January 14, 2004

No Disincentive Is An Incentive

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The NCAA Working Group on Incentives and Disincentives is working on incentives.� ''The incentive is to not get a disincentive,'' former Vanderbilt AD Todd Turner, the group�s chairman, said during yesterday's NCAA Convention in Nashville.

The group has formulated an academic performance program, in which D1 teams will be graded on their graduation rate and academic progress rate, with penalties for not achieving a certain level. Those penalties can include reductions in recruiting opportunities and scholarships, loss of postseason play and restricted membership.

The program still has to be voted on by the NCAA Board of Directors. However, Turner said all indications are that it will go into effect this fall.

Schools could feel the results of the academic progress rate reports as soon as 2005, while the graduation success rate information will not affect schools until 2007.

If a player leaves a program following the 2004-05 school year that would not have been academically eligible for '05-06, that player's scholarship cannot be awarded to an incoming athlete.

While a penalty structure has been sketched out, the group has not come up with any firm approach for rewarding those teams that achieve academically.� (Nashville Tennessean� 1-12-04)