Boosters, Recruiting Will Be Main Topics at NCAA Convention

Boosters would be banned entirely from recruiting and the NCAA would conduct its investigations of schools more openly under two of 151 proposals to be submitted to the NCAA’s annual convention next week.

More than 1,800 delegates representing most of the NCAA’s 792 member schools were expected for the six-day meeting, starting Tuesday. Other measures would cut the recruiting seasons of basketball and football coaches almost in half and set limits on playing seasons in several sports, including football and basketball.

The NCAA Presidents Commission, meeting in conjunction with the convention, is expected to announce whether it will call a special meeting of NCAA schools next summer to consider the possibility of cost-cutting measures.

The Commission’s specific proposals for the summer meeting may not be known until April. But several potentially explosive items on the January agenda, including reducing the size of coaching staffs in football and basketball, are expected to be withdrawn and resubmitted at the special convention. An Atlantic Coast Conference proposal to define playing seasons in most sports will be withdrawn for the same reason, sources say.

One possible “sleeper” proposal sponsored by the Big Sky Conference would grant college athletes five years of eligibility instead of the current four. Delegates also will vote on a resolution to commission a study of freshmen eligiblity and bring the issue to a vote in 1988.

There is nothing on the program to create a Division IA football playoff.

The Council, with the blessing of coaches’ groups, has brought forward the proposal to ban boosters from recruiting. Boosters already are prohibited from off-campus recruiting. The council proposal also would make it illegal for them to make telephone or mail contact with prospects.

If the schools give their OK, part of the secrecy also will be removed from enforcement proceedings. One proposal would make the final report of the Infractions Committee available to the news media as soon as it is given to the school. Another would allow the NCAA to correct erroneous media reports about an investigation.

The Council is sponsoring the measures at the request of the Infractions Committee and the enforcement staff.

“With so many states having open records and public disclosure laws, many institutions have had to release the final report as soon as they got it anyway,” said Steve Morgan, assistant executive director for enforcement.

“Now we’ll be in a position where all institutions are handled similarly,” Morgan said. “It will also keep things from coming out in a piecemeal fashion. As soon as the school is aware of the findings of the Infractions Committee, the public will be, too.”

Names will be deleted from the reports distributed to the media, Morgan said.

Football coaches and basketball coaches may end up with more free time if delegates vote to slash their recruiting seasons. In football, contacts with high school stars would be limited to between Dec. 1 and the Saturday after the first national letter-of-intent signing day, usually the second Wednesday in February. The evaluation, or scouting period would be limited in football to the month of November and May 7-21.

Basketball coaches could contact high school prospects from Sept. 17 to Oct. 7 and between March 1 and the first letter-of-intent signing day, usually in mid-April. Evaluation would be held to the last three weeks in July, December and February. Sponsored by the NCAA Council, both measures have the solid support of coaching organizations.

The 184 Division II schools will vote on whether to adopt the Proposition 48 freshmen eligiblity requirements which went into affect last August in Division I.

Rules the schools passed at earlier conventions but wound up causing much embarrassment last year will also be dealt with.

Delegates will be asked to:

-- Make it legal for a coach to watch his or her offspring play in a game outside the official evaluation period.

-- Allow players to give their complimentary game passes to anyone they wish, not just relatives or other students.

-- Allow high school prospects to receive medals at track meets such as the Penn Relays.