The Convention meetings have ended, the smoke has cleared, and here's what happened:
• Membership actions. Attempts to override proposals related to the text/instant messaging ban and baseball reform (scholarship changes and squad limits) failed. The override about the golf dates of competition succeeded with 2/3 of the vote. What we hear from the NCAA staff is that if institutions have already scheduled nine three-day competition for 2007-08, it's okay to take a mulligan and let it be. Starting with the 2008-09 academic year, however, its back to 24 dates of competition for everyone.
Proposal 2007-012* was adopted by all three divisions and clarifies the existing authority of the Executive Committee to adopt and implement policy. It's effective immediately.
• What's in. 47 proposals were adopted by the Board, including 2008-3, which allows an institution that awards baseball aid solely based upon need not to be subject to the 25 percent minimum equivalency value per counter. The rest (asterisked proposals are effective immediately): 2006-121, 2007-002, 2007-018, 2007-019*, 2007-021*, 2007-022*, 2007-027*, 2007-029, 2007-032*, 2007-033-A*, 2007-040, 2007-042*, 2007-044*, 2007-045*, 2007-047*, 2007-048*, 2007-049, 2007-051*, 2007-053-B*, 2007-054-A, 2007-056*, 2007-059*, 2007-062*, 2007-063, 2007-065, 2007-071, 2007-074, 2007-075, 2007-076*, 2007-077*, 2007-082, 2007-087, 2007-089, 2007-091*, 2007-093, 2007-094*, 2007-095, 2007-096, 2007-098*, 2007-099, 2007-102*, 2007-104, 2007-105*, 2007-110*, 2007-117, 2008-001*, 2008-002*.
You can download the NCAA's PDF copy of the adopted proposals in long form or table form.
• What's out. 21 offerings were eliminated by the Management Council on the first go-around: 2007-016-A (sniff), 2007-020, 2007-024, 2007-030-A, 2007-031-A, 2007-032, 2007-034, 2007-039, 2007-041, 2007-053-A, 2007-054-B, 2007-057, 2007-069, 2007-070, 2007-084, 2007-085, 2007-086, 2007-088, 2007-092, 2007-101, 2007-108.
• What lives on. 24 proposals are out for comment until March 14. They are: 2007-016-B, 2007-017, 2007-030-B, 2007-030-C, 2007-031-B, 2007-035, 2007-039, 2007-040, 2007-050-A, 2007-050-B, 2007-052, 2007-058, 2007-061, 2007-066, 2007-067, 2007-068, 2007-078, 2007-079, 2007-080, 2007-081, 2007-083, 2007-092, 2007-100, 2007-103.
You can download the NCAA's PDF copy of the proposals in the comment period in long form or table form.
• Tabled. Proposals 2007-025, 2007-026, and 2007-028 were tabled by the Management Council to allow the new presidential group charged with examining issues pertaining to commercialism time to do its work. The Board tabled 2007-073 (to allow the SAAC to be educated about it and provide the Board with feedback) and 2007-109 (in hopes some compromise could be reached). In addition, Proposal 2005-101 is still on the table for the Management Council, but if no action occurs in April 2008, it will be considered defeated.
• Sunk without a trace. A number of proposals were wither withdrawn or made moot by actions of the Management Council. We're not gong to get into those details here; you can read the report for those.
• And:
■ The Board has tasked the to-be-appointed Leadership Council to review the NCAA's amateurism principles (again).
■ The Board has created a presidential task force to "look into issues of commercialism and student-athlete welfare associated with intercollegiate athletics, including all post-season football.
■ The Board approved an adjustment to the APR to discount the lost retention point when a student-athlete who was enrolled at a four-year institution for at least one academic year transfers to an other four-year institution as long as he or she earned the eligibility point in the last term of enrollment prior to transfer and had a cumulative 2.600 GPA at the time of transfer.
■ The Management Council approved a bunch of changes to the Enforcement Polices and Procedures (labeled 2008-PP-1 through 2008-PP-8; details are on our Manual Updates page.
■ Kudos to the NCAA staff for getting PDF files of adopted legislation and proposals in the comment period on-line. Much appreciated. Now I don't have to do it....