Thanks to Rico for summing up the new NCAA rules.  I have just a few (I
promise!) comments to add:
 
>1.)  A school will be considered a Div I school if and only if (sorry I'm
>an engineer) it has the specified number of men's and women's teams
>participating at the Div I level (this number is currently seven I believe)
>and the school itself provides a minimum of $250,000 in academic or
>athletic scholarships per year.
 
This is not an entirely new rule -- the NCAA already required colleges to
field a certain number of Division I men's and women's sports in order to be
classified as Division I schools.  The requirement was six of each, and they
have increased it to seven of each.  The big change is in the tournaments --
non-Division I schools can no longer share in Division I tournament proceeds
even if they field a Division I team in that tournament.
 
Oh, and by the way, a REAL engineer would have used the IFF abbreviation :-)
 
>2.)  Teams are limited now to a head coach, one paid assistant, a trainer
>and an unpaid graduate assistant.
 
These limits, as you might expect, do not apply to basketball or football,
although there were a few cuts there as well.  A basketball team, for
example, may have two paid full-time assistants.  A football team may have
four part-time graduate assistants, and they may combine two of these
positions to form an additional full-time assistant position.  But for
hockey and for the other sports classified as "non-revenue" (what a silly
term), the above limits hold.  Also, the graduate assistants can be paid up
to $12,000 per year -- I think this applies to all sports.
 
>6.)  Team practice is limited to 20 hours a week and there must be one
>non-practice day each week.  The only exception to this is for individual
>sports such as swimming, track, etc.  The individual may train on his/her
>own over and above 20 hours as long as it's unsupervised and voluntary.
 
For safety concerns, the NCAA will allow coaches to supervise the voluntary
workouts.  In addition, off-season practice time is limited to eight hours
per week with three mandatory off-days.  Questions are already being raised
as to how the heck the NCAA is going to enforce these practice restrictions.
 
>7.)  The number of scholarships will be cut.  Being down in the South they
>didn't report what hockey is allowed.
 
The number of scholarships will be cut by 10% in all sports.  Thus, hockey
scholarships will be reduced from 20 to 18.
 
>9.)  The number of games will be cut, forgot the number.  It was stated
>correctly earlier in the HOCKEYLINE when I had the article in front of me.
 
For hockey, the number of games will go from 38 to 34.  This does not
include regular-season games against teams outside the continental United
States (Alaska, Canadian universities), but the NCAA may have eliminated
exhibition games against international competition.
 
>Some proposals up for next year's meeting (in Nashville, TN) include total
>freshman ineligibility (a reversion to the 1950s and 1960s).
 
I doubt that this one will pass, but next year's convention is already being
targeted as one which will deal with a number of academic issues -- among
them a requirement that teams in each sport graduate a minimum of 50% of
their players, a proposal that was rejected this year.
 
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86
LET'S GO RED!!
 
"To keep your marriage brimming,
 With love in the loving cup,
 Whenever you're wrong, admit it;
 Whenever you're right, shut up."
-- Ogden Nash, "A Word to Husbands"