The NCAA News - Comment

May 20, 1996

• Guest editorial -- More study of violence against women needed ...By Gary Carney, Southwest State University
• Letter to the editor -- Lacrossee needs open selection process
• Opinions -- Player surprised by low minority presence in baseball

Guest editorial -- More study of violence against women needed

BY GARY CARNEY
Southwest State University

Acts of violence against women in the forms of physical and sexual abuse are a sad reality in today's society. And, since intercollegiate athletics may be considered a microcosm of society, we can expect that acts of violence against women will occur within intercollegiate athletics as well. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise when a student-athlete is charged with an act of violence against a woman, since intercollegiate athletics will reflect both the good and bad of society.

However, disturbing results can be found in one study that shows rates of sexual assault by male student-athletes exceed those of the rest of the male student population. In a study of 30 NCAA Division I institutions, Todd Crosset from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, found that male student-athletes comprised 3.3 percent of the population but were responsible for 19 percent of the reported cases of sexual assault on campus. While Crosset is careful not to have his findings misconstrued, he states that the research clearly shows that when compared to the male student population, male student-athletes are responsible for a significantly higher percentage of reported sexual assaults.

Given information such as this, it is easy to see why violence against women by student-athletes is considered a disturbing trend in intercollegiate athletics.

It would be possible to offer compelling evidence of this by listing a number of cases of violence against women by student-athletes. But, the experience of athletics administrators and coaches who have had to deal directly with this issue with one of their student-athletes is far more compelling than any list of offenses. For anyone who has had to deal with even one female student-athlete as a victim or a male student-athlete as the accused, the experience is a powerful one that leaves little question that violence against women is an issue in intercollegiate athletics.

And, if Crosset's study is indicative of what is occurring on college campuses across the country, it is a very serious issue for intercollegiate athletics.

Assuming that Crosset's study reflects what is occurring on college campuses, violence against women by student-athletes is an issue that warrants national attention. Addressing the issue in this manner is important for a number of reasons.

First and foremost, it will provide motivation for groups and organizations to gather accurate information and research on the issue. This is not to imply that we should spend an inordinate amount of time researching the issue, but, given its extreme sensitivity, we must ensure that there is good and accurate information.

This research also may provide pertinent information such as whether differences exist across NCAA divisions, sports and other variables.

While this research is being conducted, we should look for guidance from institutions that have initiated programs that have been successful in addressing violence against women by student-athletes. By including these experiences as part of the national discussion, we may begin to effect change immediately.

Another benefit of addressing this as a national issue is that to do so would make it easier for institutions to address the issue on their own campuses. Without national recognition of violence against women by student-athletes, many institutions may be reluctant to address the issue for fear of public misconceptions regarding their motivation.

Violence against women by student-athletes is not an issue that can be legislated by the NCAA, nor is it an issue with which most people are comfortable.

However, given the amount of attention this issue has received in the media, it may be in our own best interest to address the issue directly.

Further research may show that intercollegiate athletics simply reflects what occurs within our society. Should that be the case, it is more of a societal issue than an intercollegiate athletics issue. But, if the results of Crosset's research are replicated and male student-athletes are responsible for a significantly higher percentage of reported sexual assaults on campus than the overall male student population, we would be remiss in our responsibility if we did not directly address the issue.

For those involved in intercollegiate athletics as a profession, it is disturbing to accept the notion that male student-athletes may be guilty of violence against women at a rate significantly greater than that for the male population at a university. However, it would be far more disturbing to accept this notion and do nothing.

Ideally, we should take an active role in helping to eliminate all acts of violence against women on college campuses. At a minimum, we should make every effort to see that male student-athletes are no more guilty of these acts than the male student population as a whole.

Gary Carney is director of athletics at Southwest State University.

Letter to the editor -- Lacrosse needs open selection process

Oh, I really wanted to care about this year's NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship, but you see, I'm a Bucknell fan, and the Bison were not invited to the little fraternity party this year. That's what it is, after all.

The selection committee that decides the field each year is widely regarded as a good ol' boy network, a fraternity of sorts that protects its own. When a new kid shows up on the block, well, someone had better watch the door. Can't let the riffraff in.

Forget the fact that Bucknell was the only team in Division I to go undefeated this year. Forget the fact that Bucknell was ranked ninth in the nation in the final poll. And forget the fact that Bucknell soundly defeated Army, 14-10, en route to the undefeated season and the league title. Army got in the tournament. After all, they've been there 11 times before.

The committee's first strike against Bucknell was its schedule. Who did they play? John Parry, the head of the selection committee, said that the committee considered the schedule, but that after beating Army, Bucknell didn't play "another team in the tournament." So that's it. Of course. They didn't meet enough members of the club.

Well, all Bucknell could do was beat the teams on its schedule. That's what they did. They went 12-0. They won at Navy. They won at Hobart. They won at Penn State, which had been ranked as high as seventh in the nation and might have been in contention for the tournament, had it not been for the loss to Bucknell.

