National Collegiate Athletic Association

Comment

February 2, 1998

Student-athlete view -- New process demands new athlete approach

BY BRIDGET NILAND
State University of New York at Buffalo

The 1998 NCAA Convention in Atlanta turned out to be a learning experience for the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

In previous Conventions, we were able to address all our concerns on proposed legislation in one forum. The new year-round legislative process, which went into effect this past August, changed all this, forcing our committee to devise a whole new strategy of tracking and commenting on legislative proposals.

Central to our new strategy is our role on the Division I Management Council. Our committee has two nonvoting members on the Council who are free to comment on any issue. It is the responsibility of our two Council reps to keep up with the new legislation and to communicate with the rest of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee on student-athlete welfare issues. This is done through e-mails and conference calls.

Initially, we thought that having our position on the Council alone would provide us with sufficient opportunities to voice the opinion of the student-athletes our committee represents. However, commenting on legislative proposals at Management Council meetings alone is not enough to be effective in persuading Council members to actually listen to our opinion. Members of the Management Council represent conferences who often inform their Council representatives how to vote before the meeting begins. So for our committee to continue to be effective, we need to comment on legislative proposals before they come up for vote at Management Council meetings.

To do this, we start tracking proposals to cabinets and subcommittees. Then we contact those groups so that they are aware of how the SAAC stands on certain issues. Speaking at the open forums is the most effective means of communicating with cabinet and subcommittee members. Unfortunately, the forums are helpful only with legislation that is voted on at the spring Council meeting. At all other times, our committee must communicate our concerns through memos and news articles.

Although the new legislative process and our newly devised strategy have been in place less than a year, the committee was able to bring about some effective changes for student-athlete welfare. For example:

  • In October, the Management Council approved the expansion of SAAC representatives to the Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet, the Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports, the Playing and Practice Subcommittee of the Championships/Competition Cabinet, and the Marketing Subcommittee of the Business/Finance Cabinet.

  • SAAC members participated in the Management Council subcommittee that developed a new, more "compliance friendly" model of Proposal No. 62, which will be voted on at the April Management Council meeting.

  • At the Division I-AA football forum, SAAC members were influential in devising legislation that would make the Division I-AA Football Championship a week-long event, increasing exposure of the game on a national level.

  • SAAC members spoke out at the basketball recruiting forum against adoption of legislation that would allow college coaches to call prospects before June 20 of their junior year. Such legislation would be disruptive and distracting to a prospect dealing with SATs and ACTs and APs, not to mention final examinations.

    If the NCAA truly wants to see student-athletes meet initial-eligibility standards, it will not adopt legislation that makes it more difficult for them to do so.

    Regrettably the SAAC was unsuccessful in blocking the adoption of legislation that negatively impacts student-athlete welfare:

  • The Management Council adopted legislation that allows Division I-AA football coaches to call prospective students once in the month of May of the junior year. The month of May is critical time for a junior year in high school. It is a month filled with SATs, ACTs and AP exams, not to mention a time of preparation for final examinations. Permitting coaches to call prospects at this time can only distract students from focusing on their studies and meeting NCAA initial-eligibility standards.

  • The Council passed legislation that it claims will reduce the incidence of injury during spring football practice. In reality, the legislation increases the days in which contact can occur. All four of the SAAC representatives who currently play football stated that increasing the number of contact practices puts players in greater risk of getting injured. Despite the football players' comments, the legislation was unanimously approved (the Management Council representatives believed that the nature of the contact under the new rule would be less severe than under the previous rule).

    Hopefully, 1998 will prove to be a better year for the Division I SAAC as we grow more accustomed to the new structure. We have already set some legislative goals for the next few months that include:

  • The adoption of legislation that would require all Division I conferences to have a conference SAAC that would meet twice annually in person or by telephone conference call. If the NCAA SAAC is to have any purpose in the new structure, it must be supported with a sufficient network (administrators already have such a network in place). Requiring conference student-athlete committees will provide the crucial link between the already mandated campus SAACs and the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

  • Student-athlete representation on the Football Issues Committee of the Championships/Competition Cabinet. We feel that having current football players on this committee will only help the group to make knowledgeable decisions that will achieve their intended purpose once implemented.

  • Successful implementation of the employment legislation introduced at this year's open forum on Proposal No. 62. Our committee continues to be contacted by full scholarship student-athletes who want to have the opportunity to work during the academic year. We feel very strongly that the new model is a way to satisfy this desire while at the same time providing enough safeguards that the programs can be implemented and monitored without perpetuating the mistrust that often cripples the membership.

    It is too early to predict if our committee can recapture the voice that we lost when the NCAA moved to its new structure. One thing is for sure: The SAAC will continue to work hard to see that issues of academic integrity and student-athlete welfare are not pushed by the wayside in 1998.

    Bridget Niland is chair of the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

    Letter to the Editor -- Apparel contract questions need answers

    The moral issue that Chancellor Michael Hooker should address is simply, "Is the University of North Carolina's contractual arrangement with Nike ethical or unethical?"

    The relationship between Nike and the university is a fiduciary one. Nike provides North Carolina with athletics equipment and an additional $11 million in exchange for the university athletics teams displaying its logo and allowing the authorized use of the university's name in its advertising. Chancellor Hooker reports that it is a business venture that benefits both parties. So far, so good.

    It is not so much the contract itself but the means by which it was achieved that raises serious ethical questions.

    Is it proper for a supplier to offer millions of dollars to a client in order to win a contract?

