Last week’s NCAA convention in San Diego left some people grumbling about the many new rules now in the books, but NIU personnel saw a brighter side.

Some of the major changes athletic directors and presidents voted on were to reduce basketball scholarships for men and women from 15 to 13, allow only 25 instead of 30 new football scholarships per year, remove boosters from the recruiting, cut football and basketball recruiting seasons in half and have coaches report all outside income to the university president through the athletic director.

“I think I would describe the meeting as being where presidents and athletic directors have dealt with quality issues and improved the quality, especially of education,” said NIU President John LaTourette.

NIU men’s Athletic Director Robert Brigham said he was in favor of the reduction of basketball and football scholarships.

“We’ve only been travelling with 12 people,” he said. “That would create problems with what to do with the other three people. That (the football reduction) was a good idea. Thirty allowed some coaches to round off kids.”

NIU women’s Athletic Director Susie Pembroke-Jones said she had mixed feelings about the basketball reduction.

“I think what we’re seeing in the country is to get strictures around athletics, and that is healthy,” she said. “The presidents’ main thrust is to put all sports in a four-month period. The cutting of the scholarships is part of that. The bad part is in terms of women’s basketball; we haven’t seen enough high-quality play to make a judgement.”

At the Dec. 22 Huskie Club luncheon, Brigham said eliminating boosters would be unenforceable.

LaTourette said, “It may not be as enforceable as we would like, but I think it sends a clear message to booster organizations.”

Brigham said he thought reducing the basketball recruiting season from nine to four and a half months and the football recruiting season from seven to three and a half months might have been too strict.

LaTourette said, “It will reduce the amount of expenditures and abuse and reduce the pressure on high school recruits.”

Brigham said he was opposed to eliminating the part-time assistant position for basketball staffs. He said staffs now will be able to have a head coach, two top assistants and either two volunteer or graduate assistants. Unless presidents rescind this rule in June, NIU Coach Jim Rosborough will have to let one of his assistants go. Jon Mackey is NIU’s current part-time coach.

LaTourette said he was unhappy one academic regulation was not passed.

“One thing that was not passed was the satisfactory progress regulation,” he said. “It missed by only 40 votes, which is the smallest margin ever. I think it’s a disservice to the athlete and to the institution to bring him to an institution and not have him graduate.”

eports indicated a conflict existed between athletic directors and presidents. The reports said athletic directors wanted to vote on these issues instead of waiting for the presidents to address the issues at their June meeting.

“I think that was a little misunderstood,” said LaTourette. “In looking around the room, I saw many presidents voting for the rules.”