Eight months have passed since the National Association of Basketball Coaches submitted its comprehensive legislative package aimed at improving the game's recruiting environment and increasing coaches' access to student-athletes. And during that time, much has changed -- not only with the package itself, but also with the relationship between the coaches responsible for its advancement and the administrators responsible for its approval.

As for the package itself, well, a little weight has been shed since July when it officially became part of the 2004-05 legislative cycle. What began as a 12-proposal package that grew to 19 in January has recently been trimmed to just seven for the Division I Management Council and Board of Directors to vote on in April.

Out are controversial measures that would have provided a fifth season of eligibility, allowed institutions to conduct tryouts and permitted coaches to provide student-athletes with additional benefits.

In are cornerstone proposals that let coaches treat prospects more like current student-athletes, permit first-year players to participate in exhibitions and still redshirt, and streamline out-of-season skill-instruction so that athletes will have more time for non-basketball activities.

The NABC says the remaining proposals still are a big improvement over present rules, and that they respond to concerns administrators aired when the Management Council almost -- had it not been for reconsideration late in the January meeting -- defeated most of the package.

As for the relationship between coaches and administrators, that, too, appears to have strengthened. Since January, NABC officials have worked tirelessly to drive home the point with coaches that the ball is in their court to convince administrators that the package will improve graduation rates, address retention and help student-athletes meet higher progress-toward-degree standards. Coaches were encouraged to meet with their athletics directors to communicate their support of the package and to let it be known that they are an essential element to any successful plan to enhance student-athlete graduation rates.

"The NABC has done a commendable job of not only developing proposals but also working to educate the Division I membership about how they will benefit student-athletes and strengthen their academic pursuits," said NCAA President Myles Brand, whose invitation to the NABC last spring for coaches to improve the recruiting climate tipped off this entire initiative. "The coaches also have done well to listen and respond to feedback in a positive manner. This revised package represents an excellent compromise that retains the core of the coaches' original goals while sustaining the trust that administrators have for coaches to act within the spirit of the rules."

How effective the NABC's full-court press has been won't be known until April, but the early word is that the effort has made some difference.

"I know I feel better than I did in January," said Management Council member Jim Murphy, the athletics director at Davidson College. "I don't know yet what our institutional position will be in April, but I feel that I have a good understanding of what the coaches are trying to do, and I think our coach at least has a good understanding of the administrator perspective.

"There's a better understanding on both sides of the other's perspective, and an understanding by coaches that the legislative process is fairly complicated -- and that there are much broader concerns from administrators than coaches perhaps initially thought."

The new package

NABC Deputy Executive Director Reggie Minton believes the reason people like Murphy feel better is because the NABC retooled the package to accommodate coaches' needs while taking into account administrators' concerns.

"I just don't see the things left on the table as controversial," he said.

Most administrators probably would agree. At least five of the seven proposals accomplish meaningful changes without causing administrative tremors.

One, Proposal No. 03-83, would allow signed prospects who are enrolled and receive athletics aid during the summer before initial full-time enrollment to be treated the same as returning student-athletes regarding Bylaws 13 and 16. That's a key period of access, said Minton, because under current rules such players who are in fact part of the team can't be treated as such.

"Right now, that prospect is just treated differently -- as a prospect as opposed to a student-athlete. We think that is wrong," said the former coach at the U.S. Air Force Academy. "All of us remember the first time we went off to school -- you tend to be wary, anxious; the person closest to the prospect (the coach) is denied the opportunity under the current rules to make him feel at home. Right now, in fact, people who have less interest in student-athletes' well-being have more access to them than the coaches do.

"If the coach is having a cookout, he should be able to invite every player, not every player except the incoming freshman who is going to summer school."

The proposal, which actually is from the Big 12 Conference and applies to all sports, wasn't even part of the original NABC package and encountered little resistance at the January Council meeting. The NABC's original package contained a similar proposal, but the coaches have decided to back the Big 12 measure because of its all-sports application and because it accomplishes the NABC's desired outcome.

The other relatively benign proposals are:

• No. 04-112-D, keeping the redshirt option available for freshmen even after playing in an exhibition or scrimmage against an outside team. Minton said that gives the coach an opportunity to watch the player in a competition against someone other than teammates. "It also gives the young person the opportunity to see how he stands in the rotation so that when the conversation comes up as to redshirting, there is something to go on other than the one yard stick we have today of competition against one another."

• No. 04-114, which eliminates the "baton rule" regarding off-campus recruiting. The new rule would permit three staff members to recruit off-campus at the same time. "The baton rule has outlived its usefulness," Minton said. "From what I can tell, I don't think anyone has any particular heartburn over this one."

