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Saturday, Jan. 16

On the last day of business at the convention, the NCAA Division I Board of Directors revived a piece of legislation Saturday that was dismissed Thursday by the Division I Legislative Council. The proposal in question would require institutions to send academically deficient men's basketball players to summer school before their first semester to "acclimate" them to college life.

"The presidents wanted the membership to have more discussion on the subject, and many expressed support for the proposal's academic portion," according to an NCAA news release.

The proposal will be sent back to Division I member institutions for further debate, and a final vote is scheduled for April.

In NCAA Division II, members approved two legislative proposals mandating that conditioning activities, practice and competition for many sports cannot take place until September 7 or the fourth day of classes, whichever is earlier. The legislation's proponents argue that the change will provide athletes "the opportunity to begin getting acclimated to the campus, their class schedule and nonathletic-related commitments before engaging in countable athletically related activities."

The other legislation change adopted limits out-of-season practice time for many sports. Together, the pair completes a Division II initiative designed to encourage athletes to achieve a "life in the balance," giving equal focus to their academics, athletics and personal lives.

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Friday, Jan. 15

Over the past two years, failure by a coach or an institution to monitor a sports program was the most common major violation found by NCAA enforcement staff in Division I. Unethical conduct -- including academic fraud, failure to address prior violations and providing extra benefits to prospects, athletes or their relatives -- was a close second.

Julie Roe Lach, new NCAA vice president of enforcement, shared her views with Division I administrators on a number of troubling trends Friday facing college athletics. Specifically, she said the most common major violation found by NCAA enforcement staff in Division I was failure by a coach or an institution to monitor a sports program. Coming in a close second, she said, were acts that included unethical conduct such as academic fraud, failure to address prior violations and providing extra benefits to prospects, athletes or their relatives. She added that there are more than 4,000 secondary violations reported to the NCAA annually--mostly improper phone calls or text messages sent by coaches during the recruiting process.

Lach recommended that attendees report any and all of the secondary violations they discover in their athletic departments. She added that taking a proactive approach usually helps an institution's case if it is ever under investigation for a major violation.

"The better job an institution does monitoring its athletics program and self-reporting secondary violations, the better chance the institution has of avoiding a major infractions case," Lach said. "It's better to have violations and self-report than to not report any violations. The Committee on Infractions and [NCAA] enforcement staff are most concerned about institutions that do not report violations."

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Thursday, Jan. 14

Thursday marked NCAA President Mark Emmert's first major speach in his new position. He spent much of his 35-minute keynote address defending against criticism the NCAA has received regarding its handling of recent high-profile situations in college athletics.

"So let me be really clear about some things that I think require some clarification," Emmert said. "First of all, it's wrong for parents to sell the athletic services of their student-athletes to a university, and we need to make sure that we have rules to stop that problem. And today we don't. We have to fix that."

Emmert also addressed reports of professional agents providing payments to collegiate athletes. "Student-athletes trading their standing as star student-athletes for money or benefits is not acceptable, and we need to address it and make sure it doesn't happen," Emmert added. "Student-athletes are students. They're not professionals. And we're not going to pay them. And we're not going to allow other people to pay them to play."

According to Inside Higher Ed, Emmert stressed that the NCAA needs to clarify its "principles" and how they are represented in its rules "so that everyone knows them and they don't wind up second-guessing when we make such decisions," including those in the Newton, Bush and Pryor cases. To do so, he noted, he is readying legislative proposals to address issues such as "third-party influences in recruiting" and will present them to the governing bodies of all three NCAA divisions at their April meetings.

"We have to find a way to manage that problem clearly and unequivocally so that people know where we stand and what we'll tolerate and what we won't," Emmert said. "Behaviors that undermine the collegiate model, wherever they occur, are a threat to those basic values, and we can't tolerate them. If we believe in those values ... we need to be ready to defend them. And if we don't, then we have to be ready to suffer the criticism that comes from not doing so."

