The NCAA has not yet confirmed the decision but Whitten, who has been carefully monitoring the two-day meeting of the MANCO, said he was “certain” that the Council had voted overwhelmingly to scrap the December 12 interpretation by the Legislative Review and Interpretations Committee (LRIC) and revert to the prior interpretation by the NCAA staff from last July 19. Under that interpretation, college student-athletes may compete directly against high school prospective student-athletes (PSAs) so long as there is either no team scoring or college teams are scored separately. The ruling will apply to all individual sports.
According to Whitten, there were only two votes on the 50-person Management Council against the decision to revert to the previous interpretation.
“I am delighted with the MANCO vote,” Whitten said. “The credit belongs to the two dozen or so coaches and compliance officers who volunteered to lobby MANCO members at their institutions or whom they knew, and explain to them, using Talking Points that came out of the coaches meetings at the NCAA Division I Championships, why the LRIC interpretation would be a disaster for both swimming and diving, not to mention the other individual sports.
“Particular thanks go to Dave Roach,” the Athletic Director at Colgate University, former swim coach at Brown University, Whitten said. “Dave is highly respected by all his colleagues. He took the lead for us in the meeting and, by all accounts, was very effective.”
Whitten also commented that he was happy the CSCAA was able to help out the other individual sports.