The NCAA News - Comment
November 18, 1996
The Faculty Voice -- Should NCAA create athlete conduct code?
BY MICHAEL L KASAVANA
Michigan State University
Intercollegiate athletics is an integral part of the educational process at NCAA member institutions.
As representatives of their university, student-athletes have multifaceted responsibilities. Student-athlete misconduct, by virtue of its visibility, may reflect negatively upon the image of the university and the broader spectrum of intercollegiate athletics. Is it appropriate for the NCAA to have the right to prohibit a student-athlete from participation in athletics practice, competition, financial aid, related services (for example, weight room, training table, sports medicine) or athletics awards based upon a breach of conduct?
Should student-athletes be held to a higher standard of behavior than their peers? Is it right to expect athletes to comply with the rules and regulations of their team, institution, conference and the NCAA in addition to local, state and federal laws? Should student-athletes be responsible for anticipating and avoiding situations that may be harmful to the reputation of the institution, athletics department, coach, teammates, self or other persons? Is it fair to expect student-athletes to demonstrate exemplary conduct and respect for the personal and property rights of others? Should the university have the right to extend its jurisdiction to matters both on and off campus?
There are many complex issues raised whenever the topic of a student-athlete code of conduct is under consideration.
As NCAA member institutions experience the embarrassment associated with the increased exposure of serious criminal behavior committed by student-athletes, some schools are beginning to implement student-athlete codes of conduct. Such codes tend to be directed solely at off-the-field behavior, since many game and league rules adequately govern on-the-field antics.
Perhaps the timing is right for the NCAA to take charge of this perplexing issue. Why not work toward development of a comprehensive policy with NCAA penalties and sanctions similar to those applied in cases of unethical conduct and/or banned-drug use?
Wouldn't a national policy be more desirable, fair and effective than a variable set of autonomous institutional standards randomly applied?
When a student-athlete's behavior deviates from or violates accepted standards of conduct, should the NCAA have a responsibility to investigate and resolve the matter just as it pounces when rumors of recruiting gifts or improper player/agent relations surface?
Should a student-athlete convicted of a felony or a serious misdemeanor be allowed to retain athletics eligibility? NCAA legislation now permits loss of eligibility for lying or gambling or drug use but is silent on acts of violence. Is it appropriate to impose a mandatory period of suspension at the time credible allegations against a student-athlete are pursued by a policing agency?
While the answer to many of the issues surrounding a code of conduct are difficult to resolve, the NCAA no longer should ignore its responsibility in this area. Like it or not, student-athlete misconduct seriously undermines the integrity of intercollegiate athletics.
An NCAA student-athlete code of conduct policy will undoubtedly raise issues of discrimination against an already overlegislated portion of the student body, student-athletes.
Many will argue that student-athletes should be mainstreamed and treated like their nonathlete peers, especially when it comes to the establishment of a separate set of conduct standards. The argument may even include a hypothetical example of the two students who both commit identical crimes, yet one maintains his or her privacy and participation in campus activities while the student-athlete is visibly and unfairly stripped of some of his or her rights.
What is missing from this dialogue is the fact that student-athletes already are susceptible to unique circumstances that differentiate them from their classmates and that participation in intercollegiate athletics is a privilege, not a right.
In other words, perhaps the NCAA should consider crafting a policy that includes the following principle: Be found guilty of a crime and you may lose financial aid, competition and practice time.
As ridiculous as it may seem, some recruiters already have started using the existence of a campus student-athlete code of conduct at a competing school as a negative selling point. "Why go there? If you get in trouble, you may never play!"
Exactly. Only let's take it a step further. Let's encourage the NCAA to make it: Go anywhere, get in trouble and you may not play.
Maybe it's time to move the NCAA fixation on core curriculum to a clearer, more urgent focus on core values?
Michael L. Kasavana is faculty athletics representative at Michigan State University.
Letters to the Editor -- Tomorrow's ADs will be better-trained
As the director of a graduate program dedicated to the training of future sport and entertainment executives, I was pleased to see Sally Huggins' article "Broad range of talents required for today's athletics directors" in the November 4, 1996, issue of The NCAA News.
As we round the turn to 2000, more intercollegiate athletics departments in all divisions are growing -- growing in terms of media coverage, monetary allotments, and in institutional awareness and prioritization.
Like it or not, along with this growth comes the need for a change in the way the athletics department is managed and for a change in organizational structure and culture.
Like it or not (and we have all heard this thousands of time before), running an athletics department is akin to running a midsized to major corporation. It is no longer satisfactory, as mentioned in the article, to have "the ol' coach" running the show. In defense of some of the major universities who had the big-name football or basketball coach double as AD, there was a line/staff structure under him that was similar to "all the king's horses and all the king's men."
Management of athletics departments is moving from the hands of the physical education teacher/administrator/coach to the business person -- to the marketer, the manager, the accountant.
