INDIANAPOLIS — Rule-breakers are about to find out just how tough the NCAA is going to be.
After debating changes for more than a year, the board of directors is poised to vote Tuesday on an enforcement proposal that would streamline the infractions process, impose harsher sanctions on the worst violators, expand the current two-tiered penalty structure to four and create a more standard set of penalty guidelines.
The details were first released in August when the board endorsed a proposal that has remained essentially unchanged.
“It’s something the membership put forward, and ultimately, I think it will be better,” Chris Strobel, the NCAA’s director of enforcement, told The Associated Press on Monday. “It’s allowing the enforcement staff to use its resources on the most severe cases, and it will include stronger and more consistent penalties, so I think it’s moving in the right direction.”
Strobel would not predict whether the sweeping changes would be approved, though it appears to be a foregone conclusion, given the board’s previous stance.
NCAA President Mark Emmert also has championed the moves following the series of scandals that rocked college sports in 2011.
At a presidential retreat in August 2011, Emmert asked university officials to take bold action in an effort to end the risk-reward analyses he believes are being used within some programs to determine whether they should abide by the rules.
