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NCAA News Archive - 2007
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Board stands its ground on text-messaging issue
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By Michelle Brutlag Hosick
The NCAA News
The NCAA News
The Division I Board of Directors addressed the three legislative measures that received the requisite number of override requests from the membership and reaffirmed its commitment to academic reform at its August 9 meeting in Indianapolis.
The membership had requested that the Board review its action on three proposals — one that eliminated electronic communication with recruits (with the exception of e-mail and fax), another that changed the dates-of-competition rules for men’s and women’s golf and a third that changed the way financial aid is distributed to baseball student-athletes.
The baseball legislation, which was among four proposals the Board adopted from the Baseball Academic Enhancement Working Group in April, originally required individual financial aid packages for baseball student-athletes to include at least 33 percent athletics aid. The Board decided to lower the percentage of required aid to individual players to 25 percent and to allow all countable aid — not just athletics aid — to be included in the calculation toward the minimum.
The Board kept the provisions in the original proposal, which retains the financial aid model of 11.7 equivalencies and limits counters to 30 in 2008-09 and 27 in 2009-10 and thereafter and caps the regular-season squad size at 35.
The Board also directed the baseball academic group to consider whether a dollar-figure minimum for financial aid packages is a viable option, especially for private institutions that often have a higher cost of attendance than public schools.
The modified legislation enters another 60-day override period, during which institutions may submit requests to overturn the legislation.
The other three proposals the Board adopted for baseball were requiring fall-term academic certifications for spring-term eligibility, eliminating the one-time transfer-exception and assessing stiffer penalties for programs whose rolling, four-year average APR is under 900.
The effective date for the modified financial aid component — as well as for the other proposals — is August 1, 2008.
Academic reform
The Board declined to reconsider both the text-messaging ban and the dates-of-competition legislation for men’s and women’s golf, so the proposals will come to a vote at the January 2008 Convention in Nashville.
At least a five-eighths majority vote of individual active members present (including conference members in the governance structure) and voting shall be required to override the legislation. It is a one-institution/one-vote format and will be taken by roll call.
In other business, the Board passed a resolution reiterating its strong support for academic reform and an intention to stay the course toward improving graduation success among student-athletes. The Board recognized that the upcoming year will be a critical time for academic reform for a number of reasons, including the elimination of the squad-size adjustment and the implementation of more meaningful historically based penalties. The historically based penalties, which first took effect with a public warning, will escalate to playing and practice season penalties and scholarship losses.
In its resolution, the Board indicated it will remain committed to the academic success of all student-athletes.
“The Division I Board of Directors will remain open to the advice and counsel of the intercollegiate athletics community so that appropriate implementation is realized, but we are unbending in our determination to support the mission of higher education — educate students,” the resolution said.
Beginning this fall, institutions will be submitting the fourth year of Academic Progress Rate data to the national office. The results, including recognition of high-performing teams and penalties for those who do not meet benchmarks, will be released this spring.
In a related matter, the Board met with several men’s basketball coaches who are on the new Division I Men’s Basketball Academic Enhancement Working Group, which began meeting August 10.
The group was formed earlier this year after APR data showed that the overall scores for men’s basketball teams were on the decline and that a large percentage of teams will be subject to APR penalties next year.
The coaches and Board members indicated a mutual interest in seeing student-athletes succeed academically, and the coaches said they believed their colleagues were ready to begin working for the greater good. However, several of the coaches indicated some obstacles they see to improving APRs within their sport, and they said they look forward to their work on the new group.
The presidents said they were pleased with the work of the baseball group that forwarded recommendations earlier this year, and Syracuse University coach Jim Boeheim said the basketball group would use the baseball panel as a model.
In addition to Boeheim, the Board met with Phil Martelli of Saint Joseph’s University; Herb Sendek of Arizona State University; Ron Hunter of Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis; Paul Hewitt of the Georgia Institute of Technology; and Cy Alexander of Tennessee State University.
The Board also met with working group Chair Dan Guerrero, athletics director at the University of California, Los Angeles. Guerrero also served on the baseball group.
August 9/Indianapolis
The membership had requested that the Board review its action on three proposals — one that eliminated electronic communication with recruits (with the exception of e-mail and fax), another that changed the dates-of-competition rules for men’s and women’s golf and a third that changed the way financial aid is distributed to baseball student-athletes.
