The NCAA Olympic Sports Liaison Committee is recommending legislation that would further assist prospective student-athletes and enrolled student-athletes who participate in "elite" organized events.

At its October 24-26 meeting in Colorado Springs, Colorado, committee members decided to pursue a legislative change that would prevent participation in elite events such as the Olympics, Pan Am Games or the World Championships from triggering the use of a season of competition and the requirement of serving an academic year in residence for prospective student-athletes and enrolled student-athlete in tennis, and swimming and diving. Currently, there are no exceptions for participation in elite athletics events, and athletes could potentially be required to use a season of competition as well as sit for an academic year.

Committee Chair Kyle Kallander, commissioner of the Big South Conference, said the group was attempting to address situations that have arisen as a result of new NCAA legislation regarding eligibility and seasons of competition.

"This is meant to address a situation in which student-athletes find themselves possibly having to burn a year of eligibility, which is an unintended consequence of new legislation that was recently passed by the NCAA," Kallander said. "We thought it was only fair that we try to address it from a legislative standpoint so that these prospective student-athletes could be treated the same as other student-athletes."

The Division I Administrative Review Subcommittee had previously issued a blanket waiver for participation in the 2004 Olympic Games.

The committee also recommended that the United States Olympic Committee and the equivalent organizations in other countries be allowed to pay for expenses associated with sending a team or student-athlete who participated in the Olympics to receive special recognition from the athlete's home country. Kallander said that a blanket waiver currently is in place to allow American athletes to be recognized by the United States government with all expenses paid by the USOC, but no such equivalent exists for international student-athletes who compete in the Olympic Games.

Subcommittees formed

The committee also reviewed its strategic plan, dividing itself into two subcommittees to work on different issues. The committee formed the Education and Outreach Subcommittee and the Endangered Sports and Current Issues Subcommittee.

Kallander said the Education and Outreach group would work to inform people externally and internally about issues important to the student-athletes and the Olympic movement.

"We need to be able to educate the national governing bodies and others involved with the Olympic movement (about) what we can do for them and what we're trying to do to help the student-athletes who are competing internationally and at the elite level," Kallander said. "We want to teach them about what we can do to help them accomplish their goals."

At the same time, he said, the subcommittee also wants to educate the student-athletes and NCAA members about the rules for athletes participating internationally or at elite levels.

"We are a liaison between both groups because we want to educate both sides on what the rules are and how they apply to them," he said.

The subcommittee also is charged with proposing legislation that can help student-athletes competing internationally, allowing them to do so and still stay within the NCAA mission.

"The OSLC has a long history of developing legislation to assist in those efforts," he said.

The Endangered Sports and Current Issues Subcommittee must grapple with one of the longest-standing issues for the OSLC -- Olympic sports that are in danger of fading from the NCAA landscape.

"We're continuing to try to find solutions, ways to assist institutions in maintaining or even adding endangered sports, those sports that have dwindled in numbers or show trends of dropping in membership," Kallander said.

Earlier this year, the USOC and the NCAA collaborated to form a joint task force to study the issue. Kallander said the OSLC has yielded to the task force on the issue, but members remain interested and continue to discuss ways they could be a resource to the body.

Met with governing bodies

One of the highlights of the meeting for Kallander was meeting with the national governing bodies for wrestling, water polo, field hockey, fencing, volleyball and team handball.

The meetings serve as a cross-educational opportunity, during which each group has a chance to talk about issues members believe are important. Kallander said the OSLC often can either help with a problem or direct the national governing body officials to the correct NCAA committee.

"They might have some issues that we can look at and say we might want to look at it in terms of sponsoring legislation to address the situation," he said. "It's always a good opportunity to educate both ways."

Officials from USA Wrestling are always willing to discuss the sponsorship of wrestling programs at the NCAA level, Kallander said, and sponsorship of that sport has been a concern for some time.

Another emerging issue the group discussed is the participation of international student-athletes at NCAA institutions.

"The NCAA and its members have played such a huge role in the development of Olympic athletes for the United States over the years. (National governing body officials) see NCAA institutions training a lot of international Olympic athletes for other countries and they feel like there's some denial of opportunity to American athletes," he said. "That's really a tough issue because part of an institution's mission is to be open and to be able to provide the opportunities for anyone. We don't know that there's anything to be done about that. It's a common issue."