No Major Changes Are Expected at NCAA Convention : Legislation: Showdowns on gender equity, cuttings costs aren’t forecast.

As representatives from NCAA schools and conferences left the association’s 1993 convention in Dallas, it seemed fitting that the group’s next meeting would take place less than a block from the Alamo.

Although the ’93 convention had been relatively tame, many had predicted a showdown in ’94 over two issues--gender equity and cost containment.

“It’s like people are waiting for a piano to fall on them,” Donna Lopiano, executive director of the Women’s Sports Foundation, said at the time.

A year later, they are still waiting.

The college presidents and athletic administrators who assemble today in San Antonio for the 88th annual NCAA convention will face a legislative agenda of 174 proposals--none of which will change the landscape of college sports.

So cut and dried is the agenda, in fact, that many participants are approaching the meeting mainly to swap ideas on such non-agenda matters as the possibility of a Division I-A football playoff and the realignment of conferences.

Said Tom Hansen, Pacific 10 Conference commissioner: “The more interesting material is probably going to be out in the hallway.”

This year’s convention was expected to be contentious because of the work of two NCAA panels--the gender-equity task force and the special committee to review financial conditions in college sports. The agenda includes legislation developed by both groups, but none of it is particularly weighty.

“I do think the convention has taken on a much different look (from what had been expected),” said Jim Haney, executive director of the National Assn. of Basketball Coaches and former commissioner of the Big West Conference. “That’s not to say there aren’t going to be disagreements.”

Gender equity, the focus of much hallway discussion a year ago, will be addressed through two proposals. One urges schools to comply with federal and state laws. The other allows schools to sponsor a series of “emerging” sports for women as a means of maintaining NCAA membership.

Judith Albino, president of the University of Colorado and a member of the gender-equity task force, said the legislation creating new sports for women is significant.

“It adds sports, and that’s a big change,” she said. “The NCAA does not often add sports.”

Still, bolder notions, such as redistributing financial resources or scholarships, have been left for another day.

Noting that most institutions are not in compliance with federal law requiring equal opportunities in athletics for men and women--commonly known as Title IX--Lopiano, who served as a consultant for the task force, said the NCAA is simply using window dressing to deal with the gender equity issue.

“Nobody is willing to bite the bullet and put spending caps on anything or change the definitions of scholarships--any of the big, tough economic things to lower the cost of intercollegiate athletics--and use the savings to comply with Title IX,” she said last week. “Until schools are ready to do that, they’re going to get picked off individually in the courts.

“The NCAA hasn’t helped its members. The NCAA right now, without anything substantial on the agenda, is saying to its members, ‘Hey, we’ll let you get picked off.’ ”

According to Hansen, who served on the task force, the panel did the best it could under the circumstances.

“Donna is ignoring some of the other things that were done, including a very significant expansion of NCAA championship opportunities for women,” he said.

“Plus, one of the things we decided was, it was not for the NCAA to insist that institutions comply with federal law, which could be a moving target. What we were doing was trying to create more of a philosophical commitment for equity, not make rigid rules.”

The convention legislation concerning finances is also limited in scope. The legislation includes proposals that would eliminate the position of recruiting coordinator in Division I-A and I-AA football, cut back recruiting calendars in football and basketball, and limit the number of players who can participate in preseason football practice at Division I-A schools.

Convention at a Glance

Key proposals on the agenda at the 88th annual NCAA convention would: * Establish a principle of gender equity among the association’s guidelines.

* Establish nine “emerging sports” for women: archery, badminton, bowling, crew, ice hockey, squash, synchronized swimming, team handball and water polo.

* Specify that a Division I-A football program cannot employ an individual apart from its coaching staff whose sole duties are that of recruiting coordinator.

* Cap at 105 the number of players who can participate in preseason football practice in Division I-A.

* Cut scholarships in Division I-AA football.

* Increase the scholarship limit in Division I men’s basketball from 13 to 14.

* Preclude the use of correspondence courses by student-athletes for satisfying eligibility requirements.

* Give college basketball players one chance to declare for the NBA draft during their college careers without losing eligibility as long as they choose to remain in school within 30 days of the draft.

* Permit athletes in Divisions I and II to have five seasons of eligibility (instead of four) and eliminate the practice of “red-shirting.”

* Direct appropriate NCAA committees to review legislation, enacted in 1992 and due to take effect in 1995, that would increase academic requirements for prospective student-athletes.