The Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet finalized its two-year budget requests during its February 3-4 meeting in Tampa, Florida.

The cabinet had established budget priorities for the 2004-05 and 2005-06 periods during its September meeting, but the group made some final adjustments during its latest session. Cabinet members requested allocations of about $1.17 million for 2004-05 and about $1.16 million for 2005-06.

Allocations that had not been identified in September but were approved during the February meeting included funds for a new Women's College World Series format beginning in 2005. The new format provides for the double-elimination bracket winners to advance and play a best two-out-of-three series to determine the national champion, similar to the format used in the Men's College World Series. The new format range would be 16 or 17 games over six or seven days, and have a budget impact of about $18,000 for a two-game series to $31,000 for a three-game series.

Also approved was a $14,000 allocation for regional host stipends in men's and women's fencing beginning in 2005-06. The allocation provides four regional host sites a $3,500 stipend to conduct the qualifying regional tournament for the National Collegiate Men's and Women's Fencing Championships. The stipend, which would be allocated to the host with the approval of the regional tournament format, effective 2004-05, would offset some of the costs for an armorer, officials and equipment rental. Even though the cost to the host institution is much greater than $3,500, the cabinet believes the stipend will encourage institutions to host the regional championships as well as offset some of their current costs.

Other allocation adjustments included:

* $5,000 beginning in 2005-06 for an athletic trainer certified by the National Athletic Trainers' Association to serve the Wrestling Committee as an advisor and to assist the committee in educating athletic trainers, coaches and wrestling student-athletes on the guidelines governing the NCAA weight-management program.

* $15,000 beginning in 2004-05 for the blue-disk NCAA logo to be applied as a patch on all competitors' uniforms during NCAA championships.

The cabinet also addressed the issue of softball bat research and requested that $50,000 in Association-wide funds be allocated. The cabinet, based on feedback from the Softball Rules Committee and the Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports, agreed that it is important to allocate funds for new research in softball bat standards and safety. The competitive-safeguards committee currently is working with the Softball Rules Committee to establish appropriate safety standards for softball bats at the collegiate level. Both groups believe that evaluating population-specific data on swing speed and reaction time may help reduce the risk of injury in the fast-pitch game.

One recommended budget allocation the cabinet did not support was a request from the competitive-safeguards committee to allocate Association-wide funds of $93,205 for 2004-05 and $20,468 in subsequent years to expand the Student-Athletes Taking Active Responsible Roles (STARR) program and include the program as a new initiative among the NCAA alcohol-education resources. Although the cabinet believes alcohol abuse prevention is a critically important initiative, it believes that such preventative education is better accomplished at the local level and that institutions and conferences are better positioned to tailor the programs to their individual conference and campus needs.

Legislative proposals

In addition to budget review, cabinet members also reviewed legislative proposals that were given initial approval by the Division I Management Council in January and distributed for membership comment. Two proposals in particular drew cabinet scrutiny. The group reiterated its support for Proposal No. 03-67, which would eliminate foreign tours in all sports, with limited exceptions.

The Management Council also initially approved Proposal No. 03-67-1, which would allow foreign tours as long as they do not occur during the period beginning 30 days before the first permissible practice date in the applicable sport until the first scheduled contest. Cabinet members, though, see that as a separate proposal and not as a compromise, and they indicated they would support Proposal No. 03-67-1 only if Proposal No. 03-67 were to be defeated.

Cabinet members did an about-face on Proposal No. 03-74, which would preclude institutions from using a travel day as the required day off for student-athletes. Though the cabinet originally supported this proposal, members noted that their support was based on a recommendation from the cabinet's playing and practice seasons subcommittee and a request from the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee to provide more time for student-athletes to complete school work and be integrated into campus life. While the cabinet is sympathetic to student-athlete time demands, after hearing concerns about the logistics related to the application of the rule, particularly for sports such as basketball, the cabinet agreed to withdraw its support of the proposal.

The cabinet also reviewed a recommendation from the Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct to adopt legislation that would establish a definition of and consequences for acts of misconduct by student-athletes or athletics department staff during regular-season and all nonchampionship postseason competition. Similar rules are in place for NCAA championships.

The cabinet, after hearing concerns from its misconduct appeals subcommittee and the Division I Football Issues Committee, strongly agreed with the concept but would like to see broader involvement in the development of a definition of and consequences for misconduct. As a result, the cabinet referred the proposal back to the committee and suggested that the committee seek feedback from sports/issues committees and collegiate commissioners.

Other highlights

Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet
February 4-5/Tampa, Florida

Approved a recommendation from the Wrestling Committee that an institution using a non-registered wrestling official be subject to a monetary fine ($50 per individual up to a $300 maximum penalty), suspension of head coach, and/or a private or public reprimand.

Received an update from the Baseball Issues Committee about the committee's work to reach general consensus on establishing consistent start dates for practice and competition. The committee would like to maintain the current 14-week schedule and 56 contests; however, it recognizes that concessions may have to be made in those areas if the season is moved back a significant amount. The committee now will gather feedback from student-athletes, coaches, administrators and conference commissioners for additional study and will report back to the cabinet in June.

Supported the allocation of Association-wide funds to create a joint task force with the USOC to study the decline in sponsorship of Olympic sports at NCAA institutions and develop strategies to maintain sponsorship at the NCAA level.

Did not support a recommendation from the Baseball Committee to increase the mileage limitation for the Division I Baseball Championship from 300 to 400 miles. The committee sought to change the mileage limits to provide more flexibility in the selection process when determining where institutions play during regional competition.

Approved a recommendation from the Men's and Women's Track and Field Committee to survey the membership after the first two years of outdoor track and field regional competitions.

Championships site selections

The cabinet approved the following championships sites and hosts:

Women's golf -- Ohio State University as host for the 2006 championships at Scarlet Course in Columbus, Ohio.

Men's and women's swimming and diving -- Georgia Institute of Technology as host for the 2006 men's championships; University of Georgia as host for the 2006 women's championships; University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, as host for the 2007 men's and women's championships.

Men's and women's track and field -- The following institutions as hosts for the 2004 men's and women's cross country regionals: Eastern Michigan University (Great Lakes); Pennsylvania State University (Mid Atlantic); Bradley University (Midwest); Colorado State University (Mountain); Metro Atlantic Athletic Association (Van Cortland Park) (Northeast); University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa (South); Baylor University (South Central); East Carolina University (Southeast); California State University, Fresno (West).

In addition, the cabinet approved a recommendation that the following institutions host the 2005 regionals: Indiana University, Bloomington (Great Lakes); Lehigh University (Mid Atlantic); University of Iowa (Midwest); Brigham Young University (Mountain); Northeastern University (Franklin Park) (Northeast); University of Florida (South); Baylor University (South Central); East Carolina University (Southeast); (West region host yet to be determined).

Women's volleyball -- Designated Louisville, Kentucky (University of Louisville, host); Minneapolis (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, host); Seattle (University of Washington, host); and Green Bay, Wisconsin (University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, host) as sites for the 2004 regionals.