A number of foreign players are anxiously awaiting what their fate will be for this season as it relates to the reduction in penalties on players who have played professionally overseas, including South Carolina starting center Marius Petravicius, Hawaii starting forward Predrag Savovic and Providence sophomore forward Maris Laksa.

If the reduction isn't adopted by the board, then the players could potentially sit a game-for-game penalty, which in some cases could be as many as 35 games or as few as a handful.

But the National Association of Basketball Coaches is united in support of adopting the reduction. But the vote is split among management council members, making it too close to call which way the vote will go. Some members fear that lawsuits could come from players who sat out games last season.

The "5/8" rule has limited the number of men's basketball scholarships to five in any given year and no more than eight in a two-year period. The modification would allow institutions to award up to nine initial scholarship grands during this year and 2002-2003, with no more than five in one year.

The "5/8" rule would resume in 2003-04.

Another basketball rule change affecting recruiting would allow the "restricted coach" in men's and women's basketball to recruit off-campus, but would limit the number of coaches actively recruiting at a given time to three (the current allowable number).

The new membership standards for Division I would require schools to: average at least 90 percent of the permissible number of football scholarships over a tolling two-year period; annually host a minimum of five regular-season home football games against D-I opponents; sponsor a minimum of 16 varsity sports (at least six for men and eight for women); offer a minimum of 200 athletic grants-in-air or spend at least $4 million on grants to student-athletes; and average 15,000 for all home football games.

ESPN.com senior writer Andy Katz contributed to this report.