Division I's highest governance bodies peered into the division's short-term and long-term futures during meetings held in conjunction with the NCAA's 96th annual Convention in Indianapolis.

The Board of Directors, meeting January 14, heard the first of several reports from its task force charged with identifying a sustained reform agenda, while the Management Council, which met January 12, prepared for a more immediate vote on the heavily debated amateurism deregulation package.

The Board Task Force went a long way toward determining where it -- as well as the entire division -- is headed regarding long-term reform initiatives. It did so by developing a vision/mission statement and a set of principles intended to steer future Division I regulations, policies and actions.

The vision statement charges Division I with "providing student-athletes an exemplary educational and intercollegiate athletics experience in an environment that recognizes and supports the primacy of the academic mission of its member institutions." The task force is challenging Division I institutions to maintain athletics programs that set "rigorous standards of performance for both academic and athletics achievement by a diverse community of male and female student-athletes."

Just as important are the principles the task force developed that will become the standards by which future legislative proposals will be judged. Among the principles are those that emphasize the "primacy of the academic mission" and foster "ideals of exemplary academic achievement, sportsmanship and service to the community."

Other principles charge Division I schools with "increasing access to higher education for a diverse body of male and female student-athletes within the context of institutions' academic and admissions standards for all students," and "ensuring that Division I student-athletes benefit from a well-rounded college experience that strikes a proper balance between athletics and academics."

The principles also include a challenge to curb commercialism by "requiring responsible budgetary practices and financial stability for intercollegiate athletics within the context of institutions' missions and general financial controls and do not compromise the integrity of overall university resources."

Task force Chair Francis Lawrence, who is the president of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, said the development of the mission, vision and guiding principles are an important first step to frame the group's reform efforts.

"The task force is energized by the topics, committed to change and inclusive in the manner in which we will accept suggestions for change," he said.

The next step for the group will be to complete a baseline economic study of behaviors that drive athletics spending. That data, Lawrence believes, will provide the group the foundation it needs to propose sound reform measures.

The other thing the group needs is a strong voice, something Lawrence and others are convinced will be heard.

"For us to gain the credibility that we need, we have to come up with items that are passed and implemented -- otherwise we'll be seen as just another group that talked a lot but didn't get anything done," he said.

Ohio State University President Brit Kirwan, who chairs the Board and is a member of the task force, said the time is right in Division I for this reform-minded group to "seize the day."

"We have an opportunity to address significant and persistent issues we've all been concerned about," he said. "There are three groups working simultaneously -- the task force, the NCAA Academic Consultants and the (CEO Working Group of six Division I-A conferences). Having had discussions with all three, I find it inspiring that their issues all are in alignment and that there is collective sense of a common agenda. But if we don't take action quickly, we'll have missed our moment of opportunity."

Amateurism deregulation

A primary task for the Management Council during its meeting was a review of preliminary results from a survey of Division I conferences on the amateurism deregulation proposals slated for a vote in April. The package has been in the legislative pipeline for almost two years in various forms, the most recent of which contains three sub-packages developed last August that give the membership a choice in the level of deregulation.

Each package includes the organized-competition rule, which is regarded by the Agents and Amateurism Subcommittee as the cornerstone of amateurism deregulation. Package A adds proposals that would allow prospects to compete with professionals, sign a professional contract, enter a professional draft and be drafted. Package B is the same as A but adds a proposal that would allow prospects to accept prize money based on place finish. Package C is the same as B but adds a proposal that would allow prospects to receive compensation for athletics participation. Package D, which is to do nothing, also is an option.

In effect, Package C is the most comprehensive, and Package A is the least. The survey results indicate that while a majority of conferences would prefer some change, there isn't a consensus on the type of change. Of the conferences that responded, four preferred package B and three each supported packages A and C, respectively. Nine conferences reached consensus on option D, however, which sets an interesting stage for the Council's deliberation in April, when the group will either recommend some form of deregulation to the Board or endorse the status quo. The Board will take final action on the amateurism issue later that month.

At that time, Division I will be the last of the three divisions to act on the amateurism issue. Division II adopted the original package at last year's Convention, and Division III passed a revised version at this Convention (see story, page 1).

Emergency legislation

Though the Council's January meeting is not a legislative session for the Management Council, the group does have the authority to consider emergency legislation. The Council considered three such proposals regarding basketball event certification, including one that establishes an additional certification component that prohibits men's basketball events from being conducted at a venue where sports wagering on intercollegiate athletics is permitted, or on property sponsored by or branded with signage for such an establishment. That proposal was moved as emergency legislation in order to coincide with the mailing of application forms to event operators in February.

The other two proposals were approved as modifications of wording consistent with the intent of the proposal, one specifying that applications for each event involving men's or women's basketball prospects must be submitted each year to the national office not later than 45 days before the event, and another eliminating the event certification requirement that noninstitutional events shall not employ any Division I coaches.

