SAVANNAH, Georgia — A more efficient way of shepherding proposals through the legislative cycle implemented in January resulted in only 30 of more than 140 original proposals being considered a final time by the Division I Management Council at its April 10 meeting.

With most of the proposals in this year’s cycle being handled in meetings at the 2006 NCAA Convention, the Management Council was able to focus on the more meaningful proposals at its April legislative session.

One was a proposal the Council defeated that would eliminate the one-time transfer exception in baseball (Proposal No. 05-111). Many people believe the exception has contributed over the years to higher transfer rates and lower academic performance in the sport. Transfers in baseball number from about 25 to 300 annually, much more than in any other sport, and baseball’s aggregate Academic Progress Rate is lower than all sports except football and men’s basketball.

But the Council did not agree with the approach to address systemic problems in the sport by eliminating the one-time transfer exception.

The Board of Directors must uphold the Council action at its April 27 meeting to keep the one-time transfer exception in effect.

The Board already will consider at that meeting whether the number of regular-season games in baseball should be reduced from 56 to 52. The Council favored maintaining the 56-game max-

imum in January, but the Board deferred action until April. Officials from the American Baseball Coaches Association point to data that show no quantifiable effect of a 56-game season on student-athlete academic performance, but it remains to be seen whether that will persuade the Board. Presidents at the 2005 NCAA Convention in fact soundly rejected an idea to extend the baseball season a week longer to accommodate a uniform starting date and told the baseball community that, if anything, they would prefer a shorter season.

In other items of interest, the Council tabled two controversial proposals dealing with medical expenses. One, Proposal No. 05-101, specifies that they be limited to athletically related injuries or illnesses, which effectively rescinds legislation adopted in 2004. The other, Proposal No. 05-102, is more expansive in that it allows schools to buy medical insurance policies that cover expenses for any student-athlete injury or illness.

Council members who supported tabling the measures reasoned that the current rules have not been in place long enough for anyone to determine whether the cost and competitive-equity concerns many smaller programs had with the legislation to begin with have in fact been realized. Council members want to gather more data before considering whether a change is necessary.

The Council also approved and sent to the Board Proposal No. 03-24 (as amended by No. 03-24-1), which requires schools to award financial aid on an annual basis rather than term by term. The Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee strongly supported the idea, as did the Committee on Academic Performance.

In other legislative action, the Council defeated a proposal to establish men’s rowing as an NCAA championship sport. Council members were lobbied hard by supporters of the existing Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta, and they also were reluctant to approve the measure without funding in place.

Members also apparently settled debate about skill instruction when they favored Proposal No. 05-131-B over three other options. The new legislation, which applies to all sports except football, allows more than four student-athletes to engage in skill-related instruction outside the playing season (September 15 through April 15) with their coach(es) at any one time. It also specifies that all athletically related activities outside the playing season are prohibited one week before the beginning of final exams. In women’s basketball, the proposal specifies that not more than two hours per week may be spent on skill-related instruction outside the playing season.

The Council also approved a recommendation from its I-AA Governance Committee to allow institutions to schedule 12 regular-season games on an annual basis beginning in 2006. That aligns with legislation that was approved for Division I-A schools last April.

Other highlights

Division I Management Council

April 10/Savannah, Georgia

• Tabled by a 45-5 vote the endorsement of a value statement from the NCAA/USOC task force that emphasizes institutions’ commitment to student-athlete participation opportunities until costs associated with the statement can be determined. Divisions II and III already have supported the statement.

• Recommended that the Board of Directors conduct its January meeting later in the cycle (perhaps two weeks after the Convention) to give the presidents and the membership more time to deal adequately with the legislative load typically generated by the Management Council at its January meeting.

• Agreed to the concept of providing Council members with the following four voting options during the January meeting at which legislative proposals are initially considered: (1) send the proposal directly to the Board for adoption (two-thirds majority required); (2) send the proposal for membership comment (simple majority required); (3) defeat the proposal; or (4) abstain (abstentions are not counted in the voting totals). Previously, a fifth option was provided whereby the Council could send proposals for comment with or without support. Under the new options, proposals that receive a combined majority among Nos. 1 and 2 also go out for comment.

• Elected Kate Hickey, senior associate athletics director at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, as chair of the Council to succeed Wake Forest University Athletics Director Ron Wellman, whose term on the Council expires after the April governance meetings. Also elected Jackie Campbell, associate commissioner of the Atlantic 10 Conference, as vice chair.

• Referred a request from the Committee on Women’s Athletics to review the use of male practice players in women’s sports to the Championships/Competition Cabinet.

• Noted in a membership subcommittee report that 17 Division I-A institutions did not meet football attendance requirements in 2005 and must average 15,000 in actual or paid attendance in 2006 to remain in compliance with Division I-A membership criteria.

• Agreed to forward noncontroversial legislation to the Board that eliminates the ECAC Football Classic as an annual contest exemption and establishes the Gridiron Classic as an annual exemption for participants from the Northeast Conference and the Pioneer Football League.