NCAA Council recommends changes in summer recruiting, scholarships

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The NCAA Management Council will recommend to the organization's board of directors that summer recruiting by<br>men's basketball coaches be cut to 14 days in 2001 and eliminated

Monday, April 10th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The NCAA Management Council will recommend to the organization's board of directors that summer recruiting by
men's basketball coaches be cut to 14 days in 2001 and eliminated entirely the following summer.

Coaches are currently allowed 24 days' recruiting during the summer.

The proposal was one of eight passed Monday by the Division I council.

Others included allowing men's and women's basketball recruits to receive financial aid in summer school before their first semester in college if they enroll in at least six hours of courses and limiting initial scholarships to no more than five in one year and eight over two years.

The council also rejected a proposal to reward Division I schools that achieve graduation rates of at least 75 percent in men's basketball with one additional scholarship, for a total of 14 per year.

"The council took steps to recommend eight pieces of legislation to the board of directors that will go a long way to begin changing the culture of men's basketball and to some extent
women's basketball," said Stanford athletic director Ted Leland, the chairman of the Management Council.

He said there was a "strong consensus" on the proposals, which had been whittled from an original package of more than two dozen.

The financial aid during the summer before an athlete begins college, effective this year, is part of a five-year study to see if that will improve graduation rates, he said.

The proposal to limit the number of initial scholarships "will encourage everybody in the system, athletes, coaches, administrators, admissions office, to make sure the fit between the athlete and the student and the institution is a good one. It puts more credence in the initial scholarships that we will offer."

The proposal on summer men's basketball recruiting would create two seven-day periods in 2001, then none the following year unless
other legislation is offered before then.

Starting next fall, coaches would be allowed to recruit 50 days during the academic year, an increase of 10 days, and that would go up to 70 days the following year.

Leland said it is likely the council will consider other modifications well before the summer of 2002.

"The Council clearly does not favor eliminating all opportunities for as many of the same concerns about the summer recruiting environment that the board of directors and others have," Leland said.

"The effort was to craft a compromise between those wanted no recruiting in the summer and those who wanted substantial
recruiting. What we've decided is we're going to have substantial changes in recruiting in the summer, which will be effective in 2002 but at the present date are undefined," he said.

The council will consider other proposals -- although none as significant as Monday's -- during another session on Tuesday. The
entire package will go to the NCAA board on April 27.

Leland said it is likely the board will approve the proposals as written.

"They can tinker with them, change them. The new administrative structure of the NCAA left the presidents in firm control of the
organization and I think they have approved without significant changes 95 percent to 97 percent of what the council has sent them.
They look to us for a consensus. I'd be highly surprised if there were significant changes."

Among other actions, the council approved proposals:
-- Specifying that all midyear transfers in men's and women's basketball would not be eligible for competition until the following academic year.

-- Allowing coaches to contact prospects for 18 days within a 30-day period beginning the Thursday after Labor Day and establishing a contact period beginning the Friday following the Division I men's basketball championship through nine days following the initial spring signing date.

-- Establishing a new Division I Basketball Issues Committee to ensure oversight of basketball with emphasis on recruiting, enhance the development and public perception of the sport and make
recommendations on policy issues unrelated to legislative and playing rules changes.

-- Establishing a two-tiered process of sanctions for violations of NCAA sports-wagering legislation.

-- Allowing an academic nonqualifer to earn a fourth season of eligibility if the athlete has received a baccalaureate degree before the beginning of the fifth academic year. The council turned down another proposal which would have allowed schools to provide
freshman basketball players who are nonqualifiers to receive athletic scholarships in their first year.

The council also rejected a proposal that would have required entering freshmen in Division I basketball to successfully complete
at least 12 hours and achieve a minimum grade-point-average of 2.00 by the end of their first semester.