National Collegiate Athletic Association |
The NCAA News DigestApril 13, 1998
Marketing plateau
An annual report by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association says that the overall sports-licensed product market has entered a period of stability after a decade of steady growth through the 1980s and slower growth throughout the mid '90s. The SGMA estimates that U.S. retail sales of sports-licensed products for the NBA, NFL, Major League Baseball, NHL and college/universities amounted to $11.3 billion in 1997, a 4.6 percent increase from 1996. The SGMA noted that the college/university market experienced stronger regional buying in 1997.
INTERNETNCAA creates Web site for all 81 championships The NCAA and Total College Sports Network have signed a four-year deal to create and maintain a championships World Wide Web site in association with NCAA Online, the Associa-tion's existing Web site. The championships Web site, located at www.ncaachampionships.com, will feature complete news coverage for all 81 NCAA championships, along with information on tickets and venues, participating schools and student-athletes, and selected cybercasts. Cybercasts, which were so well received that they attracted an estimated one-third of traffic on the NCAA's popular basketball Web site, will likely be a popular component of the new championships site. Staff contact: Wallace I. Renfro.
LITIGATIONNCAA reaches $2.5 million settlement with Tarkanian The NCAA and Jerry Tarkanian have settled a legal dispute that has extended over the last 26 years. The settlement, $2.5 million paid to Tarkanian and his wife Lois, was announced April 2. NCAA Executive Director Cedric W. Dempsey cited several factors that were involved in the decision to settle, including:
Staff contact: Elsa Cole.
TELEVISIONRatings up by two percent for men's basketball tournament Ratings for the 1998 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship were up two percent compared to 1997. The rating for the entire tournament was 7.3 (17 share), which was an increase of two percent over 1997. That was achieved even though the rating for the championship game, 17.8, was a point lower than in 1997. Staff contact: James A. Marchiony.
AWARDSTwo Division III athletes named Walter Byers scholars Student-athletes at two Division III institutions -- football player Robert Bradley Gray of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and basketball player Marsha Ann Harris of New York University -- are the 1998 recipients of the Association's Walter Byers Scholarships. Gray and Harris each will receive a $12,500 scholarship from the Association. They were selected from among six finalists from all three divisions who were interviewed April 5-6 in Atlanta by the NCAA Walter Byers Scholarship Committee. The Byers Scholarships were established in 1988 to recognize the contributions of the former NCAA executive director by encouraging excellence in academic performance by student-athletes. Staff contact: Todd A. Petr.
FINANCIAL AIDHearing scheduled for May 11 on scholarship-equity issue A hearing has been scheduled May 11 in Chicago to solicit views on a Division I committee's recommendations for addressing difficulties that NCAA financial aid limitations may pose for institutions seeking compliance with Title IX. The Division I Committee on Financial Aid will make recommendations for addressing the scholarship-equity issue that arose recently when the U.S. Office for Civil Rights (OCR) expressed concern that institutions offering a full complement of scholarships in women's sports may still violate Title IX financial aid requirements. The committee will hold the three-hour hearing beginning at 2 p.m. at a Chicago site to be determined. It will solicit reactions to recommendations that it is preparing to share with the Division I membership. Those recommendation will be reported in the April 20 issue of The NCAA News. Staff contact: Lynn M. Holzman.
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