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NCAA News Archive - 2004
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BALTIMORE -- For the second year in a row, the Division I Management Council's summer meeting has yielded some hot legislative proposals. A year after introducing landmark academic-reform legislation that was adopted nine months later, the Management Council at its July 19-20 session backed a significant package of recruiting reforms regarding prospects' official campus visits that are poised to become effective for the 2004-05 season.
The recruiting reforms, a package consisting of six items couched as emergency legislation and two others that will enter the year-long legislative cycle, came from the NCAA Task Force on Recruiting that was established in February after alleged excesses in the recruitment of prospects were publicized in the media.
The task force was created at the behest of NCAA President Myles Brand, who said at the time that the initiative signaled "a new approach by the NCAA to take a leadership position -- a timely and aggressive one when necessary -- in issues of national importance."
"There are moments when an organization discovers that behavior has overwhelmed value-based policy," Brand said. "When that happens, the organization must be nimble enough to respond quickly and get back on the right path. This is one of those moments."
Task force members responded quickly with a set of preliminary recommendations that were debated during spring governance and conference meetings before being finalized during the task force's last meeting July 13.
According to the task force, the recommendations are intended to provide "a meaningful framework for a prospect and an institution to make an informed decision about attendance at the institution and participation in the athletics program, while at the same time minimizing the focus on competition among institutions for the prospect and the 'sense of entitlement' and the 'celebrity' atmosphere that can ensue." Task force members said they want their recommendations to promote an official-visit experience that serves the academic and athletics mission of the institutions and to assure a public confidence in the integrity of the recruiting process.
The following six items submitted as emergency legislation will be sent directly to the Division I Board of Directors for consideration at the Board's August 5 meeting.
Management Council Chair Chris Monasch, commissioner of the America East Conference, said of those measures, the first (Proposal No. 04-92) provides the accountability piece of the puzzle that Council members wanted when they saw the task force's first report in April. The proposal requires institutions to address specific areas in their written policies, including responsibilities of hosts, sanctions for violation, and parameters surrounding "unstructured time" during the visit and entertainment -- both on and off campus.
David Berst, chair of the task force and vice-president for Division I, said the emergency-legislation proposals are "common-sense measures" that ensure more of a normal experience in the recruiting process rather than an environment that focuses on celebrity or enticement.
"These proposals help institutions introduce a less competitive and more academic environment for student-athletes to make decisions," Berst said.
The remaining two items in the recruiting-reform package are legislative proposals that the Council introduced into the cycle and will be up for Board consideration in April 2005. They are:
According to the task force, what distinguishes these items as proposals rather than emergency legislation is that there isn't a consensus on whether they are necessary to the recruiting process. Task force members agreed that each has merit, but the membership debate they will receive from going through the legislative cycle will determine whether they are necessary.
With Proposal No. 04-98, task force members recognized the possibility of increased costs to the institution but reasoned that philosophically, if parents are an element of the recruiting process that would be useful in making the decision, paying airfare for them to attend would be appropriate.
As for reducing the maximum number of visits in football and basketball, the task force cited data indicating that most prospects in those sports have not been using the five allotted visits. Anecdotal evidence also suggests that some prospects who already have made their decision use the fifth visit simply as an entertainment opportunity. Some administrators argue, though, that the fifth visit may in fact be the window for smaller schools to attract highly recruited prospects.
Monasch said that type of debate is what Council members will be looking for in the coming months. Overall, though, the Council and the task force believe the eight-proposal package -- particularly the six emergency items -- offer an appropriate and efficient response to what had become a major concern.
"The task force has done a lot of good work in a short time that we hope will have a positive long-term effect on the recruiting environment," Monasch said.
Berst said, "What the task force developed is a positive step that reduces the competitive environment for at least the 48 hours during the official visit. Perhaps this first step will lead to a more expansive culture change in the recruiting environment in the future."