The lacrosse community often clamors for increased exposure. We'd like to get more people to see our sport, they say. And then, when they have a chance to open the door and accept new members, what happens? Towson State, Loyola (Maryland) and Johns Hopkins all make the field, Syracuse and Army both make the field, and the two breeding grounds of lacrosse are replenished.

I'm not suggesting that all those teams should have been kept out of the tournament. I'm simply asking, how can anyone who likes lacrosse expect the sport to grow when the committee operates so incestuously?

And how can anyone who likes lacrosse possibly condone what the selection committee just did to Bucknell coach Sid Jamieson? Here is a man who has given unselfishly to the sport for more than 30 years. He won the George Gelston Award in 1985 as the person who most represents the game of lacrosse, and he received the 1986 Howdy Myers Memorial Award as college lacrosse's man of the year.

And yet, when he showed up at the fraternity house because he heard there was a party, they slammed the door in his face.

His Bucknell roster this year featured a player believed to be the first Japanese native to compete in NCAA Division I lacrosse, and he has worked tirelessly with the Japan Lacrosse Association to cultivate the sport in that country.

Sid Jamieson has been betrayed, and the members of the NCAA Lacrosse Committee -- many of whom know Jamieson well -- should be ashamed and embarrassed. The committee should have recognized that Jamieson's team belonged in the tournament, and it should have been excited about the opportunity to extend its scope. The sport is not helping itself with decisions like this one.

I was actually looking forward to following the lacrosse tournament this year, as were thousands of other Bucknell fans and alumni. Now, though, I think I've got more worthwhile things to do.

I think I'll go watch my lawn.

Bo Smolka
Sports Information Director
Bucknell University

Opinions -- Player surprised by low minority presence in baseball

Jacque Jones, baseball player
University of Southern California

Discussing the ethnic makeup of teams at the 1995 College World Series (of the 144 players participating, only six were African-American, and four of the six were from Jones' Southern California team):

"I wasn't surprised. I was alarmed. To have all those great teams in the College World Series and all those other teams had just two black players. Just two players....

"When I was growing up, playing Little League, Senior League, Pony League, high school, there were always a lot of really good black players. Now that I'm in college it's like, what happened to them? Where did they go? Why aren't there the same numbers at the college level? That's a question I would like to see answered.

"When I look around at the College World Series or the Olympic team, I almost feel like I'm the only African-American playing college baseball and that's not right. For me to be the only African-American on the Olympic team is like saying I'm the only black person playing college baseball. I know plenty of African-Americans playing in college baseball who have the ability to play on the Olympic team. I know plenty of African-Americans playing high-school baseball who have the ability to play college baseball. People just aren't looking for them."

Skip Bertman, baseball coach
Louisiana State University

"Hey, I've got some numbers that will stun you. I've really looked at this, studied it hundreds of times, and I really honestly believe that black Americans make up 1 percent or less of all the kids playing Division I baseball if you take out the predominantly black schools like the Gramblings and the Southerns and the Howards."

NCAA transfer regulations

Mark Wicker, columnist

"Everybody transfers, everybody plays the angles, and the best kids know their touring summer coaches better than their high-school coaches, who, in theory, are also educators.

"NCAA recruiting rules make it worse. A coach has only five recruiting 'opportunities' with a prospect. They can either be actual off-campus contact, or an evaluation seeing him play. But they cannot surpass five.

"Players can take only five paid recruiting visits to schools.

"And coaches, for the most part, can only telephone a kid once a week....

"These restrictions (including contact and evaluation periods) were made in the name of economics. Instead, they have ballooned the plane and hotel bills, because if you don't follow the summertime flesh cavalcade, you don't see the best players. They penalize the mid-major schools who need more recruiting time to outwork the established TV schools.

"More critically, they keep the coaches and players from getting to know each other. If the coach chases his players around with a sword, some extra campus time would allow the prospect to learn that. If the prospect likes to relax by turning flame throwers on playgrounds, some extra visits might allow the coach to learn that."

Players turning pro out of high school

Kobe Bryant, basketball player

Upon announcing he was declaring for the National Basketball Association draft without first attending college:

"A lot of people now are starting to think that college basketball is starting to die down. All the high school all-Americans are going to college for a year or two and then going to the NBA....

"Believe it or not, I've wanted to do this (play pro ball) since the ninth grade. I remember telling my best friend, 'I don't think I'm going to college. I'm playing in the NBA.' He said, 'You can't do that. You've got to go to college. That's how the system works.' I said, 'I don't care. This is what I want to do.' Now, here I am."

David Stern, NBA commissioner

"My instinct is, knowing that we'll be after the same high-school stars as the colleges, the NCAA will try and crush us."

Women's athletics

Caroline Sinclair, pioneer woman athlete and coach
Recent inductee into Virginia Sports Hall of Fame

"With the passage of Title IX, things opened up even more for women....(But) I was amazed at what happened at some places. Some women who had been real good coaches and had worked hard to get to that position were supplanted by men.

"I won't say there was animosity between men and women but there was a scramble for positions. I was disappointed at that, because the men and women at my schools had always gotten along well. They really supported each other.

"But that was changing. There was a rivalry between them, and that was bad.

"I hope that's being worked out all right now.''