2006-07
Revenue Distribution Plan

1.  Academic Enhancement Fund.

2.  Special Assistance Fund for Student-Athletes.

A total of $12,314,000 is sent to conference offices in early August to assist student-athletes in Division I with special financial needs.  The guiding principles of the fund are to meet the student-athletes' needs of an emergency or essential nature for which financial assistance otherwise is not available.  Conference interpretations not addressed by the Executive Committee should stay within this intended purpose.

The following student-athletes are eligible to apply for funds:

1. Pell-eligible student-athletes, including student-athletes whom have exhausted their athletics eligibility or no longer are able to participate because of medical reasons.                            
2. Student-athletes who are receiving countable aid and who have demonstrated financial need, including student-athletes whom have exhausted their athletics eligibility or no longer are able to participate because of medical reasons.

a.  Demonstrated financial need is defined as the cost of attendance minus expected family contribution prior to any athletics related aid or other aid being awarded.

b.  Domestic student-athletes will have demonstrated financial need if they qualify for a Pell Grant or have demonstrated financial need determined annually by the institution's financial aid department using the federal methodology or the needs analysis methodology used to award institutional need-based funds to all students.

c.  Demonstrated financial need for foreign student-athletes must be determined and certified annually in writing by the official foreign student entity of the institution outside of the department of athletics.

The following student-athletes are not eligible to apply for the funds:

1. Student-Athletes (domestic or foreign) who receive countable aid (i.e., aid that counts against team limits) and are not Pell-eligible and do not have demonstrated financial need.                            
2. Student-Athletes (domestic and foreign) who do not receive any countable aid (i.e., aid that counts against team limits) and are not Pell-eligible.                            
3. Non-qualifiers in their initial year of residence.

A student-athlete must qualify for the fund on an annual basis.

The following are permissible uses of the fund:

1. Cost of clothing, travel from campus to home and other essential expenses (not entertainment) up to $500.                            
2. Cost of expendable academic course supplies (e.g., notebook and pens) and rental of nonexpendable supplies (e.g., computer equipment and cameras) that are required for all students enrolled in the course.                            
3. Medical costs not covered by another insurance program (e.g., premiums for optional medical insurance, hearing aids, vision therapy and off-campus psychological counseling).                            
4. Costs associated with student-athlete or family emergencies.

The following are restrictions on the use of the fund:

1. Financing any portion of an institutional grant-in-aid that could have been awarded to the student-athlete is prohibited.                            
2. Entertainment expenses for student-athletes are not permissible.                            
3. The purchase of disability, illness or injury insurance to protect against the loss of potential future professional sports earnings is not permissible.                            
4. The funds may not be used for administrative purposes (conferences may not charge an administrative fee; nor may salary or staff expenses for administration of the funds be paid from this money).

The responsibility for oversight and administration of the fund, including interpretations, rests solely with the conferences.  The guiding principles of the fund are to meet the student-athletes' needs of an emergency or essential nature for which financial assistance otherwise is not available.  Conference interpretations not addressed by the Division I Management Council should stay within this intended purpose.

A conference may accumulate not more than the total allocation received over the previous two years.  The conference will not receive any additional dollars if it has exceeded the two-year cap amount.

Independent institutions' funds have been assigned to a conference office for administrative purposes, based on the same assignments made for administration of the National Letter of Intent.

Conferences annually will be required to report to the NCAA national office the number of Special Assistance Fund recipients by sport, purposes for which the funds were used and the specific amounts for each purpose.

Example
Special Assistance Fund
Eligible Student-Athletes Chart

3.  Conference Grants.

These grant funds must be used to maintain, enhance or implement programs and services in each of the following areas:

1. Men's and women's officiating programs: permissable uses include the improvement of officiating programs in all sports, as opposed to just in men's and women's basketball.                                 
2. Enhancement of conference compliance and enforcement programs.                             
3. Heightening the awareness of athletics staffs and student-athletes to programs associated with drug use, and assisting coaches, athletics administrators and student-athletes in this regard.                             
4. Enhancement of opportunities -- employment, professional development, career advancement and leadership/management training -- in intercollegiate athletics for ethnic minorities.                             
5. Enhancement of opportunities -- employment, professional development, career advancement and leadership/management training -- in intercollegiate athletics for women.                             
6. Development of conference gambling education programs.

A conference may determine the specific amount it wishes to allocate to these six areas, but it must spend at least some portion of its grant in all six.

4.  Broad-Based Distribution.

The broad-based distribution is made to all Division I institutions on the basis of the number of varsity sports sponsored (weighted one-third, totaling $44.2 million) and the number of athletics grants-in-aid awarded (weighted two-thirds, totaling $88.4 mil­lion).

