The NCAA News - Comment
September 30, 1996
Guest editorial -- Women's sports merit equal media treatment
BY DENNIS BROWN
University of Notre Dame
In advance of the 1996 Olympics, experts predicted America's female athletes would be the biggest and brightest stars of the Games. Newsweek's preview issue billed this as the "Year of the Woman," and The New York Times Magazine headlined its pre-Olympics edition with "Women Muscle In."
Sure enough, they were right. The most compelling stories, the most exciting competition, the most inspiring achievements involved women in general and American women in particular. Admittedly, this perception was created to some extent by NBC, which made no secret of focusing on women in order to attract more female viewers.
Nevertheless, it's difficult to argue with the reality of the many successes enjoyed by the U. S. women. By any measure, Kerri Strug's vault to ensure the team gold medal in gymnastics will be remembered as one of the greatest moments in Olympic history. And she wasn't alone in her "her-oics."
There was shortstop-surgeon Dot Richardson hitting a home run in her first Olympic softball game, just like in her dreams, then another to win the gold medal; Gail Devers winning a second straight gold in the 100 meters after overcoming Graves disease; Jenny Thompson, Amy Van Dyken and the rest of the swimmers grabbing liquid gold in the pool; setter Yoko Zetterlund, born in the United States but raised in Japan, coming off the bench to rally America to a volleyball victory over (drum roll, please) Japan; the soccer team defeating powerful China for the gold medal in front of more than 76,000 fans; diver Mary Ellen Clark beating vertigo to capture a second consecutive bronze medal; and Shannon Miller producing a gold-medal swan song on the balance beam.
For those of us who have followed women's sports for the past two decades, none of this Olympian drama is surprising. Women have provided first-rate athletics performance for quite some time. The difference this summer was that the general public took substantial interest in the trials and triumphs of women because the sports media
took notice and told their readers, viewers and listeners about these talented competitors.
Now that the Games have come and gone, there is no reason why all of us can't continue to enjoy this kind of athletics entertainment year-round. The key, however, is coverage by the media. Without that, it is difficult for the public to work up much enthusiasm for any subject -- be it politics, the arts or athletics.
The place to begin focusing deeper coverage is on the collegiate level. Since the passage of Title IX, the college programs are where most elite female athletes compete, and where most U. S. Olympians first make their mark.
There are at least three good reasons why journalists would do well to follow up on the excitement of the Olympics by expanding coverage of women's sport.
First, it's simply a matter of being fair. The women competing on the Division I collegiate level are just as talented in their sports as their male peers and deserve recognition. The fact that they don't draw large crowds is, as previously noted, due in part to the lack of media attention. Give them more notice -- in the form of frequent feature profiles and other in-depth reporting -- and public interest will grow, just as it did this summer.
Second, the overwhelming majority of women who compete in athletics are positive role models for girls (and boys, for that matter) in our communities. That fact has special significance in light of the growing evidence that girls and women who compete in sports are less likely to use drugs, get pregnant before they are ready or stay in abusive relationships.
Lastly, and of direct importance to newspaper publishers and TV station general managers, more coverage of women's athletics makes fiscal sense. As the Olympics proved, a huge, and heretofore untapped, segment of the American public -- potential readers, viewers and listeners who are consumers of advertised products -- is willing and waiting to learn more about women athletes. The media that take advantage of that fact will, in time, gain a new audience.
The Centennial Olympic Games put women in the athletics spotlight. The time is right for our nation's sports media to keep it shining.
Dennis Brown is associate director of public relations and information at the University of Notre Dame. This article first appeared in the South Bend Tribune.
Letter to the Editor -- Core problem involves English courses
I would like to respond to an article by Sally Huggins on the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse that appeared in the September 16 issue of The NCAA News.
I agree that problems related to the initial eligibility of student-athletes do not rest exclusively with the clearinghouse. There is shared responsibility among the student-athlete, the high-school guidance counselor and the recruiting coach or institution for communication and timely submission of required documents.
The new standards of the required grade-point average and test score have not caused us many problems. We have seen more problems with the fourth-year English requirement. We have found a number of students who have taken four years of English, including one-half unit courses, which the clearinghouse either questions or does not accept. In many cases, those same one-half unit courses are fully acceptable for New York State Regents credit. Many of these so-called questionable courses simply have course titles that the clearinghouse finds questionable.
Ms. Huggins said that the NCAA Academic Requirements Committee is thinking of placing a 90-day limit for high schools to challenge a course that the clearinghouse finds questionable or does not accept. There is a problem in that many of the guidance counselors I've spoken with never have seen a 48H form to know which courses are acceptable.