Basketball proposals
In addition to the recruiting proposals, the Management Council received reports and reform packages from both the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA). Both packages represent a comprehensive effort from coaches to address their own recruiting environments. This isn't the first time basketball reform has been proposed, but it is the most concentrated effort yet from the constituency perhaps closest to the issue.
Monasch called both packages an effort from coaches to work with athletics administrators to create a better environment -- not just a better recruiting environment but a better academic environment that supports student-athletes' best academic interests.
The NABC package recommends more than two dozen changes in current legislation that address three core areas -- improving graduation rates of Division I men's basketball student-athletes, maintaining satisfactory progress toward degree under the new standards recently adopted (the 40-60-80 progression in the academic-reform package), and improving retention of enrolled student-athletes.
The package was created by a 16-member NABC special committee and endorsed unanimously by Division I men's basketball coaches during a July 7 meeting in Indianapolis. The plan is the result of an "ethics summit" last fall in Chicago where head coaches discussed challenges they face in the relationships with prospective and current student-athletes, and a challenge to coaches from NCAA President Myles Brand to recommend changes in current regulations and policies that are complementary to NCAA goals of improving student-athletes' academic and social well-being.
The more ground-breaking proposals in the plan include one to permit five seasons of competition in five years. Others formalize coaches' mentoring responsibility to student-athletes, provide various benefits to help foster the relationship between coach and athlete, and permit more contact between coaches and student-athletes outside the playing season.
The WBCA plan also emphasizes recruiting and access. The WBCA's Special Committee on Recruiting and Access composed of coaches and administrators reviewed the Division I women's basketball recruiting calendar, recruiting rules, access and climate and came up with 30 recommendations designed to establish and maintain a positive relationship between the coach and the student-athlete from recruitment through graduation.
Among the recommendations are those that expand the coach/prospect relationship during the summer before initial enrollment and increasing the opportunities provided to prospects during that period, increasing number of coaches who can recruit off campus during the academic year and providing more benefits to the student-athlete's family members.
Management Council members noted that while neither package came through the normal committee or cabinet route, they were willing to introduce the proposals into the legislative cycle to foster the kind of partnership effort called for in the Association's strategic plan.
"There have been a number of efforts from within the Division I governance structure over the last decade to change the recruiting culture, particularly in men's basketball," Monasch said. "While some positive legislation has emerged from those efforts, they have not achieved the kind of comprehensive change that was sought.
"The coaches believe these proposals can lead to a better day and they believe they have the responsibility to be the authors of this type of reform. We've gone through years of athletics administrators trying to figure out what's best for coaches and student-athletes -- why shouldn't coaches have a shot at changing the culture?"
Both packages now are subject to the normal legislative process -- committee and cabinet review in the fall and membership debate at the Convention, followed by formal Council consideration and the 60-day comment period in January and February. The Board of Directors would give final consideration to the proposals in April.
"This is a good opportunity for the NABC and the WBCA to take ownership of reform," Berst said. "It's clear that there are still many issues to address in basketball, and this is a signal from coaches that they are ready to demonstrate the kind of leadership necessary to achieve the right outcome. As we know from previous efforts, reform requires teamwork, and in this case it's a plus to engage coaches as a potential ally rather than as a 'we and them' approach."
Other highlights
Division I Management Council
July 19-20/Baltimore
Emergency/noncontroversial legislation
The Division I Management Council approved the following as emergency or noncontroversial legislation that becomes effective immediately.
Wake Forest AD selected as vice-chair
Wake Forest University Athletics Director Ron Wellman has been appointed as vice-chair of the Division I Management Council. Wellman, whose term on the Council runs through April 2006, will serve a one-year term in this role and be positioned to become chair of the Council in July 2005. America East Conference Commissioner Chris Monasch is the Council's current chair.
Among Wellman's duties as vice-chair of the Council will be to lead the group's administrative committee.
