National Collegiate Athletic Association |
CommentSeptember 1, 1997
Guest editorial -- NCAA Football will raise awareness
BY STEVEN J. HATCHELL To quote the sportswriter-turned-bard and Hall of Fame member (and former Vanderbilt University football athlete-baseball standout), Grantland Rice:
"When the One Great Scorer comes to mark against your name, it's not whether you won or lost, but how you played the game." With apologies to the late Mr. Rice, today's football enthusiasts might wish to substitute "but how you attended and enjoyed the game" for that final phrase. There is no finer atmosphere for college athletics events than autumn Saturdays (or Thursday nights or Thanksgiving or even Friday mornings, in some cases) and college football. The crisp weather, the smell of tailgaters' grills, the roar of the crowd as its favorite team enters the stadium, the look of the fields, the cheerleaders, the bands, the spirit squads -- can you think of a better way to spend a weekend afternoon or evening on a college campus? Through a recently formed group, NCAA Football (Power of One), there is hope that many football groups such as the American Football Coaches Association, National Association of College Directors of Athletics, the NCAA, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, the National Junior College Athletic Association and youth groups such as Pop Warner Football can continue to come together to enhance and promote the game that is a part of more than 36 million fans annually in attendance at football games and millions more who lend their support to the college game. Almost no academic lecture, rock concert, balloon festival or other activities gather as many lovers of the game or even their favorite university as a college football game. Families hold reunions, dads toss the football to their children on nearby greens, recreation vehicles and campers of all sorts gather as early as Thursday afternoon to watch their football favorites perform, and the magical traditions of the college gridiron weave their ways into our hearts every season. NCAA Football looks to these wonderful amenities of the college game and seeks to provide even more avenues for fans from 8-to-85 to enjoy the rivalries, the spirit of intercollegiate competition, and good, old-fashioned sportsmanship Letter to the Editor -- Title IX solution requires some creativityWhile I agree that the Title IX law implemented by the Office for Civil Rights was well overdue, I do not agree with the way many athletics directors are complying with the law. I believe that the purpose of Title IX is to increase opportunities for women in order to achieve proportionality and not to eliminate men's nonrevenue sports to achieve this end result. Some athletics directors will agree that there is not enough money to support all these teams and that the solution is to cut some men's team sports. This, I feel, is the easy way out. A fairer solution would be to try to keep all the teams and offset the costs through inventive fund-raising, with some sacrifices shared by all. Nonrevenue teams, for example, could cut one or two travel dates, thereby lowering costs. They also could get sponsorship contracts for uniforms, sneakers, etc., and raise funds through golf outings, dinners, raffles or auctions. This would augment existing budgets for the new programs. I am the coach of two men's nonrevenue sports at New York University, and my concern is the misintended use of Title IX. Athletics directors should show more concern to the students who are losing opportunities to compete rather than to achieve the bottom line. Mr. Richards was right in that sacrifices have to be made. But they are sacrifices that must be shared and not thrust on a few nonrevenue male sports.
Bruce Haberli
Opinions -- Athletes getting a confused message about gambling
Frank Cullen, criminal justice professor "We now have a culture in which gambling is not looked at as an evil. The attitudes have changed. One of the messages we're giving is that gambling, at least in moderation, is recreation. "Athletes may not think there's anything wrong with gambling. I think where people draw the line is betting on games they're involved in or betting against your own team.... "It's hard for college athletes to see it's wrong. It's like college students drinking alcohol. It's not seen as morally wrong, and in that context it's going to get college athletes gambling and then spill over to kids that bet on their own games. That's inevitable."
Danny Sheridan, professional oddsmaker "The manpower (law enforcement and the court system) wasted to enforce arcane sports gambling laws should be used to clean this country of drug dealers, murderers and rapists. But that makes too much sense. It's hard to arrest and convict drug dealers, murderers and rapists, but it's easy to arrest and convict bookmakers. "I'm sure they all will sleep real well at night in Tampa when they arrest a bookmaker as opposed to a murderer or drug dealer. Given the choice, which telephone call would a parent rather receive from college: Your son's been arrested for betting $25 to $50 on a football game or has been busted doing cocaine?"
Stipend for athletes
John D. Swofford, commissioner After meeting with a group of student-athletes: "We think we know what our athletes think. Sometimes we find out differently. The major issue that they saw is having some miscellaneous money in their pocket as part of their scholarship."
Athletics directors
M. Terrance Holland, director of athletics "You wouldn't choose to be an athletics director today except for a particular place -- somewhere you feel you're going to give something back or working on behalf of people you really care about.... "The negative side to this job is, you are dealing with other people's problems. You're always in a crisis mode. You don't get to really enjoy the good things, and that can wear on you. Luckily, I am, by nature, a problem-solver. So it takes less of a toll than it might on someone else. I haven't had any detrimental effects so far. I haven't broken my hand on a blackboard."
Women's sports
Ruth Goehring, associate athletics director Reacting to what may be a growing number of rules infractions in women's intercollegiate athletics: "I'm not happy to hear all that, but it doesn't surprise me it's happening. ''Women are finding themselves in the same pitfalls the men have experienced. I guess what's good for the goose is good for the gander.... "It did worry me when we started to compare what we didn't have prior to Title IX with what the men did have. What was the model? Now we're in that same mixing bowl. As Title IX became more of a factor, it became more imperative for women coaches to produce or be out of a job.... "It's sad. It worries me that when I retire, I'll be reading about more of these cases and not fewer."
Gene Wojciechowski, sportswriter "America wanted gender equity and slowly, much too slowly, it's getting it. But as women's basketball expands, as television taps into the market, as programs such as national champion Tennessee, Stanford, Georgia, Virginia and Connecticut begin to see themselves as revenue-makers, there exists a greater likelihood of rules abuses. It happened with Division I men. It will happen with Division I women."
Title IX
Donna A. Lopiano, executive director "What you wouldn't do if you were guilty of salary discrimination in your faculty is to cut the salaries of male faculty members. Neither should you cut men's sports. But if there is no effort to tell the sports that are spending the most money to stop growing at a pace that is in excess of inflation, things will grow out of control. If there is no will on the part of the college presidents to say, 'You can't do this while we're out of compliance with Title IX,' this is what's going to happen."
Division I academic eligibility
David B. Knight, chair Reacting to the fact that 26.9 percent of the African-Americans who appeared on an Institutional Request List submitted to the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse were academically ineligible: "It does raise some concerns. It's just too big (a number) to be waved away.... It is a reasonable thing to say that 26 percent of a group being ruled ineligible requires some examination."
Proposal No. 62
John Coughlan, track and field coach Discussing legislation that would permit Division I athletes to earn employment income during the academic year: "I think that mainly through football and basketball, athletics directors and college coaches have misled the general public and the presidents. They always say, 'The poor athlete is so poor.' Quite frankly, that's hogwash. "Those athletes are on full scholarship, which means immediately, every school bill is paid for. If they are from a disadvantaged family, they can apply for aid based on need and they might get an extra $2,000 or $3,000. "I never had $2,000 in my pocket when I went to school, and my daughters never had that much money when they went to school.... "If people can handle it (work), I don't think it's a bad thing, and I'm not saying some people don't need (jobs) or deserve it. But my honest opinion is it will encourage cheating. "It will be easy for a booster to say so and so is working for me, dummy up the phony time card and pay them. The honest coaches say if we just give kids more money it will stop the cheating, but you will never stop cheating. "I don't care how much money you give the athlete, the college cheat will always give the athlete more."
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