Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 19, 1993 TAG: 9303190338
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
COMMISSION PUTS ONUS ON PRESIDENTS
While the NCAA has taken dramatic steps toward reform, college and university presidents must remain vigilant to prevent future abuses in intercollegiate athletics, The Knight Commission said on Thursday."We are not going to clean up intercollegiate athletics unless the presidents do it," said the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, president emeritus of Notre Dame and co-chairman of the commission. "They have the power, and, in most cases, their trustees are behind it."
The commission, founded in 1989, concluded more than three years of work by issuing its final report Thursday.
The chief achievement of the 23-member panel was encouraging college and university presidents to more closely watch their athletic programs for financial improprieties and other scandals.
That provision and the use of independent auditors for Division I athletic programs were adopted as policy by the NCAA at its annual meeting last month.
"That is significant because we had only the power of persuasion," Hesburgh said. "We had no authority to legislate."
The commission's accomplishments are beginning to be reflected in public opinion. According to surveys conducted by LH Research Inc., 78 percent of those questioned in 1989 agreed that "intercollegiate athletics is out of control." Early this year, that figure had dropped to 52 percent.
"The turnaround in what people thought and now think about college athletics is one of the most dramatic I've ever measured," said pollster Lou Harris.
The group achieved its three main aims: making college presidents assume more power over athletic programs, generating an increased emphasis on academic performance by student-athletes, and, perhaps most importantly, creating an agreement to allow independent auditors to review a school's athletic department ledgers.
"Most of the sleaze factor in intercollegiate athletics came through booster clubs and people outside the institution who had money and spent it freely for their own interests, not the interests of the institutions," Hesburgh said. "This certification is the same as calling in a certified public accountant to look at the university's books."
Members of the commission, mindful that a majority of those surveyed still take a dim view of intercollegiate athletics, cautioned that university presidents must continue their close monitoring of athletic programs or scandals could erupt again.
"I don't think we can ever think we are going to put a set of rules in place that will guarantee that all the problems of college athletics will go away," said Dick Schultz, executive director of the NCAA and a commission member. "There will have to be constant vigilance."
"We've left a lot of things out there for institutions that are serious about reform to follow up on," said William C. Friday, commission co-chairman and president emeritus of the University of North Carolina.