National Collegiate Athletic Association |
CommentNovember 10, 1997
Guest editorial -- To enhance ethics, cut back on rule book
BY CLARENCE UNDERWOOD JR. I am a strong advocate for rules compliance at NCAA member institutions. I strongly believe it is necessary to enact and enforce legislation at the national level. Every athletics employee and representative should be held accountable for fully complying with all NCAA legislation.
I believe the individual rule violator, more than the institution, should bear the brunt of the imposed sanctions unless it is found in the investigation that there was complicity involving university officials. It appears that, with each passing year, NCAA compliance becomes more complex. We have reached a point where there are simply too many rules for any institution to know or to comply with. Good rules are compromised or overshadowed by the glut of minor or microscopic rules. Many of these minor rules, such as those restricting the colors in a recruiting brochure and establishing time periods when an institution may telephone a prospect, seem preposterous. The seeming pointlessness of such rules is intensified by the mild response of the NCAA enforcement staff when an institution reports violations. The violations usually are classified as "secondary" and result in written solutions that are not accompanied by constructive follow-up action by the institution with the employee. At best, the recommended solutions or corrective action stemming from the discovery and subsequent reporting of a secondary violation are designed to educate the violator and other staff members in the athletics department to prevent the violations from recurring. This is evidenced by the fact that significantly more violations are being reported today by member institutions than at any time in NCAA history. Despite the record high in violation reports to the NCAA, I believe that there are just as many or more of these secondary violations going unreported by individuals and institutions because of the copious and complex nature of the rules. Considering the number of NCAA rules; the aggregate of students, staff and athletics representatives associated with an athletics department; and the many nuances possible in interpreting the rules, an institution is bound to have many inadvertent secondary violations occurring annually -- most likely more than equal in number to those reported annually to the NCAA by member institutions. Violations occur for numerous reasons. It appears that some employees do not believe in complying with what they consider to be minor or insignificant rules. They believe other schools are violating certain rules without being detected and feel disadvantaged if they comply with the rules. It is impossible for the most conscientious staff member at an institution to know all the rules from memory or to fully understand the intent of each one. Even rules experts in the NCAA's legislative services staff usually have to research their own responses to inquiries from member institutions. Athletics traditions also mitigate against rules compliance. Coaches tend to model themselves after other successful coaches and administrators. Coaches learn how to coach, take shortcuts, recruit and manage their programs from the philosophical bent and practices of other coaches. The fear of losing a prospect during recruitment drives some coaches to take shortcuts. Simplified regulations will require a different compliance structure. Institutions should continue to employ compliance coordinators to educate staff and to monitor compliance. The NCAA legislative/compliance/enforcement programs should be decentralized. These services should be combined in district offices strategically located across the country. These offices would perform three basic functions: auditing institutional records for NCAA compliance, interpreting legislation and carrying out enforcement procedures. Such decentralization would put the NCAA staff in greater proximity to the member institutions needing services. The new ethical-conduct code should adhere closely to the essential mission and goals of the NCAA. The code should be simple, comprehensive and understandable. The code should not require dissemination of frequent official interpretations to the membership by the NCAA staff. Fewer rules with tougher penalties should give coaches, administrators, student-athletes, prospects and athletics representatives a heightened awareness of what constitutes proper behavior in intercollegiate athletics. The grace period presently permitted in a secondary violation report should be abolished. Without enforced consequences for violations, people lose respect for the rules as a whole. If a rule is not important enough to be enforced, we are better off without it. Released from superfluous rules, the athletics community would be free to focus on and comply with the rules that represent the core of ethical behavior for member institutions. Clarence Underwood Jr. is senior associate athletics director at Michigan State University. Comment - Words of wisdom for part-time coaches
