GRAPEVINE, Texas—Several measures designed to strengthen the relationship between college basketball coaches and their student-athletes have been forwarded for consideration in April by the NCAA Division I Management Council.

Meeting Sunday, January 9, as part of the annual NCAA Convention, the Management Council also forwarded a proposal to add a 12th game in football for Division I-A and Division I-AA.

The basketball measures will now be sent to NCAA Division I members for additional comment. Following the 60-day comment period, the Management Council and the Division I Board of Directors will consider them for final approval in April.

“Despite concerns about permitting coaches additional access to recruits and players, the Management Council felt it was prudent to forward several of these proposals to our members institutions for their consideration and feedback,” said Chris Monasch, chair of the Management Council and commissioner of the America East Conference.

“The Management Council also stressed that it wants coaches to increase their discussions with athletics directors, commissioners and faculty representatives to defend the merits of their proposals,” Monasch added.

Proposed by the National Association of Basketball Coaches, the basketball reform measures are intended to improve recruiting and to access and further develop a coach’s role as teacher and mentor. They include:

• Allowing greater contact the summer before the student-athlete’s freshman year between a coach and a recruit who has signed a National Letter of Intent (Proposal 2004-110A).
• Permitting coaches more contact with student-athletes year-round, so they can further enhance a student-athlete’s integration into the institution and allow the coach to promote academic responsibility (Proposal 2004-115A).
• Allowing coaches to observe their players in voluntary athletic activities outside the playing season, including during the school year and vacation periods, including the summer (Proposal 2004-116).
• Giving coaches more contact with recruits off campus and also letting schools conduct tryouts with recruits (Proposal 2004-119A). Tryouts are limited to one per institution and six total for recruits. Another proposal forwarded for consideration (2004-119B) would prohibit the tryouts.
• A similar set of proposals introduced by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association was forwarded for additional consideration largely intact.

The 12th game proposal for Division I-A and Division I-AA football is designed to permit more flexibility in scheduling without lengthening the season. Twelve games are currently permitted in years when there are 14 Saturdays that fall within the normal playing season that ends in November. The next year that would allow 12 games without the proposal is 2008.

Proposals that stemmed from the NCAA Recruiting Task Force were not forwarded for additional consideration by the Management Council Sunday.

One would have allowed institutions to pay for one parent’s air transportation to accompany a prospective student-athlete on an official visit. The Management Council did forward for additional comment a proposal to reduce official visits from five to four only in Division I-A football. A proposal to reduce official visits in all other sports was defeated.

A number of proposals related to playing and practice seasons in most sports also were forwarded by the Management Council Sunday for additional comment by the membership and final approval in April (Proposals 2004-40-A, 2004-40-B, 2004-40-C).

In particular, one of the proposals would allow basketball teams to play 27 games maximum in a season, instead of 28, but permit teams to take part in a preseason certified event and not count the participation toward the maximum number of contests.

Overall, the Management Council Sunday forwarded more than 100 legislative items for consideration in April.