Mavericks No More

You’re confused. Heck, who wouldn’t be? You are involved in the oldest collegiate sport in the country. A sport that has remained fairly “status quo” since its inception—and now changes are being made. Big changes. And with these changes there are rules you have to follow. Lots of rules—located in a rule book that has over 550 pages. That’s more pages than most college text books! And you need to know them—all of them. No wonder you are confused.

Beginning with the 1996 Fall season The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) officially absorbed Women’s Rowing at the college level. This is a change that has been dreaded, and heralded, at the same time. And regardless of how you feel about the change, it is one that is finally upon us.

The NCAA first came into being in 1906 as an advisory body. Its purpose was to establish competition and eligibility rules for intercollegiate athletics. That purpose grew in 1921 when the NCAA conducted its first championship, a track-and-field meet. Since then its jurisdiction has expanded to include 30 sports, various college associations, and conferences. At last count there are more than 860 colleges and universities that belong to the NCAA.

Late in the nineteenth-century there was great public criticism about the lack of control of athletics at institutions of higher learning. Most athletic programs were student-run, financed by alumni support, with little interest shown in grade-point averages or the student status of athletes. Recruiting often involved underhanded tactics, and academic eligibility of the athletes was a common complaint. Interestingly enough, one of the first recorded instances of such a complaint was when Yale protested the participation of a graduate student on a Harvard crew in 1855. It was because of problems like these that the NCAA was formed.

Many in the rowing world have been dreading the involvement of the NCAA in rowing. One reason is the rules and regulations, otherwise known as Operating Bylaws, that go along with being an NCAA sport. Even though they may appear to the bylaws don’t exist to make life tougher for coaches and administrators. They exist mainly for two reasons: to maintain intercollegiate athletics as an integral part of higher education and, to retain a clear separation between intercollegiate athletics and professional sports.

Being new to the NCAA we rowers may think that the NCAA bylaws are not important. Think again! A survey done in 1990 of over 200 college presidents and athletic directors found that one of the most important goals of intercollegiate athletics is operating programs in compliance with established rules. And violations of the rules can land someone in big trouble. Trouble such as reduction in recruiting resources or scholarships, athlete ineligibility or suspension, sanctions placed on a team or school, and even coach or staff firings. {Numbers from NCAA on suspensions or ineligibility}

For Bryan Matthews, Athletic Director at Washington College, and former lacrosse coach at the United States Naval Academy, this is the second time he has been involved in the NCAA absorbing a sport. Prior to 1971, men’s lacrosse was governed by the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA). After 1971 the sport was absorbed by the NCAA, with the accompanying operating bylaws.

When asked about the effects of that change on lacrosse Matthews reflects “I was a player when the changeover happened, and I was aware that there was controversy. There were coaches who were concerned about the future of our sport, and the rules. We were used to things happening a certain way and that was changing. But the move was a tremendously positive one for lacrosse—it made lacrosse a national sport, instead of a regional one.”

Women’s rowing is in a similar situation today as men’s lacrosse was in 1971. Matthews notes the positive potential for rowing. “As an administrator I think the NCAA will absolutely be good for rowing. It will help with the publicity, national exposure, and growth of the sport. And as long as you think growth is good, then good things will happen to rowing because of the NCAA absorption, and the rules.”

Speaking of rules, if you were to flip open the NCAA’s manual (and if you are thinking of doing so make sure you’ve got a lot of room—it’s big) you would notice that it is divided up into 23 chapters. Each chapter represents an article of the NCAA’s constitution. Many of these articles consist of legislation that the NCAA has adopted concerning a particular aspect of athletics. The most crucial of these articles, the ones that every rowing coach should know by heart, are the operating bylaws, which are articles 10 through 23. Of those 13 articles there are eight that are absolutely critical to the daily running of a team. Following is a list of those eight critical articles, and a brief synopses of the principles behind them:

Article 10    Ethical Conduct
Rules under this article are designed to promote values such as respect, fairness, civility, honesty and responsibility. The main emphasis is that each institution is to have established policies for sportsmanship and ethical conduct by their teams and staff, and that athletes and coaches should be educated on a continuing basis about these policies.

Article 11    Conduct and Employment of Athletics Personnel
This article deals with how coaches and staff shall conduct themselves. Specifics are discussed on a variety of topics ranging from the number of coaches allowed per sport to scouting.