• No. 04-118, which stipulates that coaches and non-coaching staff members can work only at their own institution's camps or clinics.

* No. 04-119-B, which increases the total number of days for evaluations and contacts from 120 to 130, and permits two weekends in April for coaches to attend nonscholastic events. The proposal also increases the number of recruiting opportunities from five to seven. "The more you get a chance to evaluate and recruit, the more you'll be comfortable with your relationship with that prospect," said NABC President Pat Kennedy, head coach at Towson University. "That reduces transfers and reduces mistakes in recruiting. With the early signing and the way we evaluate in the summer, the more time we have to evaluate, the fewer amount of mistakes we're liable to commit." This proposal used to contain the provision allowing schools to conduct tryouts, but the NABC sensed little support for that from administrators and has since withdrawn that aspect.

Only two of the remaining seven proposals requires much of a leap of faith from administrators. One is No. 04-116, which would allow coaches to watch student-athletes participate in voluntary, non-organized activities such as pick-up games at any time of year.

Minton said coaches feel strongly about it and are unified in their support, but the measure -- one of just three not to have changed from the original package -- hasn't garnered much membership momentum from the outset.

Several administrators and faculty have said they doubt whether coaches can actually watch those activities without coaching. One faculty member at the January Council meeting in fact compared the situation to a teacher observing a student making mistakes on an important project without offering advice or corrections.

Minton argues, however, "Every one of our coaches has the same responsibility as every one of our professors, which is to help the young people in their charge to be as good as they can, to fulfill as much of their potential as possible. Why would you deny coaches the ability to put into effect some of the instruction that players have received in the off-season? Why would you not allow coaches to observe that, so that at the next practice he can tell them what progress they're making?"

As for those who challenge whether such legislation can be adequately monitored even if it does pass, Minton said the NABC ethics committee would come down hard on violators.

"As an organization, we have a lot of solidarity on this package, and I don't think we'd be very forgiving if an individual decided he should be doing more than just watching those out-of-season activities," he said.

The only other proposal prompting much banter is No. 04-115-B, which lifts the restriction on the number of student-athletes allowed to participate at one time in out-of-season activities. Right now, the limit is four, and the intent of the current rule is to keep those activities from becoming full-fledged practices. Some people think lifting the limit threatens that intent.

Minton, though, disputes that coaches are looking for year-round practice opportunities. "They're not interested in that," he said, "and the student-athletes aren't, either."

The real issue, Minton said, is more about facilities. Current regulations tie up the gym for just four student-athletes. "If you have a workout at one end of the court, the others can't be at the other end -- they have to be somewhere else," he said. The new rule would mean student-athletes not involved in the activity wouldn't have to avoid the practice facility as they do now, and the NABC claims the time available for non-basketball activities for student-athletes likely would increase because of scheduling efficiencies.

The new trust

Minton and Kennedy say the new collection is a "nonthreatening package" cleansed of the major issues that prompted previous concerns, and that coaches have worked to bridge two trust gaps -- one within the coaching constituency itself and another between coaches and administrators.

"We've had two conference calls to talk to coaches and ask them if they can support it, and I've yet to find anyone who can't," said Minton, who acknowledged the Management Council's earlier concern as to whether coaches thought the original package favored the more competitive programs. "There's always jealousy and some mistrust in any group, but we have found that we can agree that these are good for the game and for the young people involved in the game. This package isn't going to change where the competitive power is, but it will change the way we're able to do business."

"There has been for quite some time a gap between coaches and administrators," Kennedy said. "We can't put our heads in the sand. That's been a longtime hurdle for us to get over, and there still seems to be some key administrators who for one reason or another wonder if they can really trust these guys. That's a shame. It's just like cheating. You get 1 percent cheating and it taints the large percentage that does everything right. There is sincerity and passion from a wide range of coaches from a wide range of institutions regarding the spirit of this package."

Minton, who is familiar with the NCAA governance structure from his days as a member of the Men's Basketball Rules Committee, said the process over the last eight months has been as much of a learning experience as developing the content of the proposals. He believes the revisions signal a willingness from coaches to rebuild a new trust with a gentler, kinder set of proposals that effect change with a minimum of disruption.

"This was our first chance at putting a package together," Minton said. "Maybe we were shooting for the moon and we couldn't get there, but it's like everything else -- if you don't aim high enough you're going to fall short, so we were going to aim high."

The Management Council and Board of Directors will decide in April whether the NABC's new aim is true.