The sports sponsorship payment is sent to institutions in early August; the grants-in-aid payment is sent in mid-August.  If a conference so desires, the money may be sent to the conference office (rather than to individual institutions) upon the unanimous approval and authorization of the chief executive officer of each institution in that conference.  If they are sent to the institution, they are addressed to the attention of the chief executive officer, with a copy of the covering memorandum to the director of athletics and senior woman administrator.

The annual distribution is based on sports sponsorship and grants-in-aid data from the preceding academic year (e.g., the 2006-07 distribution is based on 2005-06 data).  The grants-in-aid distribution is based on previously submitted squad lists, and the number of athletics grants-in-aid is calculated from those lists.  Institutions are encouraged to use the NCAA Compliance Assistant Software to download squad lists for the grants-in-aid distribution.

The NCAA Committee on Infractions may consider withholding all or a portion of an institution's share of the broad-based distribution moneys as a penalty in infractions cases.

1. Sports Sponsorship fund.  An institution receives a unit for each sport sponsored beginning with the 14th sport (the minimum requirement for Division I membership).  Only sports in which the NCAA conducts championships competition (which meet the minimum contests and participants requirements of Bylaw 20.9.3.3) and emerging sports for women are counted.  In the 2005-06 distribution, for sports sponsored beginning with the 14th, an institution received approximately $22,000 per sport (i.e., an institution sponsoring 16 total sports received $66,000; an institution sponsoring 24 sports received $242,000).

   [Note:  Even though the Association does not conduct a Division I-A football championship, the sport and athletics grants awarded in it will be counted in the broad-based distribution.]

2. Grants-in-Aid fund.  The grants-in-aid component is based on the number of athletics grants awarded by each institution (based on full-time equivalencies), beginning with one grant and progressing in value in increments of 50.Grants awarded above 150 are valued at the same amount. The value of each basis point in the 2005-06 distribution was $214.00.

No. of Grants	Valuation Points	Grant Value
1-50	1 point each x $214.00	$214.00
51-100	2 points each x $214.00	$428.00
101-150	10 points each x $214.00	$2,140.00
151 and above	20 points each x $214.00	$4,280.00

As examples, an institution that awarded 80.48 grants-in-aid received a check for $23,745; an institution awarding 164.89 grants-in-aids received $202,829 and an institution awarding 242.44 grants-in-aid received $534,743.

As with sports sponsorship, athletics grants are counted only in sports in which the NCAA conducts championships competition, emerging sports for women and Division I-A football.  However, sports that do not meet the minimum contests and participants requirements of  Bylaw 20.9.3.3 are included in the grants-in-aid component.

Institutions also receive credit in the grants-in-aid component for grants awarded to fifth-year student-athletes who have exhausted eligibility and for students who, for medical reasons, do not count on the squad list but are receiving aid.  Credit is not given for Proposition 48 student-athletes.

5.  Basketball Fund.

The basketball fund provides for money to be distributed to Division I conferences based on their performance in the Division I Men's Basketball Championship over a six-year rolling period (for the period 2001-2006 for the 2006-07 distribution).  Independent institutions receive a full unit share based on its tournament participation over the same rolling six-year period.  The basketball fund payments are sent to conferences and independent institutions in mid-April each year.

One unit is awarded to each institution participating in each game, except the championship game.  In 2005-06, each basketball unit was approximately $164,000 for a total $122.8 million distribution.

In 2006-07, each basketball unit will be approximately $177,000 for a total $132.6 million distribution.

For the purpose of distributing the basketball fund, a conference is defined as one that comprises at least six member institutions that have been classified in Division I for the eight preceding academic years.  If a conference falls below the six-member requirement, the basketball fund money is retained by the conference for a one-year period only.

The following policies also apply when a conference's membership changes or realignment occurs:

1. If an institution leaves a conference and realigns with another and its original conference remains in operation, the units it earned remain with the conference that it left.
   
2. If an institution leaves a conference to become an independent, the units that institution earned are retained by the conference that it left.
   
3. If an independent institution joins a conference, it retains the unit(s) it earned as an independent prior to the date it elected to join the conference; any units the institution earns subsequent to that date accrue to the conference.
   
4. If a conference disbands, each institution retains the units it earned in the basketball fund.
   
5. If an institution leaves a conference and the conference falls below the six-member requirement, the units remain with the conference for a one-year period; however, if the conference then later disbands, those units return to the basketball fund.
   
6. If 50 percent or more of the member institutions in a given conference leave the conference simultaneously and the remaining conference membership falls below six member institutions, the conference shall be considered disbanded and each member institution shall retain the units it earned in the basketball fund as if the conference had in fact disbanded (for the purposes of the basketball fund distribution).

No conference will lose all of its units if it is represented in the tournament by an institution that later is declared ineligible.  In this situation, the number of units in the basketball pool would be reduced to one. [By way of example, assume that Conference A is represented in the tournament by only one institution (the automatic qualifier), and that it advances to the Final Four, thereby earning five units.  If the institution subsequently is declared ineligible, the number of units will be reduced to one.  In another scenario, assume that the conference is represented by two teams (one automatic qualifier and an at-large team), and one of the teams subsequently is declared ineligible.  Its units will be completely vacated; the units earned by the other team will be unaffected.]

