NCAA changes up for board approval

Division I student-athletes might receive unlimited meals and snacks from universities next year in an effort to meet their nutritional needs — but UNC athletic officials don’t know yet what those changes will entail.

The NCAA approved five proposals last week, including policies on drug penalties, coach certification and rest requirements. The Division I Board of Directors will meet Thursday to finalize them.

Current NCAA regulations require scholarship student-athletes to receive three meals a day or a food stipend. The expanded benefits will be in addition to the meal plan provided to full scholarship students.

The NCAA’s Awards, Benefits, Expenses and Financial Aid Cabinet was working on the expanded nutritional benefits proposal to help student-athletes who receive Pell Grants and other federal need-based aid.

The proposal is meant to meet the nutritional needs of all student-athletes, not just scholarship athletes, NCAA representatives said in a statement last week.

Loosening NCAA regulations on mealtimes and the types of food given to athletes is the best way to resolve that issue, members said.

Clint Gwaltney, UNC’s senior associate athletic director for operations, said student-athlete meal stipends are comparable to the average student meal plan.

He said the approved revisions would mean a world of change for college athletics, but he can’t speak to the specifics yet.

“If it indeed passes ... there will be a lot of follow-up interpretations as to what this will mean,” he said. “It’s not very cut and dry.”

In addition to the expanded nutritional benefits, the NCAA also approved a reduction to the penalty for a first positive test for street drugs, like marijuana, during championships.

The penalty would be reduced from a full season suspension to a half season in an effort to encourage schools to provide the necessary rehabilitation.

The NCAA also voted to require strength and conditioning coaches to be certified from a nationally accredited certification body, and football players to rest for at least three hours between practices during the preseason.

If the changes pass, they will be effective Aug. 1, except for the coach certification requirement, which would go into effect in 2015.

The NCAA’s nutritional benefits proposal came on the heels of a statement made by University of Connecticut basketball guard Shabazz Napier, who told reporters that he sometimes goes to bed hungry because he can’t afford food.

UNC junior shortstop Michael Russell said he thinks Napier started the move toward better nutritional benefits for student-athletes.

Russell, like the rest of the UNC baseball team, is not a full scholarship athlete and doesn’t get the monthly meal stipends.

“I doubt we’re even really affected compared to football and basketball,” he said.

He said it would be smart to teach athletes how to spend the money they are given each month so that they do not run out of money for food.

“Maybe if they’re taught how to better spend it, this wouldn’t happen,” he said.

Sports Editor Mike Lananna contributed reporting.

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