Here's what's brewing....
Hot Topics
EdCol: Nonqualifier two-year transfers
There's a new EdCol today that covers the permutations of applying NCAA rules to JC transfers who are not qualifiers.
Field hockey dead period reminder
The NCAA Division I Field Hockey Championship is approaching. You can pick up a dead period reminder--now in a new vertical style to clear up recent possible confusion.
The Board's basketball interps
As we noted, at its meeting last week, the Board of Directors used its authority set forth in NCAA 5.4.1.1 to issue several interpretations related to men's basketball. And here they are.
The full Board report is also out.
Reports of dead periods greatly exaggerated
Whoops!
We accidentally posted all of our planned dead period reminders a few days ago. We've fixed that so that only the current reminder is available, which is as it should be.
Because recruiting calendars can change, we recommend you toss anything beyond the revised, initial reminder.
6-6 = bowl
One more thing from last week's Board of Directors meeting that just popped up on LSDBi: It sponsored legislation for the 2009-10 cycle that would treat football teams with .500 records the same as teams with winning records for bowl participation.
New AGA documents
The NCAA's Agents, Gambling, and Amateurism Activities group weighs in today with three new documents:
• Information about the 2010 Major League Soccer (MLS) Super Draft
• Information regarding the 2010 NFL Draft, tryouts and agents
• A memo about NFL Players Association rules about contract advisors or their representatives communicating with student-athletes who are not eligible for the NFL draft.
NAAC has a new website
NAACConnect.com will be a one-stop shop for current members to share ideas, upload documents and discuss compliance topics and legislative proposals using this new interactive web tool.
A big meeting for the Board
The report of yesterday's Board of Directors meeting isn't out yet, but stories on the NCAA website capture the major developments:
• Presidents endorse game reduction in basketball
This story summarizes the actions taken by the Board on the final recommendations of the NCAA Basketball Academic Enhancement Group.
• Board approves basketball recruiting reforms
This item came up through some recommendations from AMA and the Basketball Focus Group in the Enforcement Department. They're important. If you haven't read and disseminated these yet, you might want to do so as soon as possible.
• The NCAA office will be expanding physically, a committee has been formed to oversee the search for a new NCAA president, and there's new leadership for both the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee.
An updated quiz
We've updated our New for 2010 online quiz (on our Quizzes page) to include a few of the more relevant proposals adopted by the Legislative Council earlier this month. We'll keep updating that quiz as the 2009-10 legisaltive cycle progresses.
Ten things you should know
The Legislative Council held its October meeting and looked at all the pending legislation, the bulk of which it will consider in 2010. You can pick up a report and the four attachments at our Legislation page.
Attachment B is probably the most important of the four. The Legislative Council adopted 10 proposals as noncontroversial legislation. None of them is particularly earth-shattering even though just about all of them are effective immediately. The Board of Directors may review them at its meeting today, but it's unlikely to take any action with them.
They're good to know about because some of them might make your life just a little bit easier. Which is why we've updated our NCAA Manual Updates page for your reading pleasure.
Touché
An addendum to the first dead period reminder issued yesterday (and since updated): Fencing coaches may observe prospects participating in the North American Cup B Fencing Championship on November 9, per NCAA 30.10.10.1.2. For the sleuth in you, it looks like Proposal 2009-3 was adopted for just this very event.
Dawn of the Dead Period
The NLI's early signing window is approaching, and so is the dead period that surrounds the initial day of the signing period. Pick up a reminder and distribute it to your coaching staff to help prevent violations.
A brief legislative update
The Pac-10 voted to sponsor several NCAA legislative proposals. Here's an update on their status.
• 2009-13 allows track and field volunteer coaches to place and receive telephone calls involving prospects. The Legislative Council preliminarily opposes it.
• 2009-26 allows unofficial visits to occur during dead periods if a prospect has signed a NLI.
• 2009-32 would permit unlimited telephone calls to prospects during contact periods in all sports.
• 2009-41 would eliminate printing of any athletics department publication except game programs.
• 2009-43 would allow electronically transmitted correspondence with prospects beginning May 1 of the prospect's senior year of high school once a financial deposit has been received by the institution. The Legislative Council preliminarily supports it.
• 2009-73 pretty much precludes lodging student-athletes at a hotel the night before a home game. The Pac-10 voted in October to withdraw it.
• 2009-82 limits the number of women's rowers who can compete on an outside team foreign tour. The legislation originally limited this number to no more than 2; in October, we modified the proposal to raise the limit to no more than 4.
