Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 22, 1990 TAG: 9004220072
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B8 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: KANSAS CITY, MO. LENGTH: Medium
"He's a man who worked the system and beat the system," Byers said in his first interview since retiring as executive director in 1987. "There is a legal bromide about justice delayed is justice denied. The story of this case proves that."
Byers also said it's time to "drastically revise" the organization he headed for 36 years.
"Time and circumstance have passed the entire system of intercollegiate athletics by," he said. "The management structure has become bureaucratic and unresponsive. I include the NCAA in that."
During his years with the NCAA, Byers never publicly called for an overhaul of the system. However, he said he privately pressed for major changes after the NCAA lost its monopoly on TV contracts for football.
The NCAA ordered a two-year suspension of Tarkanian in 1977 following an investigation of the UNLV program, but the coach obtained an injunction preventing any action against him. The injunction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1988, but the NCAA still hasn't decided whether to take further action against Tarkanian or his program.
The decision might be complicated by the fact that Tarkanian's team won the NCAA championship three weeks ago. No national basketball champion has ever been stripped of its title.
UNLV's victory convinced Byers that he should rewrite a chapter in his upcoming autobiography that deals with the Tarkanian affair.
"When UNLV got rolling this year and won the NCAA basketball tournament, we thought we might want to review a chapter entitled `Beating the System,' " he said.
Asked if the book will reveal anything new about the much-publicized case, Byers said: "It will provide a perspective of the problems faced by NCAA investigators. It will give the sports fan a true picture of the unpleasant side of an NCAA investigator's work."
Byers confirmed rumors of a rift between him and other top-level NCAA officials over his autobiography.
"Before I retired, there was legal pressure brought to give the NCAA the right of prior approval of what I wrote," he said. "I wouldn't do it. There were indications then that I wouldn't have access to files and records for research. I finally did agree to indemnify the NCAA on any slander suits. I have had access to most of the material I needed."
After the breakup of television football rights, Byers said he asked top NCAA officials "how resistant they would be to the idea of overhauling the entire system, putting it in step with the times, economically and socially.
"But I saw immediately that change, the kind of change I was talking about, would be impossible. I spent my last five years as executive director trying to preserve the good things we had done."
by CNB