The baseball legislation, which was among four proposals the Board adopted from the Baseball Academic Enhancement Working Group in April, originally required individual financial aid packages for baseball student-athletes to include at least 33 percent athletics aid. The Board decided to lower the percentage of required aid to individual players to 25 percent and to allow all countable aid — not just athletics aid — to be included in the calculation toward the minimum.
The Board kept the provisions in the original proposal, which retains the financial aid model of 11.7 equivalencies and limits counters to 30 in 2008-09 and 27 in 2009-10 and thereafter and caps the regular-season squad size at 35.
The Board also directed the baseball academic group to consider whether a dollar-figure minimum for financial aid packages is a viable option, especially for private institutions that often have a higher cost of attendance than public schools.
The modified legislation enters another 60-day override period, during which institutions may submit requests to overturn the legislation.
The other three proposals the Board adopted for baseball were requiring fall-term academic certifications for spring-term eligibility, eliminating the one-time transfer-exception and assessing stiffer penalties for programs whose rolling, four-year average APR is under 900.
The effective date for the modified financial aid component — as well as for the other proposals — is August 1, 2008.
Academic reform
The Board declined to reconsider both the text-messaging ban and the dates-of-competition legislation for men’s and women’s golf, so the proposals will come to a vote at the January 2008 Convention in Nashville.
At least a five-eighths majority vote of individual active members present (including conference members in the governance structure) and voting shall be required to override the legislation. It is a one-institution/one-vote format and will be taken by roll call.
In other business, the Board passed a resolution reiterating its strong support for academic reform and an intention to stay the course toward improving graduation success among student-athletes. The Board recognized that the upcoming year will be a critical time for academic reform for a number of reasons, including the elimination of the squad-size adjustment and the implementation of more meaningful historically based penalties. The historically based penalties, which first took effect with a public warning, will escalate to playing and practice season penalties and scholarship losses.
In its resolution, the Board indicated it will remain committed to the academic success of all student-athletes.
“The Division I Board of Directors will remain open to the advice and counsel of the intercollegiate athletics community so that appropriate implementation is realized, but we are unbending in our determination to support the mission of higher education — educate students,” the resolution said.
Beginning this fall, institutions will be submitting the fourth year of Academic Progress Rate data to the national office. The results, including recognition of high-performing teams and penalties for those who do not meet benchmarks, will be released this spring.
In a related matter, the Board met with several men’s basketball coaches who are on the new Division I Men’s Basketball Academic Enhancement Working Group, which began meeting August 10.
The group was formed earlier this year after APR data showed that the overall scores for men’s basketball teams were on the decline and that a large percentage of teams will be subject to APR penalties next year.
The coaches and Board members indicated a mutual interest in seeing student-athletes succeed academically, and the coaches said they believed their colleagues were ready to begin working for the greater good. However, several of the coaches indicated some obstacles they see to improving APRs within their sport, and they said they look forward to their work on the new group.
The presidents said they were pleased with the work of the baseball group that forwarded recommendations earlier this year, and Syracuse University coach Jim Boeheim said the basketball group would use the baseball panel as a model.
In addition to Boeheim, the Board met with Phil Martelli of Saint Joseph’s University; Herb Sendek of Arizona State University; Ron Hunter of Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis; Paul Hewitt of the Georgia Institute of Technology; and Cy Alexander of Tennessee State University.
The Board also met with working group Chair Dan Guerrero, athletics director at the University of California, Los Angeles. Guerrero also served on the baseball group.
Other highlights
Division I Board of DirectorsAugust 9/Indianapolis
- Instituted a four-year moratorium on new members joining Division I and preventing schools from moving from the Football Championship Subdivision to the Football Bowl Subdivision. The moratorium also prevents the creation of new conferences within either subdivision or a single-sport conference (see story, page 1).
- Heard an update on the work of the Division I Management Council governance subcommittee, which is seeking feedback on a proposed remodeling of the Division I governance structure. The subcommittee clarified the Board’s final authority on all legislation and stressed the role the Board will play in reviewing the slate of nominees for positions in the governance structure, including oversight of diversity requirements. The subcommittee also determined that the Football, Men’s Basketball and Women’s Basketball Issues committees will remain in the structure (see accompanying story).
- Defeated a proposal that would have prohibited participation in a pool or fantasy league with no entry fee but with the possibility of winning a prize. The proposal would have covered an activity that is not considered gambling under current bylaws. Also, Divisions II and III reviewed the concept and decided to take no further action.
- Noted that the Committee on Academic Performance slightly altered the way it measures improvement as a factor in a review of Academic Progress Rates when applying historically based penalties.
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