Here's what's brewing....
Men's basketball dead period reminder
There's a men's basketball dead period starting this Thursday. Pick up a reminder.
Almost forgot. Whew….
Women's Lacrosse Championship dead period
As the women's lacrosse season winds down, a dead period surrounds the NCAA Championship. We have a reminder.
Early report from Anaheim
Helpful news from the site of the first of two NCAA Regional Rules Seminars.
Round 3
NAAC wants feedback on reasonable standards for...
• Campus visits
• Automobile registration
• Camps and clinics
…before the June Convention, if possible.
Men's Basketball FAQ, Volume 2
If you've already watched our movie about the new men's basketball recruiting model, there's not much new in the updated FAQ except this:
Question No. 11: May a coaching staff member have in-person contact with a prospective student-athlete or the prospective student-athlete's relatives or legal guardians during a day of the prospective student-athlete's competition, provided the prospective student-athlete has signed a National Letter of Intent or has submitted a financial deposit in response to the institution's offer of admission?
Answer: If a prospective student-athlete has signed a National Letter of Intent or the institution's written offer of admission and/or financial aid or the institution has received the prospective student-athlete's financial deposit in response to the institution's offer of admission, in-person contact with the prospective student-athlete and/or his relatives or legal guardians is permissible in the following situations:
(a) During a recruiting period, in-person contact is permissible, subject to the provisions of Bylaw 13.1.6.2.
(b) For competition that occurs during an evaluation period, in-person contact is permissible after the prospective student-athlete's final contest of an event is completed and the prospective student-athlete is released by the appropriate authority and he leaves the dressing and meeting facility.
Therefore, a coaching staff member may sit with a prospective-student-athlete's relatives or legal guardians during such a prospective student-athlete's competition that occurs during a recruiting period but may not sit with the relatives or legal guardians during an evaluation period.
Frankly, it probably would have been much simpler to just to leave the ban pertaining to contact on a day of competition in place, regardless of the PSA's status as a signed or committed prospect.
Transfers and APR post-season penalties
A new EdCol about student-athletes who want to transfer rather than live the rest of their collegiate-eligibility lives under an NCAA post-season ban due to the team's poor APR performance.
Non-scholastic football and women's basketball events
Proposals 2011-45 and 2011-46 have been on the books since January, limiting the types of non-scholastic football and women's basketball events can be held on campus. A new EdCol lays out in exquisite detail what can and can't happen.
5 means 5
Staff Interpretation
Contractors Serving as Strength and Conditioning Coaches (I)
Date Published: May 4, 2012
The academic and membership affairs staff determined an institution may contract with or hire individuals to perform strength, flexibility or conditioning activities in accordance with institutional policies and procedures applicable to all employees or independent contractors, even if those policies and procedures do not require them to be considered institutional employees. In bowl subdivision football, any such individuals who work with football student-athletes in any capacity, regardless of the nature or duration of the activities, are subject to the institutional limit of not more than five weight or strength coaches for the duration of the academic year [References: NCAA Division I Bylaws 11.7.2.1.1 (weight or strength coach), 11.7.3.1.1 (weight or strength coach) and 11.7.4.1.1 (weight or strength coach); and staff interpretations (5/13/92, Item No. a) and (5/2/07 (Item No. 1a), which has been archived, Proposal No. 2010-19]
Applying the fall football academic rules
The omnibus EdCol has been revised. Still 22 questions in length, but it replaces the earlier 3/1/2012 EdCol.
NCAA Scouting Service System
The NCAA's Scouting Service System for football and basketball is available (NCAA ID required). We've added the link to our NCAA page.
April Board meeting highlights
The report is not up yet, but here's what went on:
• As already reported, the Board delayed the implementation of the increased initial-eligibility requirements contained in Proposal 2011-94 to August 1, 2016, by adopting Proposal 2012-8.
• But when it came to Proposal 2011-69, which changes the 2-4 and 4-2-4 transfer regulations, the Board voted 1-16 not to seek membership input on delaying that one.
• Proposal 2012-9 was adopted. It will delay by one year the implementation of the new athletics certification program, dubbed the Institutional Performance Program. Institutions still have to implement any pending certification cycle two and three plans for improvement.
