In October, the Management Council approved changes amending the Committee on Infractions' procedures for handling selected routine secondary violations. As of January 1, this selection of violations will generally be handled at the conference level with predetermined penalties--"PP" for short. These changes will eventually show up in Bylaw 32.2.
If you're like me, you try to keep your NCAA Manual up to date with all the newly adopted legislation, no easy feat in these dynamic times. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it's hard.
So, I whipped out my purple pen and started tagging with a "PP" all the bylaws that fall into this new box. I slogged my way through Bylaws 6, 11, 12, and the first few sections of 13. Then I got to 13.11, the ever-popular Recruiting Publicity bylaw. I dutifully scrawled a "PP" in the margin of my Manual next to 13.11.1, 13.11.2, 13.11.3, 13.11.4, 13.11.5, 13.11.6, and 13.11.8.
Since I know that last paragraph sent you scurrying for your Manual, I also know that you're thinking now exactly what I was thinking then: Not Much Left Here.
And I know the next thing you'll want to do is look up de minimis in your handy legal dictionary. I already did, so let me save you the hassle, courtesy of Ballentine's Law Dictionary (with pronunciations), Third Edition:
- de minimis
- concerning trifles
The next entry in Ballantine's is another curious phrase:
- de minimis non curat lex
- The law is not concerned with trifles.
And next:
de minimis non curat praetor
A praetor was one of two high Roman officials who performed judicial functions. The phrase above translates to: The praetor does not concern himself with trifles.
Neither should we.
So after all these machinations, here's essentially what we now have in the Recruiting Publicity bylaw:
A set of trifling (read: insignificant) rules, which, if broken
• The Membership has agreed shouldn't carry an ineligibility penalty
• The Committee on Infractions says will usually result in a "noncontroversial case"
In fact, on January 1 the Recruiting Publicity bylaw will look like a new kind of legislation. Let's call it de letus legislation. Ballantine, if he were alive today, would pronounce this as "delete us".
Who will take the first step?
Believe it or not, I think this is this good. It sets the stage.