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NCAA News Archive - 2006
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SAACs prepare to be heard at Convention
Student-athlete committees study legislative proposals at meetings
Student-athlete committees study legislative proposals at meetings
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By Josh Centor
The NCAA News
The NCAA News
The national Student-Athlete Advisory Committees discussed November 17-19 how student-athletes are using their time on campus.
As the NCAA membership continues to study work and life balance issues for coaches and administrators, the SAACs have been charged with the responsibility of researching how the issue relates to student-athletes.
During a joint meeting among the three divisional committees, SAAC members were presented with preliminary data from the Study of College Outcomes and Recent Experiences (SCORE) and the Growth, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Learning of Students in college (GOALS) reports. The data served as an introduction to the NCAA research staff’s efforts to monitor student-athlete time demands.
“We had a great discussion about time demands,” said Division I Committee Chair Mike Piscetelli, a former track and field student-athlete at Wake Forest University. “There’s a lot of confusion and blurred lines about the 20-hour rule and we’re looking to see if those hours are being allocated appropriately by student-athletes. It’s an important discussion and we’ll try to carry it on.”
The committees have been asked to talk about the topic through conference SAACs with the goal of providing a report at the 2008 NCAA Convention.
Upcoming legislation
While the committees looked down the road at student-athlete time demands, they spent most of their meetings preparing for the 2007 Convention.
In its July meeting, the Division III SAAC recommended that the Management Council sponsor legislation restricting the use of male practice players in women’s sports, which took the form of 2007 Convention Proposal No. 6. The proposal calls for male practice players to be permitted to participate once per week in the traditional segment, with the number of participants not exceeding half of the number of student-athletes required to field a starting unit in the sport.
The Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference sponsored 2007 Convention Proposal No. 6-1, which is an amendment to the original legislation.
Amendment-to-amendment Proposal No. 6-1 specifies that male practice players be limited to three practices per week and the number of participants cannot exceed the number of student-athletes required to field a starting unit in that sport.
While the committee supports limitations, it strongly opposes the looser restrictions in Proposal No. 6-1. The committee plans on opposing Proposal No. 6-1 on the Convention floor and speaking in favor of Proposal No. 6.
“Some of the characteristics that SAAC had initially set forward were revised in the amendment-to-amendment,” said Division III Committee Chair Sameer Khan, a former golf student-athlete at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Florham. “We’re not in support of the change and we’re sticking by our original statement. We don’t want to completely eliminate male practice players, but we want there to be restrictions.”
The Division III SAAC also took preliminary positions on 13 other Convention proposals, including the proposed Division III membership cap. The committee supported 2007 Convention Proposal No. 2, which specifies that at least one individual certified in first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automatic external defibrillator use and familiar with emergency-plan activation policies shall be present at each practice and competition involving student-athletes.
“It’s extremely important to have safety measures available to all student-athletes at all times. We don’t feel that cost should be an overwhelming issue when we’re discussing student-athlete safety,” Khan said.
The Division II committee took stances on legislation as well, including a proposal to change the number of hours student-athletes can receive individual and small-group skill instruction from coaches during the off-season. The SAAC also examined a proposal to change football equivalencies and the structure of the football championship in Division II.
The committee moved forward with a best-practices document to be shared with student-athletes and administrators about social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.
“There’s a lot of value in some respects to online networking, but we want to see that (the technology) is used in a positive way, rather than the detrimental ways we seem to hear about more frequently,” said committee Chair Megan Burd, a softball student-athlete at Wheeling Jesuit University.
The committee also discussed the success of the Division II National Championships Festival held in Pensacola, Florida last month. East Central University student-athlete Koby Styles, who represents the Lone Star Conference on the SAAC, finished 14th overall in the cross country championship and earned all-America honors.
The Division II committee also created a document with ideas of fun and inexpensive activities to engage in when hosting a recruit on campus. The document will be posted on the Division II SAAC Web site (http://www.ncaa.org/d2saac) after the 2007 Convention.
The Division I committee developed positions and commented on about 40 proposals, including those related to electronic messaging/recruiting practices and the provision of training table meals.
The SAAC opposes the override of Proposal No. 05-54, which allows a student-athlete who has received his or her undergraduate degree to transfer to a Division I institution, be admitted to a specific graduate program and finish his or her eligibility without sitting out a year.
