The Division I Management Council completed a pass for a 12th regular-season football game beginning in 2006, approving a proposal at its April 11 meeting in Indianapolis that would allow Divisions I-A and I-AA institutions to schedule a full dozen games every year.

The only potential tackler remaining for the proposal is the Division I Board of Directors, which must sign off on the measure at a meeting later this month.

Currently, Division I teams play 11 regular-season games in years except when there are 14 Saturdays from the first permissible playing date through the last playing date in November. Legislation was approved three years ago to allow for 12 games in such years (the 2002 and 2003 seasons were 12-game seasons; the next would be in 2008 under that scenario).

Proponents of the proposal (originally submitted by the Big 12 and Big East Conferences and supported by the Football Issues Committee and the Championships/Competition Cabinet) say it establishes consistency in the number of games each team plays from year to year. They also note that the proposal does not expand the length of the season by adding dates on the front or back end. If institutions choose to schedule a 12th game, they can do so on what otherwise would have been a bye week. Proponents also point to injury rates in the previous 12-game seasons that are not much different from 11-game seasons.

Concerns about the proposal primarily have come from the coaching constituency and from some presidents concerned about academic ramifications for student-athletes.

Considered somewhat controversial when it was introduced six months ago, the proposal passed through the Management Council with little fanfare, garnering no debate after being moved, and receiving a 21.5-3 voting margin in Division I-A and a 7-5 result in Division I-AA. The Atlantic Coast Conference was the lone dissenting league in I-A.

The 12-game proposal was among more than 100 legislative items the Management Council considered at its quarterly meeting. The April meeting culminates the 2004-05 legislative cycle, pending final adoption of proposals by the Board on April 28.

Council members also supported several proposals from recruiting and access packages submitted last year by the men's and women's basketball coaches associations. The Council approved five of seven proposals supported by the National Association of Basketball Coaches, including one that allows student-athletes during their initial year of enrollment to participate in exhibitions or scrimmages without sacrificing a season of eligibility (No. 04-112-D), and another that eliminates "the baton rule" regarding coaches recruiting off campus (No. 04-114). Another proposal (No. 04-119-B) sets the number of recruiting days at 130 and retains the current April contact period. The Council did not support NABC proposals to allow coaches to view out-of-season activities (No. 04-116) or to increase the number of players allowed to participate in out-of-season skill-instruction sessions (No. 04-115-B).

The latter concept also was not supported in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association package (No. 04-145), though Council members did approve an increase to four hours in the amount of time players can spend in those sessions (No. 04-133-B). Most other WBCA proposals passed, including a measure to prohibit evaluations at nonscholastic events during the prospect's academic year except for those conducted during the last full weekend of the fall contact period and the weekend during the spring evaluation period (No. 04-146-1).

A measure in the WBCA package that would have limited electronic transmissions for prospects to facsimiles and electronic mail (No. 04-135) failed by just half a vote.

Financial aid deregulation

Council members also approved two key financial aid proposals that enhance student-athlete well-being. One, Proposal No. 02-82, allows football and basketball student-athletes who receive only nonathletically related institutional aid to compete without counting in the institution's financial aid limits. The Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee has been emphatic in its support of this measure for two years, claiming that recruited student-athletes in football and basketball who do not receive athletically related aid should be treated the same as such student-athletes in other sports (by not counting toward team aid limits).

Opponents of the proposal have worried that it could lead to institutions with higher institutional-aid resources "stockpiling" student-athletes in basketball and football. Others, though, feel the opportunity to provide student-athletes with more flexibility regarding financial aid outweighs whatever unintended consequences might be created.

The Council took three separate votes on the measure -- one for Division I-A, one for Division I-AA and a third for Division I inclusive (for basketball). The measure failed initially in Division I-AA (6-6 deadlock) but was approved upon reconsideration. The overall Division I vote was 26.5 in favor and 20 against.

The Council supported another financial aid proposal (No. 03-23-A) that permits student-athletes in equivalency sports to receive institutional academic-based and need-based aid without it counting toward team limits. That prevents student-athletes who are offered both athletics-based and nonathletically related aid from having to turn down the latter to avoid hurting the team. The Division I SAAC has been a strong proponent of this proposal as well.

Council members also approved Proposal No. 04-21, which increases the maximum grant limitations in women's gymnastics from 12 to 14, in women's volleyball from 12 to 13, in women's soccer from 12 to 14, and in women's cross country and track from 18 to 20.