The Council also approved an amendment of the effective date of Proposal No. 01-46, which established financial aid limits for equestrian, to August 1, 2002. The legislation had been adopted by the Board of Directors in November, but the immediate effective date of the proposal had the unintended consequence of forcing some existing teams to decrease rosters.

Bates named to chair Management Council

University of Michigan Faculty Athletics Representative Percy Bates has been elected to chair the Division I Management Council for 2002.

Bates, who has served on the Council since its inception in 1997 and has spent the last year as the group's vice-chair, will serve as chair through the 2003 Convention. His term on the Council ends at that time. He replaces outgoing chair Charles Harris, who is the commissioner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. Harris will continue to be a member of the Council through January 2004.

Bates is the first faculty athletics representative to chair the Management Council. He succeeds Robert Bowlsby, athletics director at the University of Iowa; Ted Leland, athletics director at Stanford University; and Harris in that role.

A faculty member at Michigan since 1965, Bates is the director for the programs for educational opportunity in Michigan's School of Education. The professor of education at Michigan also is a psychologist and special educator.

During his tenure at Michigan, Bates also has chaired the Higher Education Commission of the National Alliance of Black School Educators and has had a tour of duty as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Special Education in the Department of Education in Washington, D.C.

He has represented Michigan for 12 years as its faculty athletics representative, and has served on the executive committee and as president of the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association (FARA). Bates also has been active as the Management Council liaison to the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, currently chairing the Council's ad hoc subcommittee on student-athlete issues.

Replacing Bates as vice-chair of the Council will be Chris Plonsky, who is the senior associate athletics director for men's and women's athletics at the University of Texas at Austin. Plonsky also has been fulfilling interim duties as women's athletics director.

Plonsky, whose term on the Council extends through January 2006, is in her 14th year with the Texas athletics department. She rejoined the Texas staff in 1993 after serving for seven years with the Big East Conference as public relations director and as associate commissioner for administration.

She also worked as the women's sports information director at Texas from 1981 to 1986, at Iowa State University from 1979 to 1981 and at Kent State University from 1976 to 1979.

She earned her undergraduate degree in journalism at Kent State, where she was a three-time letter-winner in basketball.

Other highlights

Division I Board of Directors
January 14/Indianapolis

Supported a supplemental distribution of $5 million based on the revenue-distribution formula (50 percent based on the basketball formula and 50 percent through the broad-based formula) to Division I member institutions.

Agreed that concerns raised by the NCAA presidents concerning postseason football bowl games, including excessive commercialism, merit review by presidents; requested that the Football Study Oversight Committee consider and respond to these concerns, and noted that the Board Task Force would examine this issue if necessary.

Appointed Georgia Institute of Technology President G. Wayne Clough and University of Hartford President Walter Harrison to the Board, replacing University of Virginia President John Casteen and South Carolina State University President Leroy Davis.

Appointed Francis Lawrence, president of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick; and Northwestern State University President Randall Webb as the Board's representatives to the NCAA Executive Committee after the Convention.

Other highlights

Division I Management Council
January 12/Indianapolis

Tabled a proposal establishing separate standing Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Issues Committees and charged the staff with providing a choice of models regarding the composition of both groups. The Division I Basketball Issues Committee has been operating with men's and women's subcommittees, and the proposal would ensure that appropriate attention is given to each sport and its specific issues, while allowing for the two groups to meet together when necessary to consider common issues.

Tabled until April a review of potential uses of the new Student-Athlete Opportunity Fund. The issue was tabled in order to provide the Collegiate Commissioners Association additional time to react. The fund was established as part of the NCAA's new television-rights contract with CBS Sports, and will start at $17 million in 2002-03, with 13 percent increases thereafter during the term of the 11-year contract. The funds, intended to be used for educational and developmental opportunities for student-athletes, will be allocated to conference offices through the broad-based formula (grants-in-aid and sports-sponsorship funds).

Discussed budget-related matters and noted that because the events of September 11 prevented the Championships/Competition Cabinet from prioritizing Division I championship budget requests until its February 2002 meeting, the Management Council did not have sufficient information available in January to provide informed guidance to the Division I Budget Committee as scheduled. Therefore, the Council recommended that the budget process be slightly altered to allow for Management Council input at its April 8-9 meeting before the formulation of final Division I Budget Committee recommendations for the Board's consideration on April 25. (That recommendation subsequently was approved by the Board.)

Approved a recommendation from the Administrative Review Subcommittee that directs NCAA staff to deny future requests for waivers of bylaws concerning the maximum number of football contests and the "one-in-four-year limitation" from NCAA institutions interested in participating in preseason football contests during or after the 2003-04 academic year.