In most cases, the first time they hear that a course was not accepted is when they receive a call from a college compliance officer attempting to correct a problem with a student-athlete's initial eligibility. They don't know when the 48H form was received from the clearinghouse or to whom it was sent. One suggested to me that it might be in the principal's office.
I would like to suggest that a copy be sent directly to the guidance office of each high school, if not done so already, and that timetables be set up for the submission and return of the 48H forms. If these guidelines are in effect now, it is not clear to the guidance counselors I've spoken with.
We have found that many of these elective English courses have more involved requirements than some of the courses that have been accepted by the clearinghouse. If a 90-day period is in effect to challenge courses, a disservice will be done to those student-athletes who have taken courses that are questioned not by content, but by course title.
I strongly suggest that the Academic Requirements Committee speak to a number of compliance officers to see the problems that the 90-day period would cause. We are the ones who see how this would impact student-athletes. I would be happy to offer my time to the committee.
Michael R. Rappl
Assistant Athletics Director
Canisius College
EDITOR'S NOTE: The 90-day window was approved by the NCAA Council during its August 1996 meeting, and is effective for course reviews this academic year. The window will coincide with the clearinghouse's mailing of the 48H renewal form.
Opinions -- Academic/athletics scale seems badly out of balance
Lisa Nehus Saxon, columnist
Riverside (California) Press-Enterprise
"While college administrators talk a lot about the importance of balancing athletics and academics, it is clear the scales some are using need to be inspected by county government offices of weights and measures. They're badly out of balance.
"An NCAA survey prepared in 1987-88 revealed that college basketball and football players spent more time on sports than they did preparing for or attending classes -- combined. The average athlete-student missed two classes per week.
"The NCAA subsequently adopted a rule restricting a student-athlete's participation in a sport to a maximum of 20 hours a week and four hours per day. But there is no way to regulate the amount of time a student voluntarily spends working in the weight room.
"It's time for athletics department administrators to insist that academics come first. Keeping track of graduation rates is a waste of time, because those numbers reveal how many athletes received a degree, not how many received an education.
"Instead, administrators should:
"* Make scholarship athletes attempt to become scholars by benching those who fail to attend classes and lectures without a good reason.
"* Make freshmen ineligible to play during their first academic year, allowing them to compete on the field only after demonstrating an ability to compete in the classroom. (This would benefit student-athletes allowed to enroll in a university despite falling short of basic academic admissions standards demanded of nonathletes.)
"* Make ESPN execs fill that Thursday-night time slot with the best of Lee Corso, or something else.
"None of this will happen, of course.
"The television revenue produced by sports such as football and basketball is necessary to pay the freight for nonrevenue college sports, such as golf, tennis and most women's programs.
"And making freshmen ineligible would prompt coaches to demand more scholarships. That means more money, which means it's out of the question, as far as many university presidents and athletic directors are concerned."
Big paydays
Ed Fowler, columnist
Houston Chronicle
"I'm one of those fossils who believe there's room for sportsmanship in college sports, and lobbing bombs at a beaten foe should be out of bounds....But one of the darker sides of college football involves the need of low-profile programs to make a payday by sacrificing their kids in places such as Columbus, Ohio. If that's the only way to make ends meet, so be it, but there's no profit in grousing over the butt-kicking. They're not going to give you a pat on the back and a cigar."
Black football coaches
Charles Whitcomb, chair
NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee
Newsday
"When we didn't have any head coaches at all, it brought about a lot of attention. People think, 'Now, everything is cool.' I don't believe everything is cool."
Alex Wood, head football coach
James Madison University
Newsday
"There are some signs of cooperation and things are getting better slowly. They're still too slow for my taste. We stress we would like our numbers in coaching to be the same way they are on the field. Until then, nobody's happy."
Exhibition football
Frank Beamer, football coach
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
Richmond Times Dispatch
"College football really needs an exhibition game. With gender equity, you're only allowed so many people in camp, so what happens is your numbers wear down, you get a few people hurt, and then it gets tough to have a good scrimmage.
"Play an exhibition game, and not only do you get the players in a live-game situation, you also get a chance to go through the (game-day) coaching operation."
Title IX
Paul Wellstone, U.S. senator from Minnesota
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"I'm not interested in doing anything to weaken Title IX. But I'm concerned that because of gender equity, men's minor sports are in danger."
Football tiebreaker
Johnny Majors, football coach
University of Pittsburgh
The Boston Globe
"The tiebreaker's a stinking thing. I've said that for a full 15 years. It's a cheap, no-football type effort."
Don Nehlen, football coach
West Virginia University
The Boston Globe
"I don't like the tiebreaker system, because I think we should play it full-out like the pros do. With this system, you eliminate a lot of players from the game by just having to play red-zone offense and red-zone defense."
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