INDIANAPOLIS — NCAA football players could have five seasons of eligibility and would be allowed to transfer once without penalty if two new proposals are approved next year.
The NCAA's Championships/Competition Cabinet forwarded both measures for consideration during a two-day meeting that ended Wednesday in Indianapolis. The committee also approved a proposal that would permit Division I-A schools to again add a 12th football game, starting in 2006.
"We didn't have a significant discussion about it because the football issues committee said athletes wanted to play," said Linda Bruno, the committee chairwoman and commissioner of the Atlantic 10 Conference.
If passed by the Board of Directors, schools would receive an annual exemption for one game. Schools were awarded those exemptions each of the past two seasons. They were not available to most schools this year.
Bruno said that proposal had the full support of her committee.
The cabinet also sent along legislation that would give football players one extra season to compete instead of the four they are now permitted and would extend the one-time transfer rule to three additional sports. The committee did not vote on those measures.
Athletes who play football, basketball and hockey are now required to sit out one full year before becoming eligible at their new school. Athletes in other sports are not penalized by sitting out a year, NCAA spokesman Jeff Howard said.
The cabinet also approved new baseball guidelines. If approved, teams would not be permitted to start spring practice until Feb. 1, and games could not begin until March 1.
If approved, the College World Series could also be moved back, ending as late as July 4. Last year's national championship ended June 28.
Bruno said the proposal is intended to change the culture of baseball.
"We think it puts everyone on a more level playing field in terms of weather," she said. "But the membership needs to decide if that's what it wants to do to make baseball a national sport."
Final votes on the measures cannot occur before April.