NCAA Group Makes Recommendations

Members of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.’s Presidents’ Commission will seek to reduce the college basketball season by almost a month, amend freshmen academic requirements to make scholarship money available to those from poor backgrounds, and force schools to disclose athletes’ graduation rates, chairman Martin Massengale said Wednesday.

“My belief is these measures will pass at the NCAA convention in January,” said Massengale, chancellor at the University of Nebraska.

Massengale conceded that the presidents are certain to face stiff opposition on reducing the basketball season. Besides recommending that the season start almost a month later, the commission will sponsor legislation to reduce the number of games a school can play each season from 28 to 25, not including postseason tournament games.

The reduced schedule would include men’s and women’s basketball and take effect in 1991. Currently, practice starts Oct. 15 and competition can begin the fourth Friday in November. Under the new proposal, practice will start Nov. 15 and the regular season will not begin until Dec. 20.

One argument against the reduced schedule is expected to center on finances. Many schools could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in television and gate revenue if three games are removed from the schedule.

Sen. Bill Bradley (D-New Jersey) is proposing legislation that would force federally funded institutions to report graduation percentages of scholarship athletes. NCAA officials have asked Congress to allow them to devise their own plan.