press 'send.' It's a faster pace now -- people expect instant answers."

Second, not many people are qualified to be SREs. Most have long-standing ties to the game. Many have either played, coached or both. And all have a wealth of institutional knowledge that would be difficult for a replacement to match.

Third, they all do it for free. It used to be a paid position before the late 1990s, when SREs received modest stipends ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, depending on the sport, but those were discontinued in a wave of committee cost-cutting initiatives.

Most SREs agree that stipends would be nice, but that not getting them isn't a deal-breaker. Weston, though, who cited the cut as a factor in her decision to leave the post, said the message meant more than the money.

"It wasn't just about a couple thousand dollars," she said. "It was about saying 'thank you' to the people who are on the front lines in the rules-making business every day of the year. We're the advocates for the game -- we help people understand why there is a need for a particular rule, or how it developed and evolved. There are the players, the coaches and the officials -- and the secretary-rules editors are trying to keep all of them on the same page. And you're going to say, do it for nothing?"

Interestingly, the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel (PROP) resurrected the idea of a stipend last year, asking the Championships/Competition Cabinet to pay all SREs on a graduated scale depending on media/
membership attention and duties. PROP members not only wanted to reward service, they also saw the stipend as a way to anchor an evaluation process and to raise expectations for the position.

At its September budget meeting, though, the cabinet did not list the $132,500 allocation as one of its priorities, choosing instead to advocate the matter as an Association-wide expense. Under that scenario, the Executive Committee is the next review stop. A final decision should be rendered in April.

Regardless of the outcome, there doesn't figure to be a huge turnover in SRE personnel.

"Granted, not having a stipend is like Northwest Airlines saying they want the flight attendants to take a cut in salary while the CEO gets a bonus for showing up at the office," McCrath said. "It seems like an attempt to get by with just saying 'thank you' -- if indeed there is a 'thank you' once you get in the room. I have no acrimony in this -- it's just looking at it from a different perspective. But ultimately it's not an issue for me."

"I would do this for nothing, which I have for years," said Bubb, who recently retired from coaching and teaching at Clarion University of Pennsylvania. "A stipend doesn't have an impact on what I do."

Abrahamson, an associate athletics director at Northwestern University, agreed that her softball service doesn't depend on money, "but not very many of us turn down paychecks, either," she said. "Sure, a stipend would be great, but none of us would walk away without one."

What eventually will cause SREs to walk away is legislation adopted in 2002 that limits their terms to eight years. While some people saw the term-limit immunity SREs had enjoyed as a positive for the sport, others advocated occasional turnover as a way to introduce fresh ideas and a new perspective on the rules. The eight-year term is double that of a standard committee-member term, but it is far less than what most current SREs have logged.

Those restrictions will start taking effect soon based on a rotation that has been proposed to avoid a mass exodus across sports.

Few of the current SREs seem to be counting the days until retirement, though. Bubb, the wrestling SRE, said the sport gave so much to him early in his career that he swore he'd return the favor. After wrestling at the University of Pittsburgh, Bubb coached high school teams for seven years before taking a teaching/coaching job at Clarion in 1966. He coached until 1992 and taught until 1995.

"You develop a love for the sport," said Bubb. "Wrestling provided my college education. I don't know what I would've done if I hadn't received a scholarship. When I graduated I always said I'd give back to this sport."

He certainly has, as have his peers who for years have picked up the phone and said, "May I help you?" for free.