• PP-2012-1 was adopted, revising NCAA 32.7.1 to assist in avoiding additional time delays and costs associated with the remanding of a summary disposition report.
• The Board didn't act upon any of the proposals handled by the Legislative Council in April. So they'll remain in the override period until June 25, 2012
• Limited-resource Institutions (teams in the bottom 15 percent of all Division I members in resources, excluding FBS institutions), will get a more flexible transition in meeting the APR requirements for post-season play.
• The Board adopted a window for each of the next eight years during which bowl games may be played. The windows run from roughly mid-December to early January.
• Looks like the Leadership Council will be presenting to the Board in October recommendations for a revised women's basketball recruiting model, and is seeking membership feedback.
• On June 15, 2012, the interpretive authority granted to the Basketball Focus Group in October 2009 as part of the men's basketball reform package will transfer to Academic and Membership Services.
UPDATE (4/30): The report is out.
Counting contests, scheduling contests
Two new staff interps today:
NCAA Division I Membership Scheduling Requirement and Exempted Contests (I)
The NCAA academic and membership affairs staff determined that, in sports other than football, basketball, men's swimming and diving, men's indoor and outdoor track and field and wrestling, in order to meet scheduling requirements, an institution that schedules an exempted contest pursuant to NCAA Bylaw 17 must count such a contest in determining whether the institution has scheduled and played at least 50 percent of its contests beyond the minimum-contests requirements for sports sponsorship against Division I opponents. [References: NCAA Division I Bylaws 20.9.5.1 (scheduling requirement) and 20.9.4.3 (minimum contests and participants requirements for sports sponsorship), a staff interpretation (6/7/95, Item No. b), which has been archived, and NCAA Interpretations Committee Minutes (9/16/93, Item No. 1)]
Institution's Subvarsity Team Competing Against a High School Team in Conjunction with a Collegiate Athletics Contest (I)
The NCAA academic and membership affairs staff determined that, in sports other than bowl subdivision football (except for national service academies), an institution's subvarsity team may compete against a high school team in conjunction with an institution's collegiate athletics event. [References: NCAA Bylaws 13.11.1.3 (competition against prospective student-athletes -- sports other than football), 13.11.1.4 (competition against prospective student-athletes -- bowl subdivision football), 13.11.1.4.1 (exception -- national service academy subvarsity team), 13.11.1.5 (competition against prospective student-athletes -- championship subdivision football) and staff interpretation (10/3/90, Item No. b) which has been archived]
I wonder how many scenarios these interps resolve.
Microblogs
An EdCol posted today on LSDBi, updated at least in part to accommodate the new rules that are coming in men's basketball.
Practice exam
Not sure when it happened, but the practice test for the NCAA Coaches Recruiting Certification Exam is available.
Delay in new initial-eligibility standards
From ncaa.org:
"The Division I Board of Directors today voted to allow more time for high school students and those who guide them to become familiar with higher initial eligibility standards, which now will go into effect in 2016. The class entering college in 2016 is currently in eighth grade and now will have all four years in high school to work toward the new standard."
Not unexpected.
Men's basketball recruiting calendar update
We've added the NBA Pre-Draft Combine, scheduled for June 6-10 in Chicago, to the Men's Basketball Evaluation Period recruiting calendar. Refresh today!
A handful of actions
As anticipated, the Legislative Council this week took action on less than two dozen proposals, leaving on the table a slew of items related to the activities of the Rules Working Group.
Here's the breakdown, with asterisked items (which is to say, most of them) effective immediately:
Adopted: 2011-18*, 2011-24*, 2011-25*, 2011-28-B*, 2011-29-B*, 2011-32*, 2011-40, 2011-48*, 2011-53, 2011-54, 2011-74*, 2011-77, 2011-79*, 2011-80-B*, 2011-81*, 2011-82*, 2012-4, 2012-5*, 2012-6, 2012-7.
Defeated: 2011-44 (six-semester high school transcript required before NLI can be signed).
Moot: 2011-28-A, 2011-29-A, 2011-80-A.
Tabled: 2011-84-A, 2011-85 (pending more feedback from the NABC)
It's probably pretty unlikely that the Board will dip into any of these.
You can get a printed version of the adopted proposals and we've updated our Manual Updates page.
Two modifications of wording (M-2012-1, and M-2012-2) were also approved, as expected.
