Anaheim, Calif. ? The NCAA’s first convention under new president Myles Brand ended Tuesday with the prospect of the rather stodgy, slow-moving organization becoming more dynamic.

The emphasis on academics will increase, the backing of gender equality will continue and there will be a move to improve opportunities for minority coaches with a football “coaches’ academy” and mentor program.

With Brand, the first college president chosen to head the college sports’ governing body, now in charge, college presidents are expected to play a more decisive role.

Brand, formerly president at Oregon and Indiana, outlined his “dual guideposts” for reform in some areas and advocacy for student-athletes during the convention.

“Without genuine reform, the future of intercollegiate athletics is in peril. Without vigorous advocacy, the value of intercollegiate athletics will be unrealized,” said Brand, who assumed the presidency when Cedric Dempsey’s retirement became official on Jan. 1.

Academic reform in Division I, which already was under way, is one of Brand’s main goals.

Although there was no general voting on issues by Division I delegates at the convention, some of the committees made headway.

Kansas University Chancellor Robert Hemenway, the chairman of the NCAA directors’ committee, said the organization intended to institute the academic reform package — which would include changes in admissions policies for athletes and more timely tracking of their progress in college — as soon as possible without being overly hasty.

“One thing the board feels very strongly about is that any reform is not something that gets put into place in 2008, 2009, 2010,” Hemenway said. “We want to, if we think we can, adopt an academic reform package that will have an immediate impact. The directive we’re on now is that by April of 2004 we (the directors) will have voted on the entire package.”

Among the reforms already under way is a change in entry eligibility that will take effect in August. The new sliding scale will weigh both the student’s SAT exam and grades in high school for eligibility.

Previously, a score of at least 820 on the SAT or 16 on the ACT was required, but the change determines eligibility by combining the score with a student’s high school grade-point average.

Other changes for eligibility would require high school students to complete more core courses. Once in college, there would be closer tracking of student-athletes’ academic progress and criteria for them to meet at different stages, and more accurate and timely assessment of the graduation rate.

Hemenway backs the sliding scale, saying, “We have to trust the high schools.”

Also during the convention attended by some 1,400 college presidents, athletic directors, conference commissioners and other delegates, Brand expressed concern about possible changes in Title IX, the gender equality legislation now being revisited by the federal government.

A strong believer in Title IX, Brand questioned whether it was necessary to eliminate some men’s sports to reach gender parity.

“We have to find ways in which we implement Title IX that do not detract from men’s opportunities,” he said.