NCAA proposes more flexible violation range; clauses for school officials

The NCAA division I Board of Directors endorsed a new tiered structure for determination and enforcement of violations that could take effect August 1, 2013.

Currently, there are only two tiers in the violation structure and the proposed model would "increase flexibility" by adopting four tiers: severe breach of conduct; significant breach of conduct; breach of conduct and incidental issue.

The board did not take a vote Thursday, instead allowing membership to review details of the enforcement model to draw all final recommendations before a vote to enact the legislation is taken in October.

"Our intention is to make this real in October," said Ed Ray, president at Oregon State and chair of the working group which made the recommended changes. "We want the membership to have a final review. We will listen to compelling arguments for additional changes, but this is the recommendation with all the feedback we've gathered since our first report in January and second detailed report in April."

The proposal will also expand the punishment structure to include the accountability of those in charge failing to establish a "culture of integrity." The coach can then be held directly accountable with possible penalties including show cause orders and suspensions ranging from 10 percent to 100 percent of the season. The accountability clause can thereby also apply to athletic directors and school presidents under the specter of "failure to monitor" violations.

Cases that involve "severe and significant breaches of conduct" can be further categorized into sublevels. However, the baseline includes four tiers.

The board described the violation structure expansion, which it considered a means to "more appropriately recognize varying levels of infractions."

--A Level I, or severe breach of conduct, would be considered "a violation which seriously undermines or threatens the integrity of the NCAA enduring values (student-athlete success, the collegiate model, amateurism as a student model, competitive equity), including any violation which provides or is intended to provide a significant recruiting or competitive advantage, or a significant impermissible benefit."

Multiple violations from other categories may collectively be considered a severe breach of conduct, as can personal or individual conduct deemed unethical at the sole discretion of the NCAA.

--The Level II, or significant breach of conduct, definition is "a violation intended to provide minimal to significant recruiting or competitive advantage or includes a pattern of systemic violations in a particular area."

As with the Level I outline, compound violations in lesser tiers can be collectively considered Level II violations.

--Level III, or breach of conduct, is an offense providing no more than a minimal advantage in recruiting or competition and can include only minimal impermissible benefits. Multiple incidental issues, or Level IV violations, can be combined to be a Level III violation.

--Level IV is defined as minor, inadvertent distractions that are largely technical in nature with little or no advantage gained.