INDIANAPOLIS Reward, not punishment is tact taken by committee

The proposals must be approved by the NCAA board of directors.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The NCAA Division I Management Council voted unanimously Monday to repeal a rule on scholarship limits in basketball and replace it with one that rewards teams for overall academic performance.
The current rule allows schools to offer five scholarships in one year or eight in two years, but it penalizes schools -- no matter how well they've done historically -- by not allowing them to replace scholarship players who become academically ineligible, NCAA president Myles Brand said.
Setting threshold
One of the proposals the Management Council will present to the NCAA Board of Directors later this month would set a team threshold for triggering a penalty, such as the loss of a scholarship.
The exact numbers would be determined later.
"If you have a very high-performing academic team that graduated almost everyone, that team's not going to be affected," Brand said after the first of two days of meetings. "But if it turns out they haven't had a good graduation rate -- and we haven't set that number yet -- then that school will be affected.
"So there is some reward -- some incentive, if you like. It gives you a little leeway."
The proposals must be approved by the Board of Directors before they can be put into effect. If approved, they would track graduation rates and academic progress of athletes and apply increasingly harsher penalties for the worst offenders.
Rule's demise
Christine Plonsky, the council chairwoman and women's athletic director at Texas, said the 5-8 rule, which would be eliminated immediately upon approval by the Board of Directors, has outlived its usefulness.
"The Management Council really feels the incentives-disincentives, the continuing eligibility and the ratcheting up of academic standards does call attention to the issues with regard to low graduation rates and low performance in some programs across the country," she said.
Brand said penalties would be applied based on data gathered beginning this coming academic year.
Among other proposals to be considered by the Board of Directors are those to prohibit foreign basketball tours within 30 days of the start of fall practice and to study possible changes in media and promotional materials that might be used in recruiting. Another would set up a committee to evaluate the academic reforms once the data is collected.
Monitoring
"We need to know semester by semester, quarter by quarter, how our athletes are progressing," Plonsky said.
Brand said he is "highly optimistic" the board will approve the proposals at its April 29 meeting.
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