The Division I Football Issues Committee is supporting a Big Ten Conference proposal to prohibit coaches from evaluating players at "combines" during the spring evaluation period. The measure also prohibits institutions from hosting such events.

Meeting July 21-22 in Indianapolis, the committee endorsed the proposal as a way to reduce the amount of time coaches spend off campus during the spring.

The legislation would not ban combines from taking place as long as they don't take place on campus or are sponsored by an institution.

During the 2005 American Football Coaches Convention, Division I-A football coaches expressed concern with the proliferation of combines and the effect they were having on the recruiting process. In response, the issues committee established a task force composed of committee members and Division I-A football coaches to review the matter.

Committee Chair Vince Dooley said an AFCA survey showed about 90 percent of respondents supported the measure. "Fortunately the Big Ten has had some experience with the matter," he said, "and it was willing to sponsor the proposal to address the combine issue -- both scholastic and non-scholastic -- for various reasons."

Dooley said the combines are a competitive-equity matter as well.

The committee also endorsed the idea of restricting the practice of holding football camps far from campus. Institutions currently are allowed to conduct a football camp anywhere in the country. The committee's task force, though, wants to limit institutions to conducting camps only within their home state, or a maximum of 50 miles from campus if the event is held out of state.

While committee members are warm to the idea, legislation has yet to be proposed. Dooley, however, believes it is only a matter of time.

He said the Southeastern Conference already prohibits its member institutions from hosting events at sites well off campus. "We began having problems about 10 years ago because institutions were starting to hold camps all over the Southeast, and the conference voted not to allow that to happen," said Dooley, former head football coach and athletics director at the University of Georgia.

In other actions at the meeting, the committee expressed initial support for the development of a football-specific gambling-awareness video that can be shown to coaches and student-athletes and used on in-stadium videoboards. The video would be similar to the basketball-specific version currently available. Committee members also agreed to gauge the Collegiate Commissioners Association's level of support for conducting background checks on officials working postseason bowl games.

Other highlights

Division I Football Issues Committee
July 21-22/Indianapolis

• Discussed current legislation and practices related to out-of-season conditioning. Members noted that the current model implemented in 2003 has helped address the health and safety of student-athletes. The committee asked the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports to develop recommendations or best practices for the off-season for the issues committee's review.

• Appointed a subcommittee to study the effects of the Academic Progress Rate in football.

• Division I-AA members supported a proposal from the Ohio Valley and Big Sky Conferences to require I-AA transfer student-athletes using the one-time transfer exception to have two or more seasons of competition remaining upon transfer. The rationale is to impede the use of "hired guns" from I-A institutions for one year. Many of those student-athletes do not earn a degree at the I-AA institution.

• Noted that a proposal from the Pacific-10 Conference in the 2005-06 legislative cycle would permit teams with 6-6 records to satisfy bowl-eligibility requirements beginning in 2006, when Division I-A teams are allowed to schedule 12 regular-season games.

• Recommended that Tim Curley, athletics director at Pennsylvania State University, succeed Vince Dooley as chair in September.