In Thursday's legislative action, the Division III Presidents Council chose not to revise its stance objecting to the fundraising proposal backed by the SAAC and the Management Council. The proposal would allow institutions to earmark fundraising dollars for individual student-athletes.

However, the vote was close, decided by just a one vote. According to the NCAA News, a few of the presidents thought that if enacted, the proposal might inadvertently create a kind of class system within teams, which could "jeopardize the team chemistry that is so integral to the college experience," the presidents said. Those presidents were also concerned the legislation would be difficult to monitor.

In perhaps the biggest news of the day, the Division I Legislative Council defeated a "retention model-summer school" proposal from the Basketball Academic Enhancement Group that would have required some incoming men's basketball student-athletes to attend summer school. The proposal would also have allowed coaches limited access to those student-athletes during the summer for skill development.

According to the NCAA, Prop. No. 2010-58-A would have required incoming student-athletes identified by the school as needing an academic head start to take six hours and pass three in summer school. An alternate proposal (2010-58-B) would have required that all six hours be passed. Another alternate proposal (2010-58-C) would create an exception for service academies. All three were defeated.

In another headline-grabbing decision, the Legislative Council defeated Prop. No. 2010-42, which would prohibit coaches from making verbal offers of aid before July 1 following a prospect's junior year. Members noted potential difficulties in monitoring and enforcement.

"There was a feeling that there's some merit to the proposal, but the concern is, how is that enforceable?" said Shane Lyons, Chair of the Legislative Council and Associate Commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference. "You don't want to endorse legislation that you can't enforce. Those concerns have merit to them."

To address another high-profile decision, the Council decided to solicit further comment on a proposal that would alter rules on the use of student-athlete likenesses in promotions. The proposal will be sent to the NCAA membership for a "comment period" and then will be reconsidered at governance meetings in April.

In other action, the Council:

• Sent out for comment Prop. No. 2010-24, which would require student-athletes interested in "testing the waters" of the NBA draft to remove their name from consideration before the first day of the spring National Letter of Intent signing period.

• Defeated Prop. No. 2010-76, which would have reduced the number of scholarships available to women's basketball programs from 15 to 13.

• Sent out for comment several proposals changing the way Division I considers non-traditional coursework for eligibility purposes.

• Adopted a variety of proposals that will shape the future of sand volleyball, setting parameters for coaching and financial aid limits, recruiting rules, and playing and practice seasons.

All action will be considered final at the close of the Board meeting Saturday.

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Wednesday, Jan. 13

The NCAA Division I Legislative Council adopted a proposal that states Division I delegates no longer need to attend the NCAA Convention to vote on an override. According to the NCAA News, the proposal received support because of the money it would save institutions in travel during a time when colleges and universities are slicing budgets for both athletics and academics. Council members also cited advancements in technology as a reason to pass the rule.

If the proposal is adopted by the Board, the cabinet will meet next month to discuss an alternate voting procedure, which could include online voting. No vote at the Council meeting is considered final until the close of the Board meeting on Saturday.

In NCAA Division II News, the Division II Management Council decided to suspend applications for membership for new Division II conferences for the next two years.
The Council also voted to reduce the maximum number of institutions accepted annually into the membership process from 10 to eight, effective with applications received by June 1 and thereafter.

According to the NCAA News, "the decision to establish the two-year moratorium on new conference members is based on the need to vet various concepts pertaining to conference membership resulting from Division II's long-range strategy discussions on membership growth. The moratorium will be from the conclusion of this Convention through the January 2013 Convention."

Meanwhile, the NCAA Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) made its mark when the group persuaded the Division III Management Council to change its mind on a controversial fundraising proposal

The NCAA News reported that

"after hearing the rationale behind SAAC's support for Convention Proposal No. 4, which would allow schools to designate money a student-athlete earns via fundraising toward that student-athlete's actual and necessary expenses for the activity or item in question, the Division III Management Council at its meeting yesterday changed its "no position" stance to recommending that the Presidents Council back the SAAC."

The President's Council, however, did not agree, as noted in Thursday's report, above.

R.J. Anderson is the Online Editor at Athletic Management.