This is the first in a series of articles to review Division I proposals for the 2009-10 legislative cycle. Today’s article focuses on proposals related to Bylaws 15 (financial aid) and 16 (awards and benefits).

The Pacific-10 Conference has introduced a proposal that would ban institutions from housing their football teams in hotel rooms the night before a home game.

The Division I Legislative Council will vote on that proposal and several others pertaining to financial aid, awards and benefits at the 2010 NCAA Convention in Atlanta.

The Pac-10 cited cost containment as the primary reason for sponsoring the proposal (No. 2009-73). Schools can spend thousands of dollars for one night in a hotel, adding up to tens of thousands over a season’s six or seven home games. The change would also help integrate student-athletes more fully with the general student body, the conference said.

Those favoring the status quo believe that sequestering football players in a hotel the night before a game helps them stay away from potential trouble and focus on the game.

Another significant proposal may come from the Awards, Benefits and Expenses and Financial Aid Cabinet, which may sponsor legislation to establish a financial aid model for sand volleyball, pending the result of an earlier override vote on whether to maintain sand volleyball as an emerging sport. If the override vote fails, the proposed financial aid model for the sport will be debated.

The proposal sets limits on counters in the sport and also addresses crossover between women’s volleyball and sand volleyball. It suggests a phased-in approach for institutions that sponsor both sports and also would require sand volleyball student-athletes who practice or compete with the women’s team to count toward women’s volleyball limits.

Other proposals the council will consider in those areas are:

• No. 2009-67, which would prohibit institutions from awarding financial aid for less than one academic year (but the violation would not affect student-athlete eligibility).
• No. 2007-68, which would allow institutions to award the financial aid of women’s volleyball student-athletes who graduate during the previous academic year (including summer) and compete in the fall to another student-athlete the following spring without making the second student-athlete a counter for the remainder of that academic year.
• No. 2009-69, which would allow transfer student-athletes to accept financial aid based solely on academics and not count toward a team’s equivalency computation.
• No. 2009-71, which would make violations of the preseason practice expenses legislation an institutional violation that would not affect student-athlete eligibility.
• No. 2009-72, which would allow institutions to provide refreshments to the immediate family of a student-athlete for educational meetings or celebratory events such as senior night.
• No. 2009-73, which would allow athletics department representatives to provide meals to student-athletes or teams in a sport on campus or in a facility regularly used for home competition.

To review any of these proposals in their entirety, visit the Legislative Services Database.