Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 12, 1994 TAG: 9401120317
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SAN ANTONIO LENGTH: Long
The boycott, which would include coaches and players, could begin as soon as Saturday, which is Martin Luther King's birthday.
"In all likelihood there will be a boycott, but I am reluctant to give you a time and date," said Rudy Washington, head of the BCA and basketball coach at Drake. "Players and coaches are expected to participate. "And they're talking about the rest of the season, like the baseball strike."
On Monday, the NCAA voted down a proposal to restore a 14th basketball scholarship two years after it voted to cut scholarships from 15 to 13. The argument was that by cutting scholarships, it hurt minorities more than anyone else.
"It's nothing that any of us want to do," Washington said from his office in Des Moines, Iowa. "It's just something we have to do. Not every coach wants to boycott. But in order to help themselves and their kids, they have to do it."
The plan was approved by the coaches association's legislative committee, which includes coaches George Raveling (Southern Cal), John Thompson (Georgetown) and John Chaney (Temple). Washington said the group was scheduled to talk again later Tuesday and set a date for a boycott.
While the BCA planned its strategy, all 33 Division I conference commissioners set up a conference call for Thursday to discuss how they might respond to a boycott.
"I really don't know what they're being asked to do, what they want to do," said Jim Delany, the Big Ten Conference's commissioner. "We'll try to have a consistent way of managing the games. If the players are there, we'll play. If the players aren't there, we'll just have to apply the rules of the game."
Earlier Tuesday, the BCA considered other options, including boycotting news conferences for the rest of the season, disrupting traffic at the Final Four and disrupting the start of first-round NCAA Tournament games.
"I think some white coaches are definitely expected to participate," Washington said. "We don't expect 100 percent participation, but you don't need 100 percent to be effective.
"At this point in time, right now, it's a go. Every coach I talked to said they were going to do it."
The BCA is just one of many unhappy groups within the NCAA.
Division I-A football schools are talking about forming their own association.
Women, bitter over the snail's pace of gender equity, are growing more scornful by the day.
Small historically black schools are talking about forming their own association.
And amid all this tension and tumult comes a group of conference commissioners with a radical plan to revamp virtually the entire NCAA structure.
Is the NCAA, with more than 900 members, going to pieces?
"In a very real way, a lot of the societal issues that are in the country at large are being reflected within the NCAA," said Delany, a principal author of a restructuring plan that would turn the entire process upside down.
"Gender issues, race issues and economic issues are clearly reflected in the debate and in the challenges we face. There's no question about it."
Everywhere delegates turned, they were met with representatives of splinter groups demanding that their voice be heard.
"This was supposed to be the gender-equity convention," said Chris Voelz, women's athletic director at Minnesota. "It was not. What? Are we afraid to say yes to a woman, no to a man."
"I believe the time has come for the historically black institutions to give serious consideration to forming our own association," said Harold Lundy, president of Grambling State University.
While no big-time football schools will talk openly of secession, their unhappiness is what's fueling the drive to restructure.
\ NCAA SCHOLARSHIP CONTROVERSY\ REASONS BEHIND A POSSIBLE BOYCOTT\ \ Who's angry?: Most Division I men's college basketball coaches, particularly black coaches.\ \ Why: Because NCAA Division I schools, guided by the powerful Presidents Commission, voted not to restore a 14th men's basketball scholarship that was cut as part of their reform movement.\ \ What's wrong: Black coaches say the cuts will affect minorities most. They claim 330 young men will be denied access to NCAA schools. The NCAA disputes this, saying not all the nearly 300 Division I schools use their full complement of scholarships.
\ What's going to happen?: The Black Coaches Association has called for a boycott by coaches and players, white and black. The BCA said it would decide later when and in what form the boycott would take. Saturday's games - on Martin Luther King's birthday - may be targeted.\ \ What then?: The public reaction is anybody's guess. Coaches and athletes who boycott games would be in technical violation of their contracts and scholarships and subject to disciplinary action.
by CNB