Article 12    Amateurism
This is one of the nucleus’s of all the NCAA regulations. The foundation of the rules in this article is that student-athlete shall be amateurs when they participate in intercollegiate sports, and that the student shall be protected from professional and commercial enterprises.

Article 13    Recruiting
Regulations in this article are designed to promote equity among institutions in how they recruit, and to shield recruits from undue pressures that may interfere with their scholastic or athletic interests. The article should be memorized forwards and backwards by whoever does the recruiting for your program.

Article 14    Eligibility
Eligibility requirements in this article are designed to do three things: assure proper emphasis on education, promote an equal playing field, and to prevent exploitation of student-athletes. Right up there with Article 13 in importance.

Article 15    Financial Aid
The principle behind these regulations is to make sure the student-athlete may receive athletically related financial aid without violating the principle of amateurism.

Article 16    Awards, Benefits and Expenses for Student-Athletes
What a student-athlete and/or their friends and family can receive is strictly regulated. This chapter deals with the benefits, awards, and expenses that can and cannot be given, and the amount.

Article 17    Playing and Practice Season
The nature of these rules are to attempt to help the student-athlete find a balance between being a student, and being an athlete. They minimize interference with the athlete’s opportunities for getting a quality education in a manner consistent with that afforded to the general student body of an institution.

Understanding all these rules and regulations can be about as easy as trying to call a time out in the middle of a crew race. Russ Gough, an assistant professor at Pepperdine University recently wrote in the Washington Post that “the National Collegiate Athletic Association has enacted such a bizarre, Byzantine tangle of rules as to make it practically impossible at times to tell what is right and wrong.”

With that sobering comment in mind I have a question to ask you: How do you plan on making sure that you are following the rules? The bylaws are very extensive and often they are situation-specific, meaning that common sense and practical wisdom might not be enough keep you, or your team, out of trouble. And the trouble you can get in can be severe. So what should you do?

The most important thing is not to despair. You are not alone—there is help out there. Let me throw out a few suggestions to assist you to find that help and to get the correct interpretation of the rules:

•    Get the book. The first step in understanding the rules is having the “NCAA Manual” in close proximity. If yours isn’t handy, get it. Your athletic department may have a copy for you, or they can be ordered directly from the NCAA (913-339-1906). And make sure that the one you are using is a current copy. Regulations can change from year to year, and last year’s rule may not be this year’s.

•    Read it. You might feel like you’ve been transported back to English 101. Sitting in front of you is a book that weighs almost three pounds, and you are responsible for knowing everything inside of it. Give you nightmares? It should—because a lot more than a passing grade is riding on how well you follow the rules. The best way to begin getting acquainted with the bylaws is to crack the book open and start reading. Sorry, no “Cliff Notes” available at this time.

•    Get Help. If you like reading the “IRS Tax Code,” you’ll love the “NCAA Manual.” However, if you’re like most of us, you will quickly reach a point where questions arise. When you stumble upon something you don’t understand, or you cannot find the answer that you need—ask someone. But a word of caution here—be careful who you ask. Rules are sometimes different for different sports, and for different divisions [there are currently three divisions in the NCAA]. So be cautious.

Your best choice is to ask someone in your institution who can request an interpretation directly from the NCAA, if need be. Depending on your school that might be: the chief executive officer, faculty athletics representative, athletics director, senior woman administrator, compliance coordinator, or a designated substitute.

•    Don’t wing it. As mentioned, the penalties for rules infraction can be harsh, so don’t guess. Even your best ethical judgment might not be how the rule is actually interpreted. And if that’s the case you might end up with someone knocking on your door and saying these dreaded words “You Are Out Of Compliance!” Guessing isn’t worth it. If you are thinking of guessing go back to the previous step.

•    Get it in writing! Finally, when you get an interpretation, whether directly from the NCAA, or from the person at your school who is assisting you, get it in writing. And keep it on file. Yup, you are covering your own backside. And yup, it will take precious time to get it in writing and file it. But keep this in mind, if you do break a rule, and you don’t have it in writing, you will spend a whole lot more time tying to explain to someone the justification of why you did what you did.

So what’s the bottom line. Its way too early to tell what the long-term effect of the NCAA will be on women’s collegiate rowing. However, the immediate effect is that coaches, administrators, and athletes need to be up to date on the bylaws that apply to rowing. Although seemingly overwhelming at first, following the rules and staying in compliance—and out of trouble—is possible. Thousands of coaches do it daily at hundreds of institutions of higher education—and with a little help you can too.