Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 9, 1994 TAG: 9401090052
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SAN ANTONIO LENGTH: Medium
Some big-time schools may consider dropping out of the NCAA if the organization is not restructured to give them greater autonomy, NCAA President Joe Crowley said Saturday.
Crowley, speaking at the NCAA's 88th annual convention, also agreed that most of the major issues now confronting the colleges, including restructuring and a Division I-A football playoff, are not on this year's agenda.
"Accurate stories, I think, have suggested there really wasn't a lot of explosive material on the formal agenda, and that perhaps much of what makes it interesting will be what was under discussion in the hallways or across the lunch table, or in the saloons," Crowley said at a media luncheon.
The convention opens its four-day run today with Cedric Dempsey making his first state-of-the-association address since replacing Dick Schultz as executive director. Although there are no proposals dealing with restructuring, a resolution will call for legislation at next year's meeting that would reconfigure the sprawling body of more than 800 schools.
One of the hottest topics in the hallways and saloons will be a radical restructuring plan being floated by a group of major conferences.
It would abolish the Presidents Commission, NCAA Council and NCAA Executive Committee and establish a board of trustees made up of 15 college presidents to oversee all NCAA operations, including the executive director.
Nine of the presidents would come from major conferences that meet a new set of criteria, including average athletic department budgets of $9 million and average football attendance of 30,000.
As they are now constituted, the eight conferences meeting the criteria would be the Big Ten, Pacific 10, Southeastern, Southwest, Big Eight, ACC, Big East and Western Athletic. This proposal would boot the Mid-American and the Big West conferences out of the top football division.
Significantly, the major conferences would have a voting majority at each level of NCAA management, including a "management council" of athletic directors, faculty representatives and women's administrators directly below the board of trustees.
The plan asserts this would "shift . . . governance authority to those institutions and conferences which have the greatest equity in the intercollegiate athletics enterprise, as defined by capital investment, financial exposure and competitive level."
The windfall that might be realized from a Division I-A football playoff is one thing spurring talk of restructuring. However, the conferences' restructuring plan calls for continued sharing of the wealth from the NCAA Tournament.
Asked if secession might be a possibility if the big schools don't get greater autonomy, Crowley said:
"Organizations as large and complex as the NCAA always confront that possibility. I do believe, however, that there is wisdom in staying under a single roof. There will be accommodation on this issue."
The policy-making NCAA Council announced Friday it will support a resolution that directs a complete review of new academic requirements for freshmen known as Proposition 16. Bitterly opposed by the Black Coaches Association, Proposition 16 alters the freshman eligibility requirements in effect since Proposition 48 was passed. Black coaches maintain the standardized tests used to determine eligibility are racially biased and word of the new requirements is not reaching high schools.
by CNB