Wellman was named Wake Forest's athletics director in October 1992. Among his accomplishments is the introduction of the school's annual Academic Excellence Banquet, a campus-wide affair honoring student-athletes who have achieved in the classroom. Wellman's leadership also has produced a new campus soccer stadium, the new Kenneth D. Miller Center that houses student services and life skills programs, and a new state-of-the-art practice facility for the Demon Deacon men's and women's basketball teams.
Wellman, who also chairs the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee, earned his undergraduate degree in business and health and physical education from Bowling Green State University, where he was a pitcher on the baseball team for four years.
After receiving a master's from Bowling Green, he joined the faculty and coaching staff at Elmhurst College in 1971, serving as head baseball coach, assistant basketball coach, assistant football coach and associate professor of health and physical education.
One year later he became Elmhurst's athletics director and guided a total renovation of the athletics facilities. Every sport at the school improved its won-lost record during his tenure. Elmhurst recognized Wellman's contribution in 1985 by naming him to the school's hall of fame.
In 1981, Wellman became head baseball coach at Northwestern University. In five years, his squads compiled a 180-97 record, and his 1984 team set a school record with 44 victories. In his final three years at Northwestern (1984-86), 18 of his players achieved either Academic All-America or Academic All-Big Ten Conference honors.
Wellman was named athletics director at Minnesota State Mankato in 1986, and a year later he moved to the same post at Illinois State University, where he worked until moving to Wake Forest in 1992.
CAP adjusts deadline for institutions to submit academic data
The Committee on Academic Performance (CAP) has modified the deadline for institutions to submit student-athlete academic data.
The CAP, which conducted its initial meeting July 14-15 in Chicago, approved a request from the Ohio Valley Conference to change the data submission deadline for all Division I institutions from two weeks after the first day of fall-term classes to four weeks. The OVC was among several leagues that noted the two-week deadline period placed unreasonable administrative burdens on institutions. The four-week deadline will be in place for the data due this fall, and the CAP will review whether that deadline will be retained for subsequent years.
The CAP, the group charged with monitoring the academic-reform structure adopted over the past two years, is chaired by University of Hartford President Walter Harrison and reports to the Management Council and Board of Directors.
The CAP also agreed to support Proposal No. 03-24, which would prohibit an institution from providing financial aid awards to student-athletes on a term-by-term basis, except for awards provided to a midyear enrollee. CAP members believe the proposal is consistent with the intent of the Academic Performance Program (APP), since it would prevent institutions from diminishing the effect of contemporaneous penalties by offering term-by-term financial aid awards. The group also supports amending the proposal to exempt student-athletes who the institution can document are in the last semester of enrollment before graduation.
CAP members also asked the Management Council to approve a modification of wording in Bylaw 15.5.7 that would preclude institutions from re-awarding financial aid subject to the contemporaneous penalty to any student when the penalized team already is at its roster limit. For example, if a basketball team that is subject to contemporaneous penalties has used its allotment of 13 scholarships but loses two under the contemporaneous penalty, that team would not be able to offer aid to an incoming student-athlete or a walk-on. If the team had used only 10 of its 13 scholarships and was penalized two, it could offer aid to one more student-athlete, since its new roster limit would be 11 under the contemporaneous penalty.
The Council initially approved the request but voted to reconsider the motion when some members questioned whether the change fit as a modification of wording. Eventually, Council members agreed that the change was substantive enough to require going through the legislative process.
In other action, the CAP began creating a policies and procedures manual that eventually will be forwarded to the Management Council and Board of Directors for approval. Among the policies and procedures are those for administering appeals and waivers related to requesting extension of the filing deadlines for reporting APP data, requesting relief from the penalties imposed for failing to meet the deadlines relative to reporting APP data, and requesting an alternative cohort definition for data collection purposes.
The CAP also established four subgroups to facilitate its administration of the APP, including an administrative committee that will act on emergency and noncontroversial matters. Other subcommittees were established to deal with data collection and reporting, appeals, and penalties and awards.
In other items, the committee:
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