• 2009-87, which precludes institutional or conference foreign tours, has been withdrawn.
The Pac-10 also voted to sponsor legislation to count non-traditional segment competition against traditional segment limits, but withdrew it before publication of the POPL.
Webinar for new Membership Portal
The NCAA Eligibility Center's membership portal is available through LSDBi. The portal provides institutions better Institutional Request List (IRL) management; it also offers institutions and conference offices enhanced searching and reporting capabilities to prospects on an IRL.
The Eligibility Center will host a webinar Wednesday, November 4 from 4 to 5 p.m. Eastern time.
The weblink: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/vcc/join?id=w9824968&role=attend&pw=A982496
Audio dial-in number: 800/765-0709 • Passcode: 9824968
And you can save yourself some trouble and download this event to your calendar.
Six here, but not there
A new staff interp:
Six-Hour Requirement For Eligible Student-Athletes Who Transfer During an Academic Term (I)
Date Published: October 7, 2009
The academic and membership affairs staff determined that a student-athlete who transfers to the certifying institution during the same regular academic term in which he or she was enrolled full time at the previous institution (e.g., fall semester to fall semester or quarter) is not required, upon transfer, to have completed six hours of academic credit during the same regular academic term at the previous institution. [References: NCAA Division I Bylaws 14.4.3.1 (fulfillment of credit-hour requirements), 14.4.3.1.2 (transfer), 14.4.3.1.2.1 (six-hour requirement for transfer), 14.4.3.1.5 (additional application of six-hour and transfer rules -- baseball), 14.5.4 (two-year college transfers), 14.5.5.2.10 (one-time transfer exception) and staff interpretation (01/02/1991, item a), that has been archived.]
New EdCol on social networking
The new EdCol touches on a number of ways coaches can communicate with prospects via social networks, but the key bit of info is near the bottom:
"Accordingly, although it is permissible for a prospective student-athlete's name and/or picture to appear on an athletics department staff member's profile page of a social networking Web site to identify the prospective student-athlete as a "friend" of the athletics department staff member, staff members may not initiate or accept such requests until such time that it is permissible to send electronically transmitted correspondence to a prospective student-athlete."
So if a coach sends a friend request to a prospect and that request generates an email, the PSA better be old enough to receive it.
NLI webcast
The NLI folks and the Eligibility Center will host a webcast on October 7 to run through the changes to the process for generating NLIs. The details:
Time: 4 to 5 p.m. Eastern time
URL: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/vcc/join?id=w9340942&role=attend&pw=A934094
Audio dial-in number: 888/503-8171 • Passcode: 9340942
To save you the trouble, you can download this event to your calendar.
Catching a break
The NCAA Division I Legislative Council Subcommittee for Legislative Relief approved a blanket waiver of NCAA Bylaw 20.8.1 for the 2009-10 academic year to permit institutions eligible for national collegiate championships in sports that have two-thirds of the membership in one division to follow NCAA rules of the institution's division. Currently, all sports that have the national collegiate championships as the postseason opportunity include two-thirds Division I members. It has come to the attention of the NCAA staff that Divisions II and III members have not been complying with the requirement in Bylaw 20.8.1 for several years. Thus, the blanket waiver only impacts Divisions II and III institutions; however, since this is a common legislative provision that applies to all three divisions, a blanket waiver in each division is necessary. The subcommittee noted the blanket waiver is appropriate to provide some flexibility for the 2009-10 academic year while the membership discusses solutions for this issue (e.g., legislative proposal to amend the rule, communicate compliance is required). To view this blanket waiver in its entirety, please access SLR Case No. 12273 on LSDBi.
About that waiver for the junior national team
Remember those five-year clock waivers that could be granted under NCAA 14.2.1.4 for junior-level participation?
"The NCAA student-athlete reinstatement staff and committee will no longer be granting athletics activities waivers for junior-level participation....[A]lthough institutions may have been granted athletics activities waivers for student-athletes based on junior-level participation in previous years, future waivers submitted for consideration involving participation that occurs beginning in the 2009-10 academic year will be denied inasmuch as they do not meet the legislated participation requirements."
LSDBi has the details.
