NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland – The Division I membership affirmed legislation restricting men’s basketball coaches from observing nonscholastic events in April, defeating an override proposal at Friday’s Division I legislative forum by a 55-45 percent margin.

The rule was adopted last spring by the Board of Directors in an effort to protect the academic interests of prospects and reduce the nonscholastic influences in the lives of high school athletes. Those who called for the override, however, believed the legislation negatively affected programs that used the events as a “one-stop shop” for recruiting. No one expressed that view at the session, however.

Several delegates spoke against the override, citing a commitment to academics as the over-arching reason.

“By overriding this particular piece of legislation, what we would be saying to our prospective student-athletes is that academics doesn’t matter,” said Damon Evans, chair of the Leadership Council and athletics director at Georgia.

Kevin Anderson also spoke against the issue as chair of the Division I Men’s Basketball Issues Committee, the entity that forwarded the concept to the former Championships/Competition Cabinet for sponsorship.

 “We have to send a message, and if we don’t send a message we might as well take the ‘student’ off ‘student-athlete,’ ” said the Army athletics director.

The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee also opposed the override.

“These nonscholastic events are often an affront to student-athlete well-being and cause prospects to pay, and, more importantly, miss class time and SAT preparation time,” Chair Kerry Kenny said. “This is a chance to step up to the line and practice what we continually preach.”

For some who called for the override, the issue was economic – the nonscholastic events were an easy place to evaluate several prospects and a frugal alternative to multiple recruiting trips. They saw the legislation as a burden to lower-resource institutions.

But for those who supported the proposal, the issue was academic. They said the nonscholastic events often required prospects to miss up to three days of high school classes, and allowing Division I coaches to attend was a tacit endorsement of lax academic preparation.

The vote marked the fourth consecutive year the division has considered an override at the Convention.

•         2006: The first override since restructuring in 1997 involved expanding financial aid limits in women’s gymnastics, soccer, volleyball and track. All but soccer were overturned.

•         2007: Two overrides, one seeking to overturn legislation allowing graduate students to compete immediately upon transfer and another looking to add a 12th regular-season game for the Football Championship Subdivision. The former was successful; the latter failed.

•         2008:  Three more overrides, including one to allow text-messaging of prospects, which failed overwhelmingly. Another sought to delete scholarship minimums for baseball (which also failed), and the third successfully repealed an adjustment in the golf playing and practice season.