The National Collegiate Athletic Association Council has rejected an appeal by the University of California, Davis, to move to Division I without offering scholarships, UC Davis Chancellor Theodore L. Hullar confirmed today. Hullar and UC Davis Acting Athletic Director Keith R. Williams ("exercising the campus's right to be personally present," said Hullar) met with the NCAA Council at its scheduled meeting in Boston last Thursday (Aug. 6), asking that the council reconsider a decision by an NCAA interpretations committee that would force the campus to comply with a minimum scholarship requirement in order to move to Division I by fall 1995. An NCAA bylaw enables schools to be exempted from minimum Division I scholarship requirements if they did not give financial aid before January 1991. The interpretations committee, however, ruled that the bylaw applies only to schools already in Division I. Hullar said he was notified by telephone late yesterday that the council will not overrule the interpretations committee, believing that "the clear intent of Division I members when they established financial criteria was that all Division I members must provide scholarships." Hullar spoke with NCAA Associate Executive Director Ted C. Tow. This isn't the end to UC Davis' efforts to sustain a non-scholarship athletic program, the chancellor said. Legislation that would permit non-scholarship status as an option for any Division I school will be discussed on the floor of the annual NCAA Convention in January, sponsored by nine Division I schools at the request of UC Davis. "I'm hopeful they will be responsive to our concerns about the high cost of Division I athletics," Hullar said. "We believe a non-scholarship option should be provided and that those who compete at Division I should have a broad-based program for both men and women, as we do. Ironically, we've achieved without scholarships the breadth of participation -- we have 20 sports, far more than the NCAA's required 14 -- that the NCAA believes can only be achieved by offering scholarships." Current NCAA legislation attempts to ensure that Division I schools have broad-based programs by requiring them to provide at least $500,000 in athletic grants to men's and women's sports other than football and basketball. "Our hope is to interest other Division I institutions in supporting us," Hullar said. "We will work to put together a possible non-scholarship conference in which people are willing to participate at the Division I level in terms of high academic standards, breadth of sports and cost-containment."