CONVENTION

Brand challenges sports myths in address at opening session

NCAA President Myles Brand used his State of the Association speech during the 2005 Convention's opening business session January 8 to challenge several myths about college sports.

Brand's third Convention address since he began his tenure as NCAA president focused on what he called "commonly held but generally inaccurate perceptions regarding intercollegiate athletics. He told Convention attendees that he intended to "debunk" four particular myths about college sports to "set the stage for progress and advances in intercollegiate athletics."

CONVENTION

The Division I Board of Directors has drawn its much-anticipated line in the sand in the newly adopted academic-reform structure under which athletics teams will be subject to contemporaneous penalties.

Meeting January 10 at the NCAA Convention, Board members agreed that teams whose Academic Progress Rate (APR) is below a score of 925 would be subject to contemporaneous penalties. Board members also agreed to "cap" the maximum contemporaneous penalty that would apply to a team in any given year at 10 percent of the financial aid team limit in that sport (for example, a maximum loss of two scholarships in men's and women's basketball, and nine in Division I-A football).

They will begin being applied next fall based on the combination of 2003-04 and 2004-05 APR data.

CONVENTION

Division II rejects football aid reduction, seeks future direction

Division II defeated a proposal to reduce football financial aid equivalencies by a two-to-one margin January 10. However, the vote likely did not mark the end of the issue.

Both the supporters and opponents of Proposal No. 28 appeared committed as the Convention ended to finding ways to more effectively match fiscal realities with competitive desires in football.

The Division II Management and Presidents Councils, both of which opposed No. 28, endorsed study of a model that would separate football classification from overall membership classification, while the proposal's supporters appeared committed to maintaining a focus on fiscal issues.

STAFF CONTACT: Mike Racy (mracy@ncaa.org)

CONVENTION

Division III backs AQ expansion into two individual-team sports

The Division III membership extended automatic qualification for the first time into sports where participants compete for both individual and team championships.

Delegates extended automatic qualification to the sports of golf and tennis, in order to provide broader access to the championships and further Division III's emphasis on conference competition by awarding berths to teams than win conference titles.

The membership defeated the only proposal that sought to roll back actions at last year's landmark reform Convention -- a proposal to reinstate the "out-of-season exception" in gymnastics -- but approved a football proposal to permit limited skill instruction (including use of a ball) during that sport's five-week conditioning and strength-training period.

STAFF CONTACT: Dan Dutcher (ddutcher@ncaa.org)

CONVENTION

Knight Commission's Friday receives second Ford Award

William Friday, president emeritus at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, accepted the second annual NCAA President's Gerald R. Ford Award at Convention's opening business session January 8.

Friday, current chair of the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, received recognition from NCAA President Myles Brand, who praised Friday for elevating the importance of higher education and the development of an involved and participatory citizenry by ensuring that access is available to all

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