The NCAA News - Comment
September 23, 1996
Guest editorial -- Colleges have a chance to boost youth vote
BY DAVID L. WARREN
National Association of Independent Colleges
This fall, two great American rituals will be played out -- college football and a national election.
While these events may not be linked in the American psyche, they are being tied together by at least two institutions of higher education, Ohio State University and the University of California, Berkeley. Each campus is sponsoring a voter-registration day at home football games this season.
On September 21, Ohio State targeted the football game against the University of Pittsburgh for a massive voter-registration effort. More than 80,000 fans attended the game.
The campaign was fairly simple. Before the game, volunteers were stationed at entrances around the stadium armed with clipboards loaded with Ohio and federal registration forms to register people to vote as they entered the stadium. Game-goers also were able to take the registration forms with them to complete at their seats.
During the game, announcements were made over the public-address system and flashed across the scoreboard, reminding the fans that they could register at the game. Fans were directed to voter-registration tables set up around the stadium.
After the game, volunteers were stationed at the exits to collect completed forms and register anyone who didn't finish the registration form during the game.
California is adopting a similar game plan at its September 28 football game against Oregon State University.
In this election, voter registration is easier than ever before. The National Voter Registration Act, known as "Motor Voter," is being implemented. The law requires that states ease voter-registration rules, and it allows people to register at more places than ever. There is even a universal form for registration that is accepted in every state.
Earlier this year, 38 major higher education associations launched the National Campus Voter Registration Project. Called "Your Vote -- Your Voice," the program is
engaging higher education leaders in activities to help students, particularly, to cross a major hurdle in American citizenship -- voting.
"Your Vote -- Your Voice" is working with colleges across the country to establish registration campaigns on campus and provide voter education and encouragement to young voters as election day advances. Activities underway include:
* Distributing voter-registration forms at class registration and in campus-housing documents, and inserting voter-registration materials in faculty and student workers' pay envelopes.
* Holding campus-wide voter-registration events and press conferences.
* Closing all dining halls and holding voter-registration rallies and picnics on campus.
* Establishing a community-service program where students work with members of the community to register targeted populations and/or high-school students.
"Your Vote -- Your Voice" is hoping to raise significantly the participation by younger people in the 1996 election, which marks the 25th anniversary of passage of the 26th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which lowered the voting age to 18.
Since 1972, the first presidential election after ratification, the percentage of younger voters had continually declined, reaching a low in 1988 with only 36 percent of 18- to 24 year-olds turning out at the polls. In 1992, 43 percent of younger voters exercised their right to vote.
As a member of the NCAA, you can play a significant role in reversing this trend. I urge you to follow the creative examples of your colleagues at Ohio State and California and utilize the fall sporting events on your campus to promote voter participation.
"Your Vote -- Your Voice" is helping colleges and universities across the country to organize voter-registration and get-out-the-vote campaigns. If you would like to know more about how you can participate, please call 202/785-8866.
David L. Warren is president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and cochair of the National Campus Voter Registration Project. He formerly was president of Ohio Wesleyan University and served as a member of the NCAA Presidents Commission from 1989 to 1992.
Letter to the Editor -- Clearinghouse process in need of repair
The new NCAA initial-eligibility requirements in Bylaw 14.3 have caused some major, and a host of minor, problems for NCAA member institutions.
As a result, there are many disappointed and angered prospective student-athletes and almost as many irate parents of student-athletes, not to mention a multitude of stressed-out and overburdened compliance directors. I believe that there are also many NCAA staff personnel working on clearinghouse matters who are just as frustrated with the system.
The most common problems appear to be those associated with the requirement that four years of high-school English are needed for freshman eligibility. The clearinghouse has determined that many fourth-year courses are unacceptable. A few examples follow:
Compliance directors have encountered some absolutely absurd situations. A prospect finds that he or she is not eligible because of a clearinghouse decision that a last-semester English course (second semester of the fourth year) was deemed to be unacceptable. The title of the course might lead the clearinghouse personnel to decide that the course was not an "adequate" course in English. Course A may have the same content as Course B, but the high school offering Course A may dress up the course with an enticing title such as "The Joy of Reading." Course B may bear the more pedestrian title, "English IV." The clearinghouse rules B acceptable and A nonacceptable.
Another illustration, pointing to how ludicrous the situation has become, involves how a prospect with an 1,100 SAT score and a GPA better than 3.2, from a widely recognized first-rate school, was informed by the clearinghouse that his last-semester English course is unacceptable for some dubious reason.
Another compliance person has noted that a majority of English courses that are acceptable for a New York State Regents Diploma are not acceptable for the NCAA English core. That, too, does seem absurd.
Sure, there is a waiver system. But it is lengthy and at times exasperating. And for a student who had a superior record in a reputable high school, it is just plain incomprehensible. Moreover, the waiver process puts an additional burden on NCAA personnel who, incidentally, had nothing to do with the development or passage of Bylaw 14.3.
The waiver system is clearly not the answer to the current mess.
