Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 21, 1991 TAG: 9103210031
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bill Brill
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The first, unhappily, is that a lot of the truly important people involved don't have a clue, but, at least, they now seem aimed in the proper direction.
I attended all of the Knight meetings except one and came to the conclusion that too many of the 22 members didn't understand how college sports works. Rather, they knew there were problems, many of them academic, and they were concerned, as they should be.
The best thing the Knight group did was to convince the NCAA's Presidents Commission that it needed testimony from the experts - coaches, athletes, athletic directors and faculty representatives. Some of them even were willing to listen to some members of the Fourth Estate.
The eight presidents on the Knight group who also were members of the Presidents Commission helped that delegation get its act together, and the result was that the NCAA convention in January had predetermined results.
Still, it says here that too many presidents are overly concerned with television - it costs big bucks to have broad-based programs and where's the money coming from? Further, only a relative handful of schools actually are involved with television. Does it matter when they kick off a Saturday football game?
But the Knight Commission, which hopes to have its agenda presented in some form in upcoming NCAA conventions, has accurately zeroed in on some of the problems that can make college sports a cesspool.
Some of the strongest proposals haven't gotten any national publicity yet, but they will when the word gets out.
Consider:
Junior college transfers would have to sit out a year if they weren't academically qualified coming out of high school (that includes most of the better players). A great idea sure to be opposed by those coaches who recruit the junior-college players heavily. The schools don't want to pay three years to get two. But the greatest academic scandal of all is junior-college transfers. They have almost no chance to graduate in two years, they are almost never red-shirted, so only a handful get degrees.
The number of core courses that would be required in high school would be increased from 11 to 15, with a minimum 2.0 average. That obviously would toughen academic standards without increasing the minimum score in the controversial standardized tests. Let's see some coach gripe about that.
High school athletes who were not academically qualified after their junior year could neither take a paid recruiting visit nor could they sign a letter of intent. That means football player Aaron Sparrow and basketball player Junior Burroughs wouldn't have signed yet with Virginia. The idea is to get the athletes to start taking the SAT earlier and to eliminate free campus travel for those who would be better off staying home and studying. Let's pass this one in '92 and make it effective immediately.
All-star games during the school year would be cut out. That would mean no more Dapper Dan, McDonald's, etc. Absolutely. Most of these guys haven't qualified in the first place, and they certainly don't need to miss more school.
The summer camps run by commercial interests would be reduced or eliminated. No more Nike camp and Sonny Vaccaro. No more meat markets. A must.
Perhaps you've seen or read of some of the other major proposals, including having all coaches' income handled through the school and made public. If the coach gets a $250,000 shoe deal, that money would go to the school, which could decide how much he would get.
Athletes would receive five-year scholarships. Presently, they get only one year, which must be renewed. Four years of eligibility would be retained. But the player would have to pass each semester (or quarter) to play. Presently, at many schools, if a player is eligible at the start of the school year, the player can't flunk out until the end of the year.
Fund-raising and booster groups would come under the auspices of the school. Even now, too many are independent entities over which the school has relatively little control.
And a subtle suggestion that hasn't received much publicity and would even be illegal in Virginia: Permit the school to fund the entire athletic department as it does all other departments. Bail out athletics if it was losing money, rather than place undue pressure on coaches and administrators to win big, therefore qualifying for postseason play.
The NCAA is too massive and disjointed for total reform. There are too many divergent missions. But conferences of peer schools could make enormous progress, and I'm enough of an optimist to believe that will occur, if at a tedious pace.
by CNB