Conferences are urged, but not required, to distribute money from the basketball fund equally among all their member institutions.

6.  Student-Athlete Opportunity Fund.

A total of $27,718,000 will be sent to Division I conference offices in late August 2007 that will be allocated based on the 'broad-based' (sports sponsorship and grants-in-aid) distribution formula.  The funds will increase in value at 13 percent annually, subject to approval by the Division I Board of Directors.

The following information demonstrates the intent of the funds:

The Student-Athlete Opportunity Fund is intended to provide direct benefits to student-athletes or their families as determined by conference offices.  As a guiding principle, the fund shall be used to assist student-athletes in meeting financial needs that arise in conjunction with participation in intercollegiate athletics, enrollment in an academic curriculum or that recognize academic achievement.  Accordingly, receipt of Student-Athlete Opportunity Fund money shall not be included in determining the permissible amount of financial aid that a member institution may award to a student-athlete.  Further, inasmuch as the fund is designed to provide direct benefits to student-athletes, the fund is not intended to be used to replace existing budget items.

The following student-athletes are eligible for funds:

All student-athletes, including international, are eligible to receive SAOF benefits, regardless of whether they are grant-in-aid recipients, have demonstrated need or have either exhausted eligibility or no longer participate due to medical reasons.  Additionally, student-athletes receiving monies from the Special Assistance Fund may also receive SAOF benefits.

Except for prospective student-athletes receiving summer financial aid prior to full-time enrollment pursuant to NCAA Bylaw 15.2.8.1.3, 15.2.8.1.4, and 15.2.8.1.5 no prospective student-athlete shall be eligible to receive SAOF funds.

The following are restrictions on the use of the funds:

Pursuant to NCAA Bylaw 15.01.7.2, member institutions and conferences shall not use monies received from the fund for the following:

a.  Salaries and benefits.   

b.  Grants-in-aid (other than summer school) for student-athletes with remaining eligibility.   

c.  Capital improvements.   

d.  Stipends. 

e.  Athletic development opportunities.

1. Fees and other expenses associated with a student-athlete's participation in a sports camp or clinic;                             
2. Fees and other expenses associated with private sports-related instruction provided to a student-athlete;                             
3. Fees for other athletic development experiences (e.g., greens fees, batting cage rental); and                              
4. Expenses associated with a student-athlete's participation in a foreign tour.

The responsibility for oversight and administration of the fund, including interpretations, rests solely with the conferences.  The Division I Management Council shall establish the guiding principles of the fund.

A conference may accumulate not more than the total allocation received over the previous two years.  The succeeding allocation will be forfeited if that amount is exceeded.

Independent institutions' funds have been assigned to a conference office for administration based on the same assignment made for administration of the National Letter of Intent.

The Board of Directors shall review, after two years of operation, a Management Council report concerning the fund uses and the policies to ensure the fund is achieving its stated goal of providing direct benefits to student-athletes to pay costs that arise in conjunction with participation in athletics and enrollment in an academic curriculum.

Conferences will be required to report annually to the NCAA the fund recipients by sport and gender, as well as the purposes for which the money was used and the amounts for each purpose.

7.  Division II Enhancement Fund.  

A total of $4.8 million is distributed among Division II members in late May, according to a formula developed by the Division II Championships Committee.

One-third of this fund is divided evenly among all Division II members, excluding those institutions that chose to compete in one or more NAIA team championship.

One-third of the fund is distributed to conference offices and independent institutions based upon their participation in the Division II Men's and Women's Basketball Championship in accordance with the same procedures that have been implemented for the Division I basketball fund (i.e., using a rolling six-year average).

One-third of the fund is distributed to conference offices based on the number of championships the conference sponsors.

In order to receive money from the enhancement fund, an institution must be active and eligible for championships competition and have declared its intention to participate in all NCAA championships competition in sports in which both NCAA and NAIA championships are conducted.  Exception may be granted in extenuating circumstances.

If an institution reclassifies from Division II to Division I or Division III, its basketball money will remain with the conference that it left (or, if it was an independent, accrue to the basketball fund); its equal-distribution money will accrue to that pool for redistribution.

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8.  Budget Allocations for Programs and Services.

Effective with the 1990-91 academic year, the distribution of net receipts to member institutions for participation in NCAA championships was eliminated and those receipts were included in the Association's general operating budget for incorporation into the distribution plan.  In addition to the other components outlined in this document, revenues have been earmarked for catastrophic-injury insurance for student-athletes in all three divisions

9.  Revenue Distribution Schedule.

The contact for this page is jcollins@ncaa.org