Outside influence can sometimes be a quick fix. For example, a congressman calls the clearinghouse or the NCAA and, presto, the prospect is eligible. Or another prospect's parents enlist some slick lawyer -- or even a not-so-slick one -- and, shazam, the prospect is eligible.
But not all prospects have access to lawyers and congressmen and not all recruits and their parents have the know-how to pursue that route. So that approach is clearly not the answer.
The process and the results engendered by Bylaw 14.3 make college athletics and the NCAA (and those of us in the NCAA who vote in such regulations) appear to be woefully inept and shortsighted, if not plain dumb.
It is too late for member institutions to attempt to redress the problem through ordinary channels, namely submitting an amendment for consideration at next January's Convention. The July 15 deadline for submission of such proposed legislation has passed.
It should be emphasized that the magnitude of the Bylaw 14.3 clearinghouse problems did not become evident until August, when institutions began receiving decisions on the eligibility of student-athletes.
However, it does seem that this has become such a critical problem that the NCAA Presidents Commission or the NCAA Council should be able to initiate some sort of emergency action to remedy this situation.
Daniel P. Starr
Director of Athletics
Canisius College
Opinions -- With tobacco gone, is a sports-related beer ban next?
Richard Alm, columnist
The Dallas Morning News
"If cigarettes today, why not beer tomorrow?
"President Clinton recently decreed that tobacco companies could no longer slap their brand names on sporting events, with the hope that fewer young people will be tempted to light up for the first time. If the new policy goes into effect in a year, it will probably drive cigarette advertisers out of sports.
"No great loss for the sports fan, really. The government banned tobacco advertising from television more than 20 years ago and last year forced in-stadium signs to stay clear of television camera, so most sports have already weaned themselves from the cigarette makers' money.
"Outside of automobile racing -- NASCAR's Winston Cup series, sponsored by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., is one of the most successful partnerships in sports -- Clinton's antismoking campaign won't cause too many ripples. And right now, NASCAR is a red-hot property, quite capable of finding another corporate Daddy Warbucks to keep it going, if it comes to that.
"Beer is quite another story. The brewing industry is one of the financial pylons supporting American sports. Beer companies sponsor nearly every sport -- from beach volleyball and World Cup soccer to NCAA basketball and the World Cup of Hockey. John Labatt Ltd. owns the Toronto Blue Jays. Molson owns the Montreal Canadiens. Adolf Coors Co. put its name on the Colorado Rockies' ballpark.
"Anheuser-Busch sold the St. Louis Cardinals last year, but it is still a sponsor for many of the teams in baseball, football, hockey and basketball.
"And, perhaps most important, beer companies, unlike the cigarette makers, are a major supporter of sports on television. A ranking of the big-bucks advertisers in sports for the first quarter of this year, compiled by Nielsen Sports Marketing Service, shows Anheuser-Busch on top with $42.7 million and Miller Brewing Co. at No. 7 with $18.5 million.
"The Clinton administration hasn't yet targeted the connection between beer and sports, but it's hard to see how the mindset that wanted cigarettes out of sports could allow beer to stay in.
"Like smoking, teenage drinking is a big social problem, linked to health problems, traffic accidents, delinquency and illegitimacy. As with cigarettes, sports gives the beer industry a forum to reach young people with ads that suggest that drinking is glamorous, grown-up, sexy and cool.
"If Washington decides to try to reduce teenagers' alcohol abuse by taking beer out of sports, it will create more havoc than the decision to go after the cigarette companies. Tobacco companies and the advertising industry vow to fight Clinton's antismoking policies in court, and it's a sure thing that even sports without a big income from tobacco will be watching closely.
"After all, beer could be next.
"And that's everyone's livelihood."
Race and sports
Greg Knox, assistant football coach
University of Mississippi
Chicago Tribune
"I think the reason you don't have the racism of the '50s and '60s is integrated schools. Just being around each other helps you get along. And I think sports has been the biggest help of all.
"You see so many pictures of black athletes hugging white athletes after a victory, whites consoling Blacks after a loss. They hold hands. They see each other as a group, a unit."
Walker Jones, football player
University of Mississippi
Chicago Tribune
"Football gives people a chance to come together, to cheer about the same thing. Having us on TV, both groups of people interacting, getting along, doesn't do anything but help. It shows skin color doesn't matter."
Tommy Tuberville, football coach
University of Mississippi
Chicago Tribune
"Sports is the No. 1 reason in the South that people have started accepting each other, because they're fighting for a common goal: for the university to be successful. If it hadn't been for sports, things would still be 15 to 20 years behind."
Baseball bats
Paul Keyes, baseball coach
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond Times-Dispatch
"Wood is the pro game. Aluminum is the college game. Even at the Division I level, some guys need aluminum to be successful as hitters."
Jim Bretz, baseball coach
University of Hartford
Richmond Times-Dispatch
"Across the board, something needs to be done. Somebody is going to get killed (because of metallic bats). It's going to happen. I guess we'll keep buying those bats until it does."
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