DALLAS -- As expected, legislative proposals from the men's and women's basketball packages and a trio of alternatives affecting the length of playing and practice seasons generated most of the discussion at the second annual Division I Legislative Review Forum January 8.

The forum, designed to educate Division I members about the more complex proposals and to encourage debate about their merits before Management Council representatives cast initial votes on the measures the next day, attracted about 300 participants. While many sponsors of proposals offered educational insight, there wasn't as much exchange of opinion as forum organizers had hoped.

What debate there was came primarily from proposals within the NABC and WBCA basketball packages. Jim Haney and Beth Bass, executive directors of the men's and women's coaches associations, respectively, urged participants to support proposals that would increase access for coaches and provide a more reasonable and flexible recruiting calendar.

Haney spoke to several proposals, including one (No. 04-119) that would provide for tryouts. "We wanted to reduce the impact of nonscholastic events," he told the crowd. "The problem that creates is that there has to be some opportunity to evaluate. We think the tryout provides that."

NABC Associate Director Reggie Minton joined Haney in asking forum participants for their support. Of a proposal to allow coaches to observe out-of-season activities (Proposal No. 04-116), Minton said, "There has to be some trust that our coaches won't take advantage of this provision. They don't want to coach the pick-up games -- in some cases it's the only chance in the early fall for the coach to see freshmen play. This is a rule that is long overdue. This rule was the easiest for the NABC special committee to recommend."

Similarly, Bass appealed to participants to pay attention to the cornerstones of the WBCA package. She said stakeholders passionately believe in the following principles of the package: flexibility (each institution would be able to customize a recruiting plan), the balance of access to student-athletes, the reduction of outside influences and the empowerment of scholastic basketball.

"This is a blueprint for cultural change," she said.

Several participants offered concerns about the basketball proposals, however. Of a proposal that would legislate mentoring opportunities in men's basketball (No. 04-121), one forum attendee said, "This already should fall within the parameters of a coach's responsibility, and this sort of minutia does more harm than good."

Also earning scrutiny were proposals affecting the playing and practice seasons through modification of certified events. The proposals -- Nos. 04-40-A, B and C -- provide alternatives to counting certified events in maximum contest limits.

Several conference commissioners and representatives from coaches associations spoke against the proposals. Bruce McLeod of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association said, "The majority of hockey programs oppose this legislation. We don't see this as student-athlete well-being, as it is proposed. We see this as a reduction in the competitive opportunities, and it doesn't reduce the length of the season. It also would affect a successful preseason event in hockey. It's taken us a while to get the tournament to that level, and this would undermine that effort."

Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee members also were critical of the way the measures reduced competitive opportunities in some sports' nontraditional segments.

However, Big 12 Associate Commissioner Dru Hancock, chair of the Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet's playing and practice seasons subcommittee, said, "While we respect the student-athletes' desire to play, there are other concerns about time demands. We think we owe No. 04-40-A to be sent out for comment.