Other issues

Among proposals forwarded to the Board for adoption was one (No. 04-53) that permits a partial qualifier or nonqualifier to participate in a fourth season of competition as long as he or she has completed 80 percent of the designated degree program before his or her fifth year of enrollment.

The Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet supported the measure based on research indicating that student-athletes who have met the 80 percent bar are likely to graduate. Cabinet members reasoned that if partial or nonqualifiers have met the same standards set for qualifiers by their fifth year of enrollment, it is fair to permit them to participate in a fourth season of competition.

Legislative proposals not supported by the Council included one to reduce the number of official visits for prospects in Division I-A football from five to four (No. 04-99-A). That measure was the last on the table from the Recruiting Task Force created last year to recommend recruiting reforms. The Board approved six emergency proposals from that group in August, while two other proposals went through the legislative cycle. A measure that would have allowed institutions to pay airfare for a prospect's parent during an official visit was defeated in January.

The Council also defeated a proposal (No. 04-86) that would have allowed student-athletes to use credit hours earned through advance placement tests or credit by examination before initial full-time college enrollment to meet the minimum progress-toward-degree requirement.

Proposals regarding playing and practice season modifications in sports including basketball (No. 04-40-A, B and C) were not moved. The NCAA is involved in pending litigation regarding Division I's basketball season-limit rule (the matter is scheduled for trial in July). Council members will consider the proposals once the NCAA has affirmed its legal authority to do so.

The Council also heard a report from Kevin Lennon, NCAA vice-president for membership services, about efforts underway to establish and administer a clearinghouse to certify the amateur status of international and domestic student-athletes in Divisions I and II (see related story, page 17). The initiative is in response to growing membership concerns citing the lack of resources, time and expertise from campus personnel to keep up with the demands of determining amateur status of prospective student-athletes who experience an ever-increasing number of opportunities to participate outside the scholastic environment.

Currently, each institution must certify the amateur status of incoming international prospects or selected students as defined in the NCAA General Amateurism and Eligibility Form for International and Selected Student-Athletes. Some people believe this process causes the same prospect to receive different eligibility decisions at different institutions, and that such a disparity has led to considerable hardship for and unfair treatment of student-athletes and member institutions.

A clearinghouse would formalize the process, take advantage of the NCAA's ability to collect data and equalize the playing field for those institutions unable to devote the same level of resources to certification of amateurism .

Planning is now underway, under direction from NCAA President Myles Brand, so that the clearinghouse could be in use for freshman student-athletes who would be entering college as early as fall 2006, Lennon said.

Lennon added that enabling legislation may be necessary in the future to assist in developing the full scope and structure of the amateurism clearinghouse. Lennon said the initiative will be led by Dave Schnase, managing director of membership services, and Bill Saum, who has moved from the NCAA's enforcement division to membership services and will serve as the clearinghouse's director.

Other highlights

Division I Management Council
April 11/Indianapolis

• Recommended that the Board of Directors adopt Proposal No. 02-96 to formally establish a Division I-AA/I-AAA Presidential Advisory Group. The group of presidents representing each of the 20 Division I-AA/I-AAA conferences was established on an informal basis with the purpose of assisting the current seven Division I-AA/I-AAA conferences on key issues affecting those subdivisions. The Council noted that while only one year has passed since the group was established, it appears that the body is achieving its stated intentions and that the involved presidents have added a new and important dimension to the Division I governance process.

• Recommended that the Board establish the same formal guidelines for consideration of legislative proposals deemed to be either emergency or noncontroversial in nature as the Management Council uses in considering such proposals.

• Supported a governance subcommittee recommendation not to begin NCAA Conventions after 2008 until at least four days after the Bowl Championship Series championship game. Also, the NCAA Convention shall not be conducted over the Martin Luther King holiday.

• Forwarded several proposals from the Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet to the Board of Director as noncontroversial legislation (see legislative actions chart on page 15).

• Did not support an Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet request to consider Proposal No. 03-24-1 as emergency legislation. The proposal, which would (1) allow schools to award athletically related aid to a student-athlete for less than a full academic year when the student-athlete is enrolled in the final semester or quarter, and (2) require an institution to offer full-year awards in equal amounts for each term of the academic year, will go into the 2005-06 legislative cycle (in addition to the base proposal No. 03-24).

• Named Wake Forest University Athletics Director Ron Wellman as chair of the Council, effective immediately. Wellman takes over for Chris Monasch, who has chaired the Council since April 2004. Monasch, formerly the commissioner of the America East conference, recently became the athletics director at St. John's University (New York).