National Collegiate Athletic Association |
The NCAA News - Briefly in the NewsOctober 6, 1997Sportsmanship at all-time low?Sportswriters, editors and broadcasters are not impressed with the state of sportsmanship, especially at the professional level.
The survey was conducted by the Institute for International Sport at the University of Rhode Island. The sports journalists had little trouble identifying the source of the behavior: 65 percent said it resulted from increased salaries at the professional level. They took a hard-line view on trash talking, with almost 98 percent saying they believed high-school and college game officials should be permitted to call technical fouls for excessive trash-talking. In addition, 95.3 percent said players should be liable for expulsion from a game if they fail to heed warnings about trash-talking. Other findings from the survey, which was sent to 500 daily newspapers, major broadcasting networks and national magazines:
The survey also explored issues not directly relating to sportsmanship. Of those answering, 61.2 percent said that college football and basketball players who do not sign professional contracts after graduating from high school should not be eligible to be drafted by pro teams until they complete their junior years in college or reach the age of 21, as is the case in baseball. Also, 53 percent said colleges and universities should not be permitted to pay Division I-A football and basketball players. Iron manKent State University tailback Astron Whatley just missed the record books with a huge performance against Eastern Michigan University September 20. As big as Whatley's 373-yard rushing outburst was, it ranks only fifth on the all-time single-game list (the most: 396 yard by Tony Sands of the University of Kansas in 1991). However, what was almost as impressive as the total yardage was that Whatley carried the ball on 22 of 23 plays. The NCAA record for consecutive rushes is 16 (William Howard of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1986). Unfortunately for Whatley, quarterback Jose Davis was sacked in the middle of the string, and under college statistical rules, a sack counts as a rush. Child ID programThe American Football Coaches Association is sponsoring a National Child Identification Program that will enable parents to have pertinent information close at hand in the event their children are abducted or turn up missing. The program is expected to reach more than 20 million children in the next five years, the largest such effort ever. The AFCA, in cooperation with Division I-A athletics departments, will distribute at no cost 2.4 million children's ID kits. Participating institutions will designate one 1997 home football game to distribute the kits. The program will expand to other divisions in future years. The program gives families the ability to fill out an identity card for their children with fingerprints and physical descriptions. The information will be kept at home by parents and provided to law enforcement authorities only in case of emergency. Partners in the project include Champion International Corporation (an NCAA corporate partner) and Inkless Image Corporation. -- Compiled by David Pickle Looking back5 years ago: An NCAA infractions case involving Syracuse University is the first to employ the new summary-disposition and expedited-hearing process authorized by the NCAA Council. The concept of summary disposition was developed by the Special Committee to Review the NCAA Enforcement and Infractions Process. It permits an institution and the NCAA enforcement staff to agree that certain findings are factually correct and represent violations of NCAA legislation. The institution also can recommend specific punitive actions, which then are considered by the Committee on Infractions in the expedited-hearing process. (The NCAA News, October 5, 1992) 10 years ago: The NCAA Professional Sports Liaison Committee takes steps during its October 5-6, 1987, meeting to increase efforts to deal with issues involving player agents. As part of those efforts, the committee is becoming more involved in the education and counseling of student-athletes on the role of the player agent. "We (the committee) should be the communicating arm for the NCAA to the professional organizations in situations dealing with student-athletes and player agents," said committee chair Carl C. James, commissioner of the Big Eight Conference. (The NCAA News, October 12, 1987) 15 years ago: The NCAA Council agrees October 12-14, 1982, to sponsor legislation at the 1983 Convention to strengthen criteria for Division I membership. The proposed criteria include new sports-sponsorship, basketball scheduling and minimum financial aid requirements. Minimum average paid attendance requirements also would be implemented for Division I-AA football programs and for basketball programs at institutions without football programs. If adopted, the legislation would become effective in September 1984. The Council also agreed to sponsor proposals to restructure the Council and NCAA Executive Committee to assure more equitable representation for the various segments of Division I (The NCAA News, October 18, 1992) 25 years ago: The NCAA Council votes October 25, 1972, to withdraw from the United States Olympic Committee and calls for Congress to pursue immediate reform of the organization. Also, Sen. John V. Tunney of California informs the NCAA that he plans to conduct hearings on legislation to establish a Presidential Commission to investigate the USOC. The NCAA International Relations Committee recommended the Association's withdrawal, saying the USOC is unresponsive to calls for change. (NCAA News, November 1, 1972) |
A recent survey found that almost 79 percent of the respondents answered in the affirmative when asked if they felt that sportsmanship had reached a low point on the professional level. College sports did not fare much better, with 73 percent saying sportsmanship was at a low point at that level.