BY DON BENSON Whether you are exalting in the excitement of victory or struggling to maintain focus and discipline when losing, few professions offer the range of experience provided by coaching. Coaching at the intercollegiate level is especially rewarding because of the many challenges and demands of the job. However, frustrations can accompany the greater rewards for the college coach because one must balance coaching with recruiting, fund-raising and awareness of constantly changing NCAA rules and regulations. The frustrations can be especially acute for the part-time coach, who often must balance coaching with a full-time position away from the college or university. As someone who has completed four years as a part-time coach of a men's Division I water polo program while also working at a full-time career outside of coaching, I have experienced, through much trial and error, the many highs and the occasional lows of intercollegiate coaching. I therefore offer the following six suggestions for successfully managing an intercollegiate program as a part-time coach. By adopting these suggestions, part-time coaches, as well as others, can minimize frustrations and maximize the rewards of building a successful program and, hopefully, a winning team. 1. Recognize the multifaceted demands of the position. All intercollegiate programs require more than on-deck coaching, especially successful programs. Intercollegiate programs require fund-raising and a close relationship with alumni organizations; administrative responsibilities and paperwork, including knowledge of school, league or conference, and NCAA rules and procedures; and recruiting, which may include additional travel, hosting prospective student-athletes, and generating numerous phone calls, e-mails and letters. Also, even though you are coaching part-time, with parents far away, you might be the most important adult in your athletes' lives and therefore called on for advice, mentoring, and support. In my years of coaching, I have had to more than once visit a hospital for my athletes, inform university personnel about a potential academic or personal crisis, or write letters of recommendation. In addition, the actual coaching aspect requires scouting, planning and film sessions. 2. Know and establish expectations. Because of the multifaceted nature of a collegiate position, as a part-time coach, you can feel overwhelmed, especially if you feel that you must do everything. Determine your athletics department's expectations early. Inquire as to the amount of money that must be raised. Know the amount of alumni correspondence that must be sent. Learn how many recruits must be hosted. Try also to determine whether your department accommodates part-time coaches by scheduling meetings in the evenings instead of during the afternoons, and ascertain whether you must attend meetings that conflict with your permanent job. My athletics department, because it has numerous part-time coaches, does schedule additional certain vital meetings to accommodate the part-time personnel. Likewise, be certain your department accommodates you with a mechanism for efficient correspondence, such as e-mail. This is especially important during the off-season when office visits become less regular. Also strive for departmental flexibility in meeting paperwork and other administrative deadlines. Certainly you should not abuse deadlines, but the peak times in your permanent position may conflict with busy coaching periods. Therefore, because you will require flexibility, make sure the administration is adaptable. It is equally important to establish team and player expectations of you. Your team will have the same demands on you as would a team guided by a full-time coach. You therefore will have a fine line to straddle: You must meet the needs of the athletes while also establishing limits that do not undermine the team's morale and mission. I make it especially clear to my athletes that they can call on me at any time for any situation relating to academics, health or their personal life. However, I establish limits on other coaching facets, and I call upon my athletes to respect my other needs. For example, during this past season one of the athletes asked whether I had viewed the videotape of a contest from the previous night. I explained that because we had not returned to campus until 11 p.m. the previous night and because I work a full day beginning at 7 a.m., I didn't not have the opportunity to watch the game tape but that I would take care of it well prior to our next meeting with that opponent. While this approach may seem harsh, openness is important for effective communication, and effective communication is crucial to maintaining a successful program. 3. Recognize your own strengths and weaknesses. Another significant tenet to developing a successful program is to know yourself. Because there are so many aspects to intercollegiate coaching, you will be proficient at some tasks and less accomplished at others. Once you become aware of your abilities, you will be better able to exploit your strengths and improve upon and compensate for your weaknesses. 4. Delegate based on strengths and weaknesses. Recognizing that as a part-time coach you cannot do everything, delegation becomes your most important administrative tool. It is essential to find an assistant coach who complements your strengths and weaknesses. For instance, because I have a relatively soft-spoken demeanor, my assistant is loud and fiery. Because I played water polo on the East Coast, I looked for an assistant who played out West. Additionally, whereas I feel I have strong people skills, I tackle the fund-raising, recruiting and departmental correspondence. Because I am not on the campus throughout the day, I delegate to my captain those items that require a campus presence. He maintains our relationship with the women's program and sees that the men's team helps with the game clocks and scoring at women's games while ensuring that the women are available to help with our own games. He also organizes the work crews for hockey-game cleanups, one of our annual fund-raising activities. 