NCAA Drops Scholarship Plans

On a day when the NCAA honored former U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh as the father of Title IX, the divide between the haves and the have-nots of college sports and other economic realities led NCAA delegates to scrap plans for additional scholarships in three women’s sports.

In the first full vote of the Division I membership since 1997, representatives of more than 300 schools considered whether to override an earlier decision by the board of directors to increase scholarship limits in gymnastics, volleyball, track and cross-country, and soccer.

Only the proposed increase in soccer survived, with the limit to rise by two to 14 beginning this year. Gymnastics, volleyball and track and cross-country, previously scheduled to gain one or two scholarships each, will remain as they are.

The divide fell largely between schools from the bowl championship series conferences and those from smaller programs who found themselves in the unusual position of campaigning against more scholarships for women.

“A vote for overriding should not be viewed as a vote against gender equity,” Carolyn Schlie Femovich, executive director of the Patriot League, told delegates at the NCAA Convention, which continues through Monday.

The unusual vote was forced when 116 schools -- 16 more than required -- requested an override vote after the board of directors approved the scholarship increases last spring.

For the last eight years, the NCAA Convention had become largely symbolic for Division I delegates after a change in the legislative process eliminated routine votes on rules changes, instead leaving decisions to a committee process.

The override provision, invoked for the first time, was intended to protect the interests of Division I-AA and I-AAA schools from the smaller but more powerful group of I-A football schools.

“It’s exciting to be here. We’re back for ‘one institution, one vote,’ ” John Parry, athletic director at Butler, told delegates as he urged them to override the scholarship increases.

Supporters of the override proposal argued the issue was a financial one -- as well as a competitive one.

“We were concerned about further stockpiling” by the major-conference schools, said Dennis Farrell, commissioner of the Big West Conference. “Those are sports where we feel we can compete for national championships.”

Big West members Long Beach State and Pacific have won women’s volleyball titles in the past, and Cal State Fullerton reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA soccer tournament last season.

If more scholarships were allowed, coaches and athletic directors from smaller programs worried, not only would their schools have to try to find a way to fund them, but they also would lose more recruits to such schools as UCLA and USC, who suddenly would have more spots available.

UCLA and USC voted against the overrides, preferring to adopt the scholarship increases.

“You have a basic divide between institutions that believe they can offer more scholarships and others that feel they can’t,” Pacific 10 Conference Commissioner Tom Hansen said, adding that gender-equity requirements under Title IX were a factor.

“People who don’t play football don’t have the same problem we do of trying to match 85 grants-in-aid,” Hansen said.

With a five-eighths majority, or 62.5%, required to reject previously adopted legislation, the override succeeded by a narrow margin in gymnastics (62.88%), volleyball (63.55%) and cross-country and track (63.32%)

Before the final vote on soccer, Sandy Hatfield Clubb, senior associate athletic director at Arizona State, stood to make a plea, citing soccer’s high injury rate and the number of players required to field a team.

“Unlike volleyball or basketball, in soccer you have 12 scholarships and play 11 women on the field at a time,” she said.

When the vote was tallied, 192 of 317 schools voted to override the plan for new soccer scholarships, but the 60.57% majority was short of the required 62.5%.

A cheer went up from Clubb’s corner of the room, and she quickly e-mailed ASU soccer Coach Ray Leone.

Later in the day, the NCAA presented Bayh -- the former Indiana senator who co-authored the landmark 1972 federal legislation prohibiting gender-based discrimination in education -- with its Gerald R. Ford Award in recognition of his advocacy for college sports.

NCAA President Myles Brand, after a speech that called for more academic reform, more opportunities for women and minorities and new commercial ventures to fund athletic programs, noted that college athletic participation by women had increased five-fold since 1972.

But it is still shy of equality, Bayh noted.

“Now, still, only 41% to 42% of athletes are women,” he said.