“If students are able to take care of graduation and get their degree in time, we feel they should have the opportunity to continue to further their education and still be able to take advantage of being a student-athlete,” Piscetelli said. “If you have that time left on your clock, why shouldn’t you be able to play?”
As the NCAA membership continues to study work and life balance issues for coaches and administrators, the SAACs have been charged with the responsibility of researching how the issue relates to student-athletes.
During a joint meeting among the three divisional committees, SAAC members were presented with preliminary data from the Study of College Outcomes and Recent Experiences (SCORE) and the Growth, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Learning of Students in college (GOALS) reports. The data served as an introduction to the NCAA research staff’s efforts to monitor student-athlete time demands.
“We had a great discussion about time demands,” said Division I Committee Chair Mike Piscetelli, a former track and field student-athlete at Wake Forest University. “There’s a lot of confusion and blurred lines about the 20-hour rule and we’re looking to see if those hours are being allocated appropriately by student-athletes. It’s an important discussion and we’ll try to carry it on.”
The committees have been asked to talk about the topic through conference SAACs with the goal of providing a report at the 2008 NCAA Convention.
Upcoming legislation
While the committees looked down the road at student-athlete time demands, they spent most of their meetings preparing for the 2007 Convention.
In its July meeting, the Division III SAAC recommended that the Management Council sponsor legislation restricting the use of male practice players in women’s sports, which took the form of 2007 Convention Proposal No. 6. The proposal calls for male practice players to be permitted to participate once per week in the traditional segment, with the number of participants not exceeding half of the number of student-athletes required to field a starting unit in the sport.
The Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference sponsored 2007 Convention Proposal No. 6-1, which is an amendment to the original legislation.
Amendment-to-amendment Proposal No. 6-1 specifies that male practice players be limited to three practices per week and the number of participants cannot exceed the number of student-athletes required to field a starting unit in that sport.
While the committee supports limitations, it strongly opposes the looser restrictions in Proposal No. 6-1. The committee plans on opposing Proposal No. 6-1 on the Convention floor and speaking in favor of Proposal No. 6.
“Some of the characteristics that SAAC had initially set forward were revised in the amendment-to-amendment,” said Division III Committee Chair Sameer Khan, a former golf student-athlete at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Florham. “We’re not in support of the change and we’re sticking by our original statement. We don’t want to completely eliminate male practice players, but we want there to be restrictions.”
The Division III SAAC also took preliminary positions on 13 other Convention proposals, including the proposed Division III membership cap. The committee supported 2007 Convention Proposal No. 2, which specifies that at least one individual certified in first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automatic external defibrillator use and familiar with emergency-plan activation policies shall be present at each practice and competition involving student-athletes.
“It’s extremely important to have safety measures available to all student-athletes at all times. We don’t feel that cost should be an overwhelming issue when we’re discussing student-athlete safety,” Khan said.
The Division II committee took stances on legislation as well, including a proposal to change the number of hours student-athletes can receive individual and small-group skill instruction from coaches during the off-season. The SAAC also examined a proposal to change football equivalencies and the structure of the football championship in Division II.
The committee moved forward with a best-practices document to be shared with student-athletes and administrators about social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.
“There’s a lot of value in some respects to online networking, but we want to see that (the technology) is used in a positive way, rather than the detrimental ways we seem to hear about more frequently,” said committee Chair Megan Burd, a softball student-athlete at Wheeling Jesuit University.
The committee also discussed the success of the Division II National Championships Festival held in Pensacola, Florida last month. East Central University student-athlete Koby Styles, who represents the Lone Star Conference on the SAAC, finished 14th overall in the cross country championship and earned all-America honors.
The Division II committee also created a document with ideas of fun and inexpensive activities to engage in when hosting a recruit on campus. The document will be posted on the Division II SAAC Web site (http://www.ncaa.org/d2saac) after the 2007 Convention.
The Division I committee developed positions and commented on about 40 proposals, including those related to electronic messaging/recruiting practices and the provision of training table meals.
The SAAC opposes the override of Proposal No. 05-54, which allows a student-athlete who has received his or her undergraduate degree to transfer to a Division I institution, be admitted to a specific graduate program and finish his or her eligibility without sitting out a year.
“If students are able to take care of graduation and get their degree in time, we feel they should have the opportunity to continue to further their education and still be able to take advantage of being a student-athlete,” Piscetelli said. “If you have that time left on your clock, why shouldn’t you be able to play?”
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