5. Communicate openly with your support network. Generally speaking, your support network includes those people and institutions that enable you to perform successfully. Coaching part-time, especially during the season, requires some sacrifice to your social, personal and full-time professional life. The sacrifices can be minimized by including in your experience those most affected by the coaching. Be especially cognizant of the needs of your spouse and family during the season, and somehow acknowledge your appreciation for the sacrifices they make. For example, take them on a road trip so they can develop enthusiasm for the sport and the team. Also, include your friends in your experience. Make them aware of your schedule in advance so they will not be disappointed if you cannot attend a social event. Moreover, invite your friends to a game so they can see what the sport and the job mean to you. Relations with your full-time employer can be especially tenuous. Plan for conflicts in advance and work to minimize any conflicts. Certainly, effective communication with both your athletics administration and primary employer can reduce a lot of stress. 6. Set personal goals and self-evaluate. Before entering the season, set personal goals. These goals extend beyond what you hope to accomplish as a team and include what you hope to accomplish as an individual. Goals may include the number of alumni correspondences you plan to write and the dates you intend to have them mailed, or they may be more subjective, such as better utilizing huddle time during timeouts. Goals are meaningless without self-evaluation. Be certain to regularly review your goals throughout the season and make notes as to your degree of accomplishment. Also, develop a mechanism for improving performance if you feel you have not met your goals. * * * Everyone loves to win. However, winning is only one component of success. These tools and suggestions, while especially important to the part-time coach, can help anyone develop a foundation for a successful program and for a positive and enjoyable coaching experience. Don Benson is men's water polo coach at Harvard University. Opinions -- Stern: NBA justified in setting some behaviorial standards
David Stern, commissioner "Asking our players to behave in a certain way and asking our teams to behave in a certain way doesn't seem to be too much to ask. It's not enough of an answer to say that certain conduct and certain things are happening all around us. Professional sports presents itself as a little bit more and has an opportunity to ask a little bit more of itself. So, you're going to see that approach stiffened a bit."
Summer basketball camps
Sonny Vaccaro, Adidas representative "Who's to say that the summer coaches are any more corrupt than the high-school coaches? But take the personalities out of it. I've got an easy solution: Make the entire summer a dead period. Don't let the colleges recruit at all in the summer. That's not such a hard thing to do."
Black football coaches
Alex Wood, head football coach "Nobody will tap that (African-American) pool. That's stupid. That's bad business. "The great statement, and it makes me so mad, is: 'I don't know if our community is ready for a black coach.' "I'd like to see a more even playing field. Not for myself, but for others. I'll make a way for myself. But if my son, who is a graduate assistant on my staff, wants to go into coaching, I'd like for things to be better for him. Just as my father wanted to make things better for me."
Basketball rules
Sherri Coale, women's basketball coach Commenting on rough play seen in officiating videotape for the 1997-98 women's basketball season: "It was so graphic. It looked more like football than basketball.... "I'll never forget seeing one girl use both of her arms underneath another girl's chin to lift her off her feet. Those things stick in your mind. I hope the officials are serious about cleaning up that stuff. "It was horribly obvious in the (1997) Final Four that the things that made our game special were disappearing. There was so much pushing and shoving, it was evident that the bigger, stronger teams would prevail. I like to see the game still played with intelligence."
Phylesha Whaley, basketball player "I think they ought to let us play. That's what makes it fun. It takes away from the game if it gets too technical."
Football rules
Steve Spurrier, football coach Commenting on whether it should count as a violation of the taunting rule if a player dives into the end zone to celebrate a touchdown:
"Whoever started that rule has taken a lot of fun away from the players playing the game. Nobody on the other team cares if you dive into the end zone. That's not taunting, that's not rubbing it in. And it leaves too much control in the hands of |
It is time, however, to overhaul the NCAA legislative services/compliance/enforcement programs through a wholesale re-evaluation of the rules. The NCAA membership should streamline the current 482-page collection of rules into a more manageable form. The revised booklet should consist only of a code of conduct that addresses the ethical issues and behavior of personnel associated with intercollegiate athletics. The new code of conduct should be broad, to encompass the common issues associated with intercollegiate athletics, and simple, so institutions can clearly understand them. Tough sanctions should be provided for individuals and institutions that do not comply.