USTA Player Development Announces Weekly Webinar, Beginning Monday; More on Issues Surrounding NCAA's Extra Year of Eligibility

The USTA has announced that its Player Development department will begin weekly Learning Series webinars on Monday March 30 at 3 p.m. EDT. The webinars, scheduled for this 3 p.m. time slot every Monday, are free, but registration is required, via this link. The specific topics for tomorrow's webinar haven't been announced, but there will likely be an introduction and overview, as well as a way to gauge what attendees would like to see from this initiative. The usta.com webpage gives the broad outline of the series as providing "players, parents and coaches with access to resources and experts and help us to stay connected. Please join us as we learn together!" The invitation also mentions future topics to be explored as: Coaching, Strength and Conditioning, Mental Skills and Nutrition, with a reference to a question and answer session included.

Tomorrow is the day the NCAA Division I committee is expected to address the issue of an extra year of eligibility for spring season athletes, but the specter of a huge revenue drop from the cancellation of the NCAA Basketball tournaments looms over that topic. With the NCAA's annual distribution for Division I falling from $600 million to $225 million, there are plenty of questions about the impact that will have on individual schools.

Today at the Tennis Recruiting Network, Rhiannon Potkey's article asks whether this will lead more schools to drop programs that do not produce revenue, which includes all Division I tennis programs. The article also provides the drops in revenue from Division II and Division III athletics.

At USA Today, Dan Wolken explores the problems that this NCAA commitment to another year of eligibility, which is widely considered admirable, could present for some of the less prominent Division I schools.  Among the questions the committee will wrestle with are, according to Wolken:

Do you issue a blanket waiver for all seniors to come back, which would require at least a temporary suspension of scholarship limits? Do you give every spring sport athlete an extra year of eligibility? Or do you allow schools freedom to make individual decisions on whether to offer those scholarships to seniors, including the possibility of offering reduced scholarships for those who are already on partial aid and letting the athlete determine whether they want to come back under those circumstances. 

These issues are expected to have big financial implications next year, but for this year, the fact that there are no travel expenses may help keep budgets in line. Here is an Idaho Statesman article with Boise State's Athletic Director making that point.