In addition to the University of Oklahoma situation cited in the article, one can also look at Louisiana State University and, more recently, St. John's University (New York), where a local businessman and a senior vice-president for a worldwide international marketing firm were hired, respectively.
Programs like the one at Canisius College are committed to the education of those wishing to enter the world of sport management. Included in this education is a heavy emphasis in the major facets of business management.
It may be pleasing to college and university administrators to know that many students with whom I have spoken are indeed interested in careers as intercollegiate athletics administrators. They have interests that range from compliance and eligibility all the way up to director of athletics.
In the future, these students will be versed not only sports management but in business administration and management as well.
James J. Riordan, Director
Masters of Science in Sport Administration Program
Canisius College
Rules application embarrassing
I have been involved in coaching at the Division I, II and III levels for more than 26 years, and I have served a very rewarding six years on the NCAA track and field rules committee. I'm no starry-eyed rookie to coaching and the NCAA.
Two recent NCAA decisions on eligibility appeals have seriously made me question whether or not I'm still associated with an organization that cares about people. One young man was placed in developmental English by his high school in his freshman year, his first year in the United States. According to his high-school guidance counselor, this class is small in size and allows new immigrants a chance to progress as their English talents improve.
He took no other developmental or remedial courses his entire four years. This student progressed through his high-school career and finished with a 2.850 grade-point average in his academic core. Our university, which requires four years of high-school English, accepted him without reservation, yet the NCAA has denied this man's eligibility because he lacks the required four years of English.
The second young man was virtually abandoned by his natural parents and was living in the woods in a small Connecticut town. He missed his required core GPA by .04 of a point. According to his high-school counselor, it is a wonder he is alive or not in prison, much less at a four-year college.
Neither young man is a true Division I athlete. Neither was even considered for any type of athletically related aid by any institution that was recruiting him.
I am a firm believer in the new NCAA academic rules and the spirit in which they were written. Still, I wonder how many of the individuals making these decisions could stand to be held to the letter of the law in every facet of their lives. I know I could not.
Our compliance coordinator would repeatedly call the NCAA headquarters legislative services branch and be told that his call would be returned. He has yet to receive a call.
I feel very strongly that the people who have ruled known felons and ex-cons fit to compete in NCAA contests might want to come and interview face-to-face the young athletes on whose cases they are passing judgment.
These kids want to play, not for pay, not for a big future contract, just for play. The clerks in Ames, Iowa, and the bureaucrats in Overland Park, Kansas, have, in my view, completely lost touch with this type of student-athlete.
Never in my 26 years of college coaching have I been so ashamed to be associated with the NCAA.
John J. Keleher
Men's Track and Field Coach
Central Connecticut State University
Opinions -- Take a look around to see source of gambling problem
Bill Reynolds, sportswriter
Providence Journal-Bulletin
"So here we go again.
"The reports out of Boston say that some members of the Boston College football team are being investigated for illegal gambling.
"The reports out of Boston say that some of them might even have bet on their own team, which raises the ugly spectre of point-shaving.
"Does it all sound like deja vu?
"It should.
"It was only four and a half years ago that a gambling scandal swept through both the Bryant College and University of Rhode Island basketball programs, complete with front-page stories, big headlines, the taint of allegations and players testifying before the grand jury.
" 'The situation at BC resurrects some very bad memories,' says Bryant coach Ed Reilly, who saw two of his players suspended for placing bets with a campus bookie, and others reprimanded. 'And what it eventually does is tarnish everyone, even the people who weren't involved.'
"No doubt.
"So here we go again.
"Different sport. Different school.
"Same story.
"And making it all the sadder is that it's happening at the same school that's basketball program was racked by a point-shaving scandal 17 years ago. One of its players, Rick Kuhn, was sentenced to 10 years in a federal prison.
"But is anyone really surprised?
"For let's go right down the list:
"The daily number on TV every night.
"Scratch tickets sold in virtually every convenience store.
"Megabucks.
"Mass Millions.
"Video gambling.
"Lotto America.
"Have we missed anyone?
"Sure we have.
"It's the daily line in the sports section. It's pari-mutuel and simulcast racing at local tracks. It's Foxwoods and the new Mohegan Casino, too, contemporary Shangri-Las with their glitz and seduction. It's the cable TV shows where the point spread often seems as much a part of football as a post pattern.
"It's the tout services in magazines. It's the incredible betting opportunities available today. It's Keno. It's all the talk about new casinos.
"It's the sense that gambling is the drug of the '90s.
"This is the culture these kids are coming of age in, a culture that genuflects before the Big Score that's disguised as the American Dream. A culture that's as much a part of America in the '90s as strip clubs and strip malls.
"Is it any wonder that gambling is supposedly widespread on college campuses?
"Given the cultural climate, the amazing thing would be if there were no campus gambling."
Women and basketball
Theresa Grentz, women's basketball coach
University of Illinois, Champaign
Chicago Tribune
"The idea of an education, knowing there was something to fall back on, has been a motivating factor with no (pro) league. The incentive to get a degree was primary for a high percentage of (women) players."
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