One of the top governing boards in college sports unanimously approved a plan on Monday to punish teams whose athletes are not keeping up with their course work. The National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I Management Council also voted to do away with a rule that limits basketball teams to five new players per year, with a maximum of eight in any two-year period.

The council, which consists of athletics administrators and faculty representatives, was the first group to approve a complex set of disincentives designed to improve graduation rates. The plan (see the current issue of The Chronicle) would take away scholarships from teams when athletes flunk out, as long as those teams have a history of failing to graduate athletes.

It would also ratchet up punishments over a series of years, ultimately banning a team from postseason championships if its athletes persist in failing to meet the association's academic standards.

"We need to get a better-prepared student to come into our intercollegiate athletic system, stay eligible, and represent our teams," said Christine A. Plonsky, chairman of the council and director of women's athletics at the University of Texas at Austin. "All these pieces in aggregate will create a better platform for preparing student-athletes who realize competing in athletics is a privilege."

The recruiting restriction in basketball was the only recommendation accepted by the NCAA from an ad-hoc committee that met in 1999 to discuss the many problems facing college basketball. Among the issues the group considered were poor graduation rates in the sport, recruiting abuses, and the powerful influence that coaches of club teams for high-school athletes wield over the recruiting process. The restriction, commonly known as the 5-and-8 rule, was designed to prevent coaches from running off players they didn't like.

Unsurprisingly, the rule has been tremendously unpopular with coaches, who say that it prevents them from being competitive when athletes transfer for legitimate reasons, or choose to enter the National Basketball Association draft.

Ms. Plonsky and other officials said that the new academic penalties would better address the problems that the 5-and-8 rule was intended to solve.

The Management Council also considered a proposal to ban teams from taking foreign tours, but ultimately voted it down. The group did approve a ban on such tours taking place less than 30 days from the beginning of practice.

The council resumes its meeting today. To become rules, the council's decisions must be approved by the Division I Board of Directors, a group of college presidents, which meets next week.