    Is it licit for a purchaser to accept this offer?

    Is it fair to competitors, particularly those with limited financial reserves, for a company to win an exclusive five-year contract based on a payment of this magnitude? (It would require semantic gymnastics of extraordinary dexterity to suggest that $11 million is a "gift" rather than a "payment.")

    Can a beneficiary of such a payment be objective in choosing the best equipment for its athletes or might the purchaser experience a conflict of interest?

    Does the university allow its athletics department to operate by a moral standard that is less stringent than what is expected of others in the institution? Hypothetically, suppose the president and board of trustees of North Carolina entered into a contract with a major publishing firm that mandated professors to order all required texts for the next five years exclusively from this company in exchange for a major contribution to the university. Would such a contract be accepted as felicitous?

    The moral issue upon which Chancellor Hooker needs to focus is not color-coding, nor outsourcing, nor ubiquitous logos (although each of those is a worthy subject for scrutiny and discussion), but the propriety of a contract based on corporate sponsorship of a public university's athletics programs. This dilemma is by no means unique to the University of North Carolina and if the questions that I have raised have any merit, this issue is one that deserves considerable attention and debate.

    Arvid Adell
    Faculty Athletics Representative
    Millikin University

    Editor's Note: The commentary by University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Chancellor Michael Hooker appeared in the December 15 issue of The NCAA News.

    Opinions -- New core-course approach brings positive reaction

    Tom Sabatelle, athletics director
    Sachem (New York) High School
    Newsday

    "The high-school principal and the head of guidance can more accurately assess what is their core curriculum and what is their academic program rather than somebody sitting in another agency. Quite honestly, they won't pick up the phone and say what does this mean? You get very little feedback except the decisions which they render. Now we have more input into what makes sense in terms of accuracy of academic programs."

    Todd Heimer, executive director
    Nassau County (New York)
    high-school athletics governing body

    Newsday

    "I think it will clarify things for students. I would say that it eliminates a lot of the things athletics directors and guidance counselors have to go through."

    Brother Antonio Montera, registrar
    St. Anthony's (New York) High School
    Newsday

    Discussing the concept of the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse:

    "I honestly do believe that it's good. One organization was saying we do accept this and we don't accept that. I do think kids should learn a certain amount of material. So I do like the idea of an organization like the clearinghouse."

    Women's basketball

    Annie Lester, women's basketball coach
    University of South Carolina, Columbia
    Florida Today

    "Everybody is paying more attention to women's basketball now. Women are getting the respect they should have gotten a long time ago.... It motivates me a lot that there is the opportunity in the United States, where I can stay home and play (pro ball) in front of my family.... The one thing that I hope we are able to do is maintain the academic integrity in women's basketball. I think both (pro) leagues have indicated they are not going to go after young players, at least that's been the case in everything I've heard. I don't want to see that change."

    Gambling

    Ted Harris, member
    NCAA Division I Student-Athlete
    Advisory Committee
    Des Moines Register

    "Quite honestly, it is probably a worse problem among the general students on college campuses than alcohol or drug abuse. I have seen students with sheets and lines openly betting. It is quite common."

    Sara Kennan, member
    NCAA Division I Student-Athlete
    Advisory Committee
    Des Moines Register

    "I've seen it become quite common among students in general. Most student-athletes are aware of the problems and try to keep away from it, but it is there to deal with."

    I-A football playoff

    Roy Kramer, commissioner
    Southeastern Conference
    Houston Chronicle

    "A playoff elevates the top teams but does significant damage to the rest of college football. I don't think you will see a step taken much further than the step we're going to. I don't think people understand what an enormous step it is to get the Pac-10 and Big Ten in. I'm not sure I would have given up the Rose Bowl.

    "I'm not sure we'll get much farther than that in the present climate. We are not the NFL -- in the money-making business for a small number of teams. We're trying to keep 100 or so alive and healthy. The bowls raise money and help sell tickets the next season.

    "The NFL is about getting to the playoffs. College football is about the regular season. We've got to be very careful to maintain that. The tradition of the Tennessee-Alabama game, Notre Dame-USC, Texas-Oklahoma -- that made college football."

    Lack of black I-A football coaches

    Alex Wood, head football coach
    James Madison University
    Fort Worth Star-Telegram

    "The issue is with the athletics directors and the presidents. Those people are not doing the right thing. They're submitting to outside pressures. Black coaches are not getting a chance to advance their careers.

    "It's institutional racism."

    Loss of soccer talent

    Reacting to the loss of players to Major League Soccer's Project 40 and to the U.S. National Under-20 Team:

    George Gelnovatch, men's soccer coach
    University of Virginia
    USA Today

    "Something's got to give. If all seven of those guys leave, I would not be able to compete in the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference), and I would not be able to compete nationally. That's the fact.

    "What am I supposed to do, not recruit top players? We're recruiting great players and making them better and making them more attractive for Major League Soccer and the national teams. And we're being penalized for it."

    John Rennie, men's soccer coach
    Duke University
    USA Today

    "If destroying a program such as Virginia is good for pro soccer in this country, then we're in sad shape.

    "What we're seeing is an over-reaction and a tremendous lack of patience in this country."

    NCAA

    Marino Casem, director of athletics
    Southern University, Baton Rouge
    Baton Rouge Advocate

    "I guess I'm from the old school. As I see it, we need some order. We need strong leadership, not just governance. Without strong leadership, athletics will self-destruct. We've got too many prima donnas."