NCAA Convention:  Future Date Recommendation

 

The NCAA promotions and events staff, working with the governance and membership services groups, have been exploring potential dates and sites for future NCAA Conventions.

 

The goal of the Convention is to provide an Association-wide platform that supports the NCAA Strategic Plan and the business functions of the NCAA while facilitating positive cross-divisional membership interaction and providing learning opportunities, thus increasing attendance at the Convention.  It is an opportunity to re-emphasize the link between intercollegiate athletics and higher education.

 

Feedback is requested on the following options for 2009 and beyond:

 

Option 1:

 

·             The Convention dates move to the third week of June beginning in 2009.  This concept would allow the NCAA Convention to potentially tie into other NCAA meetings or NCAA-related meetings being held.  This would allow the national office the opportunity to partner with others to maximize resources, increase negotiation power for sleeping room rates and hotel concessions, and broaden the delegate base.

·             This move would likely require some adjustment to the current legislative cycle.  If there appears to be strong interest in this option, an exhaustive review would be conducted to determine alternative models for consideration, the advantages and disadvantages of each, as well as the impact of each model on the conference system, the committee structure and the governance process.

·             This would allow for additional sites to be considered (e.g. northern sites) to host the Convention.

·             May need to hold two Conventions in 2008 during the transition year for legislative purposes (e.g. January, 2008 and June 2009).

·             Potential dates would be:

o              June 19-23, 2008 (if determined Convention should be held twice in 2008)

o              June 18-22, 2009

o              June 17-21, 2010

o              June 16-20, 2011

o              June 21-25, 2012

o              June 20-24, 2013

o              June 19-23, 2014

 

Option 2:

 

·             Dates remain consistent with Bylaw 5.1.1.1 – There shall be an annual Convention of this Association during the second week of January or at such other time as may be prescribed by the Executive Committee.

o              Under this option, the national office would send out an RFP for 2009-2014 using dates during the second week of January, but with slight modification in years that the Convention conflicts with the observance of Martin Luther King Day.

o              This date formula may cause overlap between future Bowl Championship Series (BCS) dates and Convention dates.

 

Option 3:

 

·             Dates would move to the third or fourth week of January careful to not conflict with the observance of Martin Luther King Day.  This eliminates the conflict with BCS dates but does conflict with start dates at many campuses.  An RFP would be sent out for 2009-2014 with the following potential dates:

o              January 14-17 or 23-26, 2009

o              January 13-16 or 22-25, 2010

o              January 12-14 or 21-24, 2011

o              January 20-23 or 27-30, 2012

o              January 16-19 or 25-28, 2013

o              January 15-18 or 24-27, 2014

 

NCAA staff is in the process of sending requests for proposals to cities for bids on the three date options presented above.  It is necessary to have the dates for NCAA Conventions 2009 and beyond determined as soon as possible since hotel properties and convention center space is already booked through 2012 and beyond in many instances.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The National Collegiate Athletic Association

July 15, 2005                                       JLJ:cnr