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Alternatives to noncoaching personnel limits offered

By Michelle Brutlag Hosick
NCAA.org

The Division I Recruiting and Athletics Personnel Issues Cabinet is loosening its proposals that limit noncoaching personnel in football and basketball in response to feedback from the membership and various coaching associations.

Current rules do not impose limits on noncoaching positions in either sport, but recent membership surveys have showed sentiment for at least some restrictions.

The modified proposals would:

• In men’s and women’s basketball, allow two noncoaching personnel positions that are dedicated solely to that sport (the original proposal allowed one).
• In football at Football Bowl Subdivision institutions, allow six noncoaching personnel positions dedicated solely to that sport (the original proposal allowed four).
• In football at Football Championship Subdivision institutions, allow four noncoaching personnel positions dedicated solely to that sport (the original proposal allowed two).

The cabinet will also sponsor alternative proposals that would handle video coordinators differently. Those proposals would:

• In men’s and women’s basketball, allow one noncoaching personnel position with no limit on video coordinators.
• In the FBS, allow five noncoaching personnel positions with no limit on video coordinators.
• In the FCS, allow three noncoaching personnel positions with no limit on  video coordinators

The cabinet received feedback indicating that video coordinators were different from the other noncoaching positions.

At its Oct. 18-19 meeting, the Legislative Council also decided to sponsor alternative, and perhaps more restrictive, proposals that would set a hard number for noncoaching personnel (two for men’s and women’s basketball, six for FBS and four for FCS), regardless of what percentage of the job description is dedicated to a single sport.

The Legislative Council is concerned that member institutions could get around the cabinet’s proposals by having a large number of noncoaching personnel with only a small percentage of their jobs dedicated to sports other than football or basketball. The cabinet proposals affect only noncoaching personnel with 100 percent of their job description pertaining to football or basketball.

The original proposals were devised after the cabinet surveyed the membership in 2009 and in 2010 and found most institutions to be within their originally proposed limits. Most respondents believed that people in those types of roles (often identified as “director of operations” or “quality control personnel”) should be limited.

The Knight Commission also called for a similar reduction earlier this summer.

However, once the proposals were drafted, the cabinet heard that the limits were too restrictive and would inhibit coaches from providing a quality experience for their student-athletes. 

Cabinet chair Petrina Long, senior associate athletics director at UCLA, said the feedback came primarily from conference discussions.

“The voices in the room were very strong and reminded us that a video coordinator is really needed in football and basketball, and that we should at least offer an alternative to remove them from the equation so people didn’t think that was an expendable position,” Long said.

All proposals will receive their first votes at the 2011 NCAA Convention in January. Long encouraged the membership to offer more feedback on the proposals.

“We’re trying to have a dialogue with the membership,” she said. “We encourage input and are looking for it.”

In other business, the cabinet reiterated its commitment to continue examining the full recruiting models in all sports. The cabinet will request that all sports committees and coaching associations submit proposed recruiting calendar models for each sport.

“We’re also going to move on to methods of communication. We’ve got a lot to do there,” Long said.