2011-46 now almost completely dead for FCS
From LSDBi:
"During its April 10 telephone conference, the Football Championship Subdivision Governance Committee reviewed its legislative decision regarding Proposal No. 2011-46-FCS (Recruiting -- Tryouts -- Nonscholastic Practice or Competition and Noninstitutional Camps or Clinics -- Championship Subdivision Football). The committee reversed its previous action of adopting Proposal No. 2011-46-FCS.
"As a result of the committee's action, Proposal No. 2011-46-FCS is defeated, pending potential review by the Presidential Advisory Group during its April 25 meeting."
NCAA 14.4.3.1.6 starts to kick-in
Dated April 5, published today:
Staff Interpretation
Football Additional Credit Hour Requirements -- Application of the Two- or Four-Game Penalty to the Following Playing Season (I)
The academic and membership affairs staff determined that, in football, the two- or four-game penalty for failure to successfully complete at least nine-semester hours or eight-quarter hours of academic credit during the fall term and earn the Academic Progress Rate (APR) eligibility point for the fall term applies to the immediately ensuing playing season. Further, that the penalty is satisfied if the student-athlete does not compete in that season, regardless of whether the student-athlete is eligible for competition (e.g., fulfilling a transfer residence requirement, enrolled less than full-time, etc.). [References: NCAA Division I Bylaws 14.4.3.1 (fulfillment of credit-hour requirements), 14.4.3.1.6 (additional requirements -- football), 14.4.3.1.6.1 (regaining eligibility for two contests), 14.4.3.1.6.2 (regaining full eligibility -- one-time exception), and staff interpretations (1/20/12, Item No. a), (2/16/12, Item No. a) and (2/16/12, Item No. b)]
Women's gymnastics dead period coming
There's a dead period coming up in women's gymnastics surrounding the NCAA Championship. Pick up a reminder and help prevent recruiting violations.
New in 2012, Part 1
Our on-line video review of some of the new legislation adopted in October 2011 and January 2012. If you have 15 minutes to kill, here's a good way to do it.
Partial books
M-2011-7 was issued back in October to clarify (starting 8/1/2012) how to deal with book awards that didn't span the entire academic year:
(c) Books shall count for calculation purposes as $800 in the denominator. If a student-athlete receives any portion of a book allowance for the academic year, the institution must use $800 in the denominator and numerator for books, regardless of the actual cost of the books. If a student-athlete enrolls midyear (e.g., second semester, second or third quarter) and receives any portion of a book allowance, the institution must use the amount in the numerator that is proportionate to the number of terms of enrollment ($400 for semester systems, $534 or $267 for quarter systems).
That takes care of the midyear enrollee, but what about other student-athletes who can only receive a proportional book award (say, someone who is enrolled in the fall term only)? M-2012-2, to be considered by the Legislative Council this month, rides to the rescue to make NCAA 15.5.3.2.1-(c) look like this:
(c) Books shall count for calculation purposes as $800 in the denominator.If a student-athlete receives any portion of a book allowance for the academic year, the institution must use $800 in the denominator and numerator for books, regardless of the actual cost of the books. If a student-athlete is enrolled for less than a full academic year (e.g., one semester, one or two quarters) and receives any portion of a book allowance, the institution must use the amount in the numerator that is proportionate to the number of terms of enrollment ($400 for semester systems, $267 or $534 for quarter systems).
Side note: M-2012-1 would reinstate the reciprocal marketing language that was erroneously deleted from NCAA 12.6.1 when Proposal 2011-27 was adopted. We've gotten more than a few questions about this and it's good this language will reappear in the Big Book of Knowledge.
More details are in the April Legislative Council agenda.
No joke
From LSDBi:
Effective April 1, 2012, the Division I Progress-Toward Degree Waivers Committee will oversee the process for reviewing requests for waivers of the Division I 2-4 and 4-2-4 transfer requirements. To correspond with the change in committee oversight, the case type “DI Two-Year College Transfer Waiver” was created within AMA Online. All waiver requests involving NCAA Division I Bylaw 14.5.4 and 14.5.6 should be filed using the “DI Two-Year College Transfer Waiver” case type.
Andy Cardamone at the NCAA is the contact for questions, comments or concerns.