NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland – The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel at its annual meeting Wednesday reviewed its two-year rules-making process and established a protocol for sports committees to follow if they pursue a rules change in the off year of the cycle.

“We have been pleased with the success the rules committees have had with the two-year process,” said Don Tencher, PROP chair and athletics director at Rhode Island College. “The feedback from the membership has been extremely positive.”

PROP will entertain a proposal in the middle of a cycle only if the rules committee illustrates the need for an emergency change. If PROP accepts such a proposal, it must go through a modified version of the normal rules process (surveys, membership comment).

“To date, we have not had a committee request a change in an off year, but we wanted put some requirements in place should this present itself,” Tencher said. “We expect this will be extremely rare.”

In other news, PROP:

• Decided to make technology a standing agenda item at its meetings and recommended that rules committees follow suit.
• Voted to require rules committees to spend a portion of the off-year meeting developing a philosophy statement and broadly reviewing the state of the sport.