The Division I Legislative Council at its Wednesday meeting approved as emergency legislation a proposal for men’s basketball that defines a prospect as anyone who has entered the seventh grade.

Proposal 2008-76, supported by both the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the Division I Men’s Basketball Issues Committee, had been tabled in October to permit conference representatives to seek additional input but is now effective immediately.

It is intended to prevent Division I men’s basketball coaches from being employed in nonscholastic elite camps conducted for seventh- and eighth-graders and to prevent institutions from conducting camps for that age group.

NABC Executive Director Jim Haney had written to the Council about seventh- and eighth-graders being recruited, a practice Haney said the NABC has actively discouraged.

“We feel it is detrimental both to the well-being of the youth participating in basketball as well as the collegiate institutions – it certainly does not promote the proper role of basketball in the educational process,” Haney wrote. “Proposal 2008-76 does offer a viable alternative for the creation of a healthier environment for the recruitment of men’s basketball prospects.”

While the Legislative Council took action on that proposal, it decided to seek additional membership input on a number of others in the 2008-09 cycle, including Proposal 2008-32-B, which would allow student-athletes to count nontraditional courses for up to 50 percent of their full-time enrollment requirements.

That was after the group defeated Proposal 2008-32-A, which would have allowed student-athletes to use an unlimited number of nontraditional courses taken at their own campus for full-time enrollment requirements. Members also voted down Proposals 2008-35-A and 2008-35-B, which would have allowed student-athletes to use nontraditional courses taken at campuses other than their own for progress-toward-degree requirements.

Council members were worried about the potential for abuse and the public perception of student-athletes taking nontraditional courses solely for eligibility purposes. They also thought it would be difficult to monitor the courses, particularly those taken at other institutions. However, the group agreed that further discussion on Proposal 2008-32-B was merited.

The Legislative Council approved another NABC-supported proposal, 2008-30-B, which prohibits coaches and individuals associated with prospects in men’s basketball from being hired as speakers or presenters at any athletically related events or activities.

In other action, the group defeated Proposal 2008-40, which would have added a scholarship for women’s volleyball. Council members cited current economic conditions and a preference to wait on the Division I Financial Aid Cabinet’s upcoming study of financial aid rules as reasons for the defeat.

The Council also defeated Proposal 2008-13-A, which would have allowed student-athletes in individual sports to accept prize money based on performance in events during all vacation periods. However, it sent Proposal 2008-13-B, which limits the competition to summer vacation, to the membership for comment.