The NCAA News - News and Features

February 3, 1997

Olympic sports turn to the future

New rule may help increase sponsorship

BY STEPHEN R. HAGWELL
STAFF WRITER During most of the 1990s, men's gymnastics coaches have looked back to see the future.

They had no choice.

Because of a steady decline in the sport's sponsorship numbers, coaches have spent considerable time looking over their shoulders -- threatened constantly with loss of the NCAA championships.

But the adoption of legislation at the 1997 Convention finally permits coaches to look ahead.

After years of striving to save their championships from elimination, men's gymnastics coaches -- as well as coaches in other Olympic sports threatened with discontinuation -- were relieved of minimum-sponsorship requirements with the adoption of Proposal No. 137.

The legislation -- an amendment to Bylaw 18.2.10 -- states that a National Collegiate championship or division championship in any Olympic sport shall be exempt from the minimum-sponsorship-percentage requirements of Bylaws 18.2.3 and 18.2.4, effective August 1.

Now, such championships will not be discontinued automatically because of a failure to meet sponsorship requirements. They can be discontinued only if the membership votes to do so.

"This certainly is cause for celebration," said Roy Johnson, men's gymnastics coach at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a member of the NCAA Men's Gymnastics Committee. "We've been working with the fear of losing our championship for a long time.

"Thanks to a lot of people who worked long and hard to get this passed, we no longer have that burden."

Championships with fewer than the minimum sponsorship requirement of 40 institutions set forth in Bylaw 18.2.3 or 18.2.4 currently are operating only because of a moratorium on the discontinuation of National Collegiate championships that was enacted in 1995. The moratorium, which was renewed at the 1996 Convention, was scheduled to end during the 1998-99 academic year.

Under previous legislation, three championships in Olympic sports faced discontinuation after the 1988-99 academic year: men's gymnastics, with only 28 institutions sponsoring the sport; Division II field hockey (25 sponsors); and Division II men's ice hockey (13 sponsors).

Men's water polo (42 sponsors) and Division II wrestling (48 sponsors) also were in jeopardy of discontinuation.

"This dark cloud hanging over our heads has finally been lifted," said Dan Sharadin, men's water polo coach at Villanova University and director of collegiate and senior programs at U.S. Water Polo, Inc. "We've been fighting to save our championship and keep our numbers above 40 for quite some time. It's been a struggle.

"This legislation doesn't solve all of our problems, but there's no question that it helps tremendously."

A surprise?

The adoption of Proposal No. 137 may have surprised some, considering that an identical proposal (No. 87) was defeated at the 1996 Convention.

Johnson, however, is not surprised. He believes the defeat at the 1996 Convention was a result of "proposal overload."

He noted that proponents put forth three proposals in 1996 -- one to extend the moratorium on championships, one to establish a moratorium on any reduction in championships field sizes, and the one to exempt Olympic sports -- but focused their efforts on extending the moratorium.

Johnson believes that increased lobbying, better preparation and the lingering effect of the Olympic Games in Atlanta -- along with an impressive list of individuals who spoke on behalf of the proposal -- swayed the membership this time.

"I think people understood that if we're ever going to begin to add teams, that the first step is to make sure that there is a guaranteed NCAA championship, because the attachment of 'NCAA' to any event really gives an event credibility," Johnson said. "Once we had the opportunity to talk with people, when people understood our situation, they began to understand the importance of this legislation."

How important is the adoption of Proposal No. 137? Proponents say the impact is immense.

"In some respects, you can argue that having a minimum number has been a limiting factor as far as the growth of water polo and other sports," Sharadin said. "When athletics directors are looking at which sports to add and they're splitting between one sport and another, the fact that we're close to losing our championship looms big in their minds.

"Being close to the minimum requirement impacts you negatively because institutions are worried about adding a sport where they don't feel the championship will be maintained.

"Having the minimum requirement taken out of the loop is going to help us, because it won't provide that decision in the athletics directors' minds."

Not everyone pleased

Exempting Olympic sports from the minimum requirement does not please everyone.

Opponents of the legislation contended that minimum sponsorship is necessary to maintain the integrity of the championships. Some also questioned whether the NCAA should grant special treatment to Olympic sports, stating that the NCAA is not in the business of training Olympians.

But College Football Association Executive Director Charles M. Neinas, who spoke on behalf of the proposal at the Convention, believes that the NCAA should be tied into the Olympic movement.

He contends that the NCAA -- through past actions -- is mandated to assist Olympic-type sports.

"I've advanced the NCAA argument that the NCAA was entitled to a greater voice in Olympic affairs because of the contribution of its membership to the Olympic effort," Neinas said. "Now, if they're going to turn around and say that's not the NCAA mission, they can't talk out of both sides of their mouth. The NCAA cannot have it both ways.

"We spent so much time, for example, at this Convention talking about players going to the NBA. Where do gymnasts have a chance to go? Or if you're a water polo or volleyball player? Their chance is to go to the Olympics. That's their goal and objective. If the championships in those sports were eliminated, those sports would be gone.

"We don't want to see sports go by the wayside. If they're still existing, they have a chance to come back."

Johnson acknowledges the right of the membership to ensure that a championship remains viable. He says, however, that such decisions should not be made with a one-size-fits-all formula.

"Our argument against minimum numbers is that the NCAA can always evaluate sports on a case-by-case basis, and if they decline to the point where they don't feel it's feasible any longer to maintain a championship, then evaluate each one on an individual basis," Johnson said. "But to set an arbitrary number and say a championship is valid at 40, but not at 39, really does a disservice to the sport itself.

"We have to remember that a minimum number is not the important thing. It's providing different opportunities for kids."

NCAA/USOC initiative

To ensure those opportunities, proponents say it is imperative that the NCAA and U.S. Olympic Committee continue to move forward with the pilot grant program developed by the NCAA/USOC Task Force. A final decision on that program is expected in February.

Proponents state that the adoption of Proposal No. 137 clearly indicates the NCAA's desire to solidify the relationship between the two governing bodies. They also say that the passage of legislation exempting Olympic sports from the minimum-sponsorship requirements will have little impact if funds are not made available to institutions to add Olympic sports.

"It is incumbent to start building programs back up. We're down to 28," said Richard Aronson, executive director of the College Gymnastics Association. "I'd like to see institutions reinstate programs back to varsity status.

"I'm aware that it's a financial problem, but if the grant program developed by the relationship between the NCAA and USOC moves forward, we can help institutions overcome that gap."

But regardless of what happens next, Sharadin and Johnson say their work is far from finished.

"We're not sitting back with our feet up saying, 'Great, now we don't have to do any
work,' " Sharadin said. "We're looking at this as a second chance, as an opportunity that we can utilize to our benefit.

"We're going to continue to move forward and work to increase our sponsorship."

Johnson agrees.

"Everyone really needs to be aware that this is the first step," Johnson said. "It's not going to be an overnight turnaround. It's going to be a slow process.

"Now that we have this behind us, we can look ahead and start to rebuild our sport."