A couple of eligibility interps
Fourth Season of Eligibility for Nonqualifier in a Five-Year Program (I)
Date Published: September 17, 2009
Type: Staff Interpretation
The academic and membership affairs staff determined that a fourth season of intercollegiate competition may be granted to a student-athlete who is a nonqualifier and whose designated degree program is identified in the institution's official catalog as a five-year program or otherwise requires the completion of a minimum of 150-semester or 225-quarter hours, provided that at the beginning of the fifth academic year following the student-athlete's initial, full-time collegiate enrollment, the student-athlete has successfully completed at least 67 percent of his or her designated degree program. [References: NCAA Bylaws 14.3.3.1 (fourth season of competition -- not a qualifier) and 14.4.3.2.1 (five-year degree program)]
Administration of Hardship Waiver for Transfer Student-Athletes (I)
Date Published: September 17, 2009
Type: Official Interpretation
The committee determined that in applying the hardship waiver legislation to a student-athlete who suffers an injury or illness while attending an NCAA Division II or Division III institution and later transfers to a Division I institution, the legislation of the division in which the injury or illness occurred or the Division I legislation may be used. The application of a particular division's legislation must include all the applicable elements of that division's legislation, as opposed to selected elements of the legislation of each division. [References: NCAA Bylaws 14.2.4 (hardship waiver) and 14.2.4.3.6.3 (transfer student-athletes); and staff interpretation (9/17/09, item b), which has been archived]
Equestrians and amateurism
We don't have the sport in the Pac-10, but for the sake of completeness, there's a new EdCol about equestrian and amateurism.
Flash News
Planning on sending your media guide to prospects on a CD or flash drive? Better read this.
(Note: As long as the hamburger at left isn't edible, this drive is probably okay.)
Friday interps
One official, two from the staff:
Contract or Commitment to Participate on a Team and Perform other Duties (I)
Date Published: September 4, 2009
Type: Official Interpretation
The committee confirmed that if an individual signs a contract or commitment with an athletics organization (e.g., club) in which the individual agrees to participate on a team and perform other duties (e.g., coaching the same or another team in the club system) and the contract or commitment does not specify the amount of compensation to be received for each activity, all compensation provided as part of the contract or commitment must be included when determining whether the team on which the individual participated provided any of its players more than actual and necessary expenses. [References: NCAA Division I Bylaws 12.02.4 (professional athletics team) and 12.2.5 (contracts and compensation)]
Criteria for a Repeated Course to be Acceptable for Initial-Eligibility Certification (I)
Date Published: September 4, 2009
Type: Staff Interpretation
The academic and membership affairs staff determined that to be acceptable for initial-eligibility certification, a repeated course (including credit recovery) must be substantially comparable, qualitatively and quantitatively (e.g., content, textbook, assessments, duration), to the previously attempted course. [Reference: NCAA Division I Bylaw 14.3.1.2.8 (repeat courses)]
Criteria for Determining Seasons of Competition for Prospective Student-Athletes Presenting Secondary School Credentials from Countries with Multiple Tiers of Secondary School Education (I)
Date Published: September 4, 2009
Type: Staff Interpretation
The academic and membership affairs staff determined the following parameters apply for purposes of identifying the expected date of high school graduation pursuant to the seasons-of-competition legislation for prospective student-athletes from countries with multiple tiers of secondary school education, where successful completion of each of those tiers may equate to high school graduation.
(1) Prospective Student-Athlete Completes Secondary School in the Timeframe Prescribed by the Country's Ministry of Education.
A prospective student-athlete's expected date of graduation will advance to the date at which the prospective student-athlete's class completes each tier of the country's secondary school system, provided the prospective student-athlete completes the tier within the timeframe prescribed by the country's ministry of education.
(2) Prospective Student-Athlete Delays Completion of Secondary School Tier.
A prospective student-athlete's expected date of graduation will advance to the date at which the prospective student-athlete's class completes a tier of the country's secondary school system, even if the prospective student-athlete delays his or her completion of the tier.
(3) Prospective Student-Athlete Attempts but Does Not Successfully Complete Secondary School Tier.
If a prospective student-athlete begins a tier of the country's secondary school system, but never successfully completes the tier, the prospective student-athlete's expected date of graduation will remain the date on which the prospective student-athlete's class completed the previous tier.
The countries for which this policy applies are all multitiered leaving exam countries. This includes, but is not limited to, the United Kingdom; the University of Cambridge international exam program; New Zealand; Quebec, Canada; Scotland; the Caribbean exam countries and British patterned Africa.
[References: NCAA Division I Bylaws 14.2.3 (criteria for determining season of competition), 14.2.3.2 (tennis and swimming and diving), 14.2.3.2 (delayed enrollment -- tennis, swimming and diving, and women's volleyball), 14.3.1.2.1 (core-curriculum time limitation) and 14.3.5.5 (international academic standards)]