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

DATE: SATURDAY, November 11, 1995                   TAG: 9511130039
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Short

PROPOSAL SPREADS NCAA POWER BASE

The reform-minded Knight Commission on Friday endorsed a proposed new governing structure for the NCAA that would give college presidents greater responsibility over athletic programs.

The plan, approved by the NCAA Presidents Commission in June, will come to a vote at the NCAA's annual convention in Dallas in early January.

``If we do pull it off, I think we're going to save academic-amateur sports for America. If we don't, I would just as soon see them drift off into the sunset,'' said the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, co-chairman of the Knight Commission and president emeritus of Notre Dame.

The reorganization plan would change the way that the business of college athletics is run.

For example, each of the NCAA's three divisions would have a considerable say over its rules and policies.

And 16 presidents drawn from among the divisions would serve on an executive committee that had authority over NCAA matters - budgets, supervision of the executive director and national staff, and long-range planning.

While commission members and the head of the Presidents Commission believe the new structure will pass in January, they say it will not mean the elimination of the NCAA's enforcement arm or cheating by member schools.

``You're always going to have people in sports who are going to try to break the rules no matter who's making them or no matter what the rules are,'' said Creed Black, president of the Knight Foundation, which underwrites the commission's work.

by CNB