Kansas University Chancellor Robert Hemenway knows what his school’s men’s basketball coach, and other coaches throughout the country, think of the NCAA’s 5-and-8 rule.

They hate it.

“I am quite aware basketball coaches are not in favor of the rule,” Hemenway said of the rule that since August of 2001 has limited programs to five scholarships in one season and eight over a two-year span.

That rule — which has kept rosters under the NCAA maximum scholarship limit of 13 players — just might be torn out of the rulebook today.

The NCAA’s Board of Directors, chaired by KU’s Hemenway, will meet today in Indianapolis to act on last week’s recommendation by the NCAA Management Council to rescind the 5-and-8 rule.

“I’ve talked to a lot of coaches about it,” Hemenway said. “Bill (Self, KU coach) and I have had a couple of long discussions. I had a long discussion with Roy Williams (North Carolina coach) about it. At the Final Four I had a long discussion with C.M. Newton (former Kentucky AD) and Lute Olson (Arizona coach) about it.”

Coaches believe the rule has denied numerous athletes the opportunity to play Division One basketball.

“My personal feeling … I’ve always had questions about the rule,” Hemenway said of the rule instituted to improve graduation rates by encouraging coaches to recruit athletes who were better students and who wouldn’t leave school early. “I wasn’t certain it would accomplish what it hoped to accomplish. I was concerned about unintended consequences.”

Rule limits opportunities

KU, which has one scholarship to give in recruiting, will gain two more if the rule is rescinded today, though Self said he didn’t envision signing more than two players.

“We as coaches don’t see how that rule has favorably affected the academic status of young people,” Self said. “Certainly there was strong support early on for the rule. That support has weakened. Coaches don’t see it as a positive in any way — the way it has eliminated the pool of college student athletes playing Division One ball.”

The 5-and-8 rule is expected to be replaced by an academic reform package that will punish schools that fail to demonstrate commitment toward academic progress and graduation of student-athletes.

The academic reform package, called the “incentives/disincentives” program, will force schools to submit annual documentation demonstrating compliance with a minimum academic progress rate, which will be determined after the collection of data this academic year.

The academic-progress rate (APR) will be calculated by the NCAA and will include all athletes entering the school. It includes a graduation-success rate (GSR) based on a six-year window for graduation for all scholarship student-athletes entering the school.

Data will be collected for the 2003-04 and 2004-05 school years, after which there will be a determination regarding the appropriate “cut lines” for penalties or incentives.

‘It’s really significant’

Recommendations regarding penalties will be provided to the NCAA membership before any teams would be subject to sanctions. It is expected that penalties would begin in 2005-06. Penalties associated with academic failure over time might include reductions in scholarships and/or recruiting limitations, plus ineligibility for the team in postseason or preseason competition.

“The most important thing that will be talked about at the meeting is not the 5-and-8 rule, although that might get the most attention,” Hemenway said. “We are considering for vote the final part of the academic reform — incentives and disincentives. I think it’ll pass. It’s really significant.

“Whole academic reform is very important,” Hemenway added. “If the incentives/disincentives pass, as I think it will, it will be the toughest set of academic expectations leading to a degree than we’ve had in the NCAA.”

Amazingly, it could include keeping some schools out of the NCAA Tournament.

“That’d be the greatest disincentive,” Hemenway said. “The whole idea the board believes every program ought to be committed to not only keeping its players eligible but progressing to a degree.”

Self is in favor of incentive/disincentive.

“Coaches are hired to do jobs — one is to put our student-athletes in the best position to not only maintain progress, but earn a degree,” Self said. “I don’t feel it’d adversely affect the majority of people out there.”

Self hopes new standards are involved in determining if schools are doing a good job of graduating its athletes.

“The graduation rate criteria hopefully will be nonexistent,” Self said. “A guy with a 3.9 GPA who has a chance to go to the NBA three years later is considered a nongraduate (if he doesn’t get degree in six years). A guy goes overseas and needs nine hours to graduate counts as a non-graduate. Guys have a chance to pursue a window of opportunity (in hoops careers) and still can be close to graduating. Somebody like that shouldn’t count against you.”

Information from NCAA.org was included in this story.