The NCAA News - News & Features

CFA calls it quits

Operations will end June 30, 1997

The College Football Association, a fixture in intercollegiate athletics since 1977, has voted to disband.

The association's board of directors voted May 31 in Dallas for the organization to cease operations June 30, 1997.

The action came after the presidents of the Southeastern Conference voted to recommend that the CFA should disband. The Atlantic Coast and Big East Conferences also had expressed doubts about the continued need for the organization. The Big 12 and Western Athletic Conferences had voted at their spring meetings to continue supporting the CFA.

The CFA was formed as a way for top football powers to gain a more effective voice within the NCAA. The Big Ten and Pacific-10 Conferences never did join the association, but throughout the 1980s, it included all other major I-A football-playing conferences and independents.

After the U. S. Supreme Court ruled in 1984 that the NCAA's Football Television Plan violated antitrust law, the CFA successfully negotiated contracts with television and cable networks.

However, in 1991, the University of Notre Dame, a CFA charter member, struck out on its own, establishing a television contract with NBC. Two years ago, the Southeastern Conference announced that it would opt out of the CFA plan at the end of the 1995 season, when the CFA's contract with ABC and ESPN expired.

Besides its impact on television, the CFA also has had a major effect on NCAA legislative matters. It has been especially active in areas relating to academics, coaching staff sizes, recruiting, permissible grants-in-aid and practice time. It also has been vocal regarding the application of Title IX legislation.

"Our primary purpose was to address legislation, television and to carry football's water," said Charles M. Neinas, the only executive director in the 20-year history of the association, "and we tried to do that with the Knight Commission, with Congress and within the NCAA."

Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, said his group and the Division
I-A Athletics Directors Association will assume many of the lobbying responsibilities formerly held by the CFA.