Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 5, 1995                   TAG: 9501050053
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: KANSAS CITY, MO.                                LENGTH: Medium

EX-NCAA DIRECTOR: IT'S TIME TO PAY COLLEGE ATHLETES

Walter Byers, who retired in 1987 as executive director after 36 years with the NCAA, said ``dramatic changes are necessary to permit athletes to participate in the enormous proceeds'' produced by big-time college athletics.

He said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday that a ``neoplantation mentality'' exists under the present system, where coaches and administrators act as ``overseers and supervisors'' who ``own the athlete's body.''

``I believe the athletes should have the same access to the commercial marketplace that the supervisors and overseers as well as other students have,'' he said.

Byers, who shocked his former NCAA colleagues last summer by criticizing them in remarks at an awards banquet, is writing a book titled ``Unsportsmanlike Conduct - Exploiting College Athletes.''

The book is being published by the University of Michigan press and ``tells how the system is, how it got that way and how it can be improved,'' Byers said.

A widening circle of critics calling for direct compensation for big-time college athletes will find in Byers a powerful and unexpected ally.

These include LSU basketball coach Dale Brown, who has been quoted as saying the system is particularly unfair to youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Dick DeVenzio, a former Duke basketball player, is trying to organize college athletes from his home in Charlotte, N.C. DeVenzio has sent a 34-minute tape to many top football and basketball players in which he says, ``You don't have to sit there and just accept the system.''

Cedric Dempsey, the current NCAA executive director, said there is increased sympathy among schools to do more for athletes.

``There is a difference between what you can receive [in scholarship aid] and the cost of the educational experience, which varies from school to school,'' Dempsey said. ``All of are interested in trying to bridge that gap.

``I do not see any sympathy to move away from the basic principle of amateurism ... that participation should be motivated primarily by education and the physical, mental and social benefits that derive from athletics.''

Byers did not say he was endorsing DeVenzio's plan but expects strong resistance to his ideas.

``The people who are profiting most from the present system will be the ones who most strongly oppose any change,'' Byers told The AP. ``It is a disservice to these young people to remain committed to an outmoded code of amateurism for economic controls.''

Byers said he realized the system needed overhauling before he retired, but his efforts went nowhere even though he made his views public.

``In the 1980s, I proposed to the two key policy boards of the NCAA on two different occasions that we should change the way we were doing things. The ideas were not accepted,'' he said.

``But when you say the amateur principles of 1956 should control the commercial realities of 1995, it is an illogical and defenseless position.

``I think there is a substantial body of opinion out there ... that it is unsportsmanlike for the colleges and the NCAA to control all the money and then decree how much should be spent on behalf of the players.''

Byers declined to specify how he would compensate players but said he would hold them to academic eligibility standards.

``I'm not saying they're going to get paid by the colleges,'' he said.

NCAA officials argue that athletes already are sharing in the rewards. Besides a free education, they point to such things as travel and per diem for non-revenue athletes and grants to help athletes meet emergency costs for everything from winter clothing to funeral expenses.

``That's only elaborate money-laundering,'' Byers said, noting scholarship athletes are not permitted to endorse products or even hold jobs.

``As long as the colleges or the NCAA control the money and decide how it should go, it's clean money because the colleges and the NCAA have laundered it,'' he said. ``Any money from any other source is dirty money and makes athletes ineligible.''

An argument that Byers admits to once using himself maintains that paying players would turn the entire system upside down and reduce non-revenue sports to virtual club status.