While it may not grab the national spotlight like televised sporting events, the Ivy League made a big impression on the annual NCAA Convention that ended yesterday, proposing multiple pieces of legislation in various aspects of college sports that could go into effect later this year.
The convention, a meeting of Student-Athlete Advisory Committees from Divisions I, II and III, is the first step in the yearly legislative process for the NCAA. The SAACs provide feedback from the leagues and athletes on issues that "affect all student-athletes within the NCAA governance structure."
This weekend, these issues were openly discussed in groups and given initial rulings by a management council of conference and NCAA representatives.
This vote is the first of three before proposed legislation becomes codified into NCAA law for the next fiscal year.
The Ivy League had a busy weekend, acting as the source for many of the proposed pieces of legislation that were discussed while debating other proposals that could have significant effects on the League.
One possible change in legislation that would directly affect the future of Penn sports is the altering of the definition of "amateurism," so students with certain limited professional sporting experience would still be allowed to participate in college sports.
Proposed by the Ivy Group, such a change in definition would be welcomed by Wharton freshman Lorenz Manthey, a basketball player who does not have amateur status because of his brief stint on a European professional team.
Manthey told The Daily Pennsylvanian in November that he only played on a German "farm team," signed no contract and received no money, which is why he and Penn officials feel he should be eligible to play college ball.
However, the NCAA said that its Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet "recommended the motion for defeat," significantly reducing the chance it would even be discussed at the weekend meeting.
"The committee thought legislation was not an appropriate means of discussion for it to be addressed," said Ivy League Senior Associate Director Carolyn Campbell-McGovern.
"The issue of foreign players having difficulties when they come over to U.S. institutions has gone on for quite a while," said Legal Studies professor and principal of Hudson Sports Consulting Scott Rosner. "The definition of amateurism is very self-serving for the NCAA."
The Penn Compliance Office has been working on Manthey's case, drafting a letter last year to the NCAA asking for Manthey's eligibility ban to be lifted.
Despite the legislative run-around, Manthey is confident that a decision will be made soon.
"The way it looks is that [the rule] will change again," he said. "Looking at my individual case, it would be odd if it didn't work somehow.
"There is an answer [to the letter], but still a meeting coming up."
While the legislation will most likely be withdrawn, Campbell-McGovern is confident that the same objective will be reached, but "it will just happen in a different way."
Another topic of discussion has been foreign travel, which a college team is currently allowed to do once every four years.
The new proposition is to allow trips only if they have some sort of educational or cultural value.
Conferences like the Big Ten and the Pac-10 have advocated that the trips be eliminated altogether because of their cost.
"The concern is that it's almost become that if you don't do it, you're at a recruiting disadvantage or it reflects badly on the school," Penn Athletic Director Steve Bilsky said. "It wasn't really a problem until a couple years ago, now it's like an arms race."
Eliminating all foreign travel would break long tradition for Penn crew, which is a regular participant in the Henley Regatta in Oxfordshire, England -- an event of similar importance for rowing as the Penn Relays is for track.
Another proposed rule change that would affect many Penn athletes is one that would restrict the number of hours a two-team varsity athlete can dedicate to sports to 20 hours per week.
Rosner said such a change would "affect Ivy League institutions a lot more so than other schools because you have a lot of multiple-sport athletes."
While such rule changes are "well-intended," Rosner said, they are "ultimately impossible to enforce," and therefore "a joke."
"I would be surprised if there were many institutions and teams in complete compliance with this rule," he added.
While there appeared to be dozens of concerns at the NCAA convention, Rosner is confident that the Ivy League is doing the best possible job they can for its student-athletes.
"The Ivy Group comes as close to getting it right as you can in intercollegiate athletics," he said. "The system itself structurally is flawed, but the Ivy Group comes as close as you can to getting it right."
