National Collegiate Athletic Association |
CommentFebruary 1, 1999
Guest editorial -- Few are immune to disease of gambling
By Derrick Gragg
In one of the interviews, Knight said that "the most susceptible guy in any gambling scheme is an official, without any question. I mean, if we only knew the truth about games that were controlled by officials having gambling interests, I think it would be amazing." Of course, Knight's comment drew immediate criticism from basketball officials nationwide. Henry O. Nichols, national coordinator for men's basketball officials, was quoted in the online article as saying, "Either he (Knight) needs to come forward with specific names and games or he needs to retract his comments." Nichols also said, "I've spent 25 years as a college basketball official, and I don't know one official who ever gambled on a game. And all the people I've talked to don't know anyone either." The purpose of my editorial is not to side with either Knight or Nichols. I am not writing to suggest that either has all the facts or the right answers in this case. While I definitely do not believe that there is a staggering number of officials intentionally affecting the outcome of intercollegiate contests for their own gain, I also am not inclined to take the position that there are no men's basketball officials who gamble or have ever gambled on games. I write simply to suggest that maybe the correct view lies somewhere between these two men whose views on this topic are at the opposite ends of the spectrum. Gambling is perhaps the most damaging problem facing intercollegiate athletics today. Statistics reveal that 80 million Americans engage in some form of gambling for recreation; 3 million people are addicted to gambling; illegal gambling on professional and intercollegiate sports is a $1 billion industry; and 48 of 50 states have legalized gambling. Mike Cross and Ann Vollano, assistant directors of compliance on my staff here at the University of Michigan, recently published findings of an exhaustive, 18-month gambling study. Their findings indicate that 72 percent of student-athletes have gambled in some way since entering college and that nearly 35 percent have gambled on sports while in college. The study also reveals that more than 5 percent of male student-athletes provided inside information for gambling purposes, bet on a game in which they participated or accepted money for performing poorly in a game. Gambling takes place every day and it is rampant in some places. The same day I read Knight's comments, another article appeared on ESPN's Web site that highlighted new information concerning a 1994 basketball point-shaving incident. In light of the aforementioned statistics and findings, combined with several highly publicized gambling incidents involving both professional and intercollegiate athletes, we are hiding our collective heads in the sand if we feel that none of our friends or associates gambles and that they do not know anyone else who gambles. Just because you do not gamble does not necessarily mean that those around you do not. Just because you do not see anything does not mean that it is not there. Gambling addiction is not easy to spot. It usually does not come with the glaring physical effects of other addictions caused by alcohol and/or drug abuse. Of course many people who viewed the Bob Knight interview may have dismissed his comments about officials as a personal slap at them as a whole. However, if we analyze Knight's comments rationally and realistically, we will realize the power of his statements. Are all officials crooked gamblers who are helping fix games? Of course not. This is not the message that should be stressed. On the other hand, are officials susceptible to gambling schemes? Of course they are. Anyone from student-athletes, to coaches, to team managers, to medical trainers, to officials is susceptible. This is the message that we must stress. To think otherwise is not only naïve, but detrimental as well. Michigan's athletics department has taken several steps to help educate student-athletes, coaches and athletics administrators, university students, campus staff members, the NCAA mem-bership and the general public. In addition to the nationwide survey, we established a gambling task force that met last August to analyze the effects of gambling and to create a departmental gambling policy. In October, we invited former organized crime family member Michael Franzese to speak to all Michigan student-athletes, coaches and athletics administrators. Several campus staff members also attended the session. The gambling study has been published and will be sent to all Division I athletics directors, conference commissioners, bowl game representatives and several NCAA representatives. Findings of the study already have been discussed in USA Today, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and many local newspaper and radio outlets. In the future, we plan to help educate student groups on campus on the facts and dangers of gambling and conduct a second nationwide study. Every year since 1995, a gambling and/or point-shaving scandal involving student-athletes has occurred on at least one major college or university campus in the U.S. We can no longer believe that it cannot happen to us. Those of us involved in college athletics must continue to educate everyone we can on this topic. We must realize that we all may be susceptible to illegal and unethical gambling scandals and we must continue to fight to protect the integrity and image of intercollegiate athletics. This is a battle that we cannot afford to lose. Derrick Gragg is the assistant athletics director for compliance at the University of Michigan. Letter -- Nevada convention site difficult to defendAs a member of the NCAA Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct, I would be remiss in my obligation to the Association if I did not offer a counterpoint to the recent guest editorial asserting the acceptability of holding the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) convention in Reno, Nevada. With all due respect to the commentary's author, this is indeed a situation that tests the value systems of those NCAA institutions whose staff members hold NACDA affiliations. This is not about whether Reno (or any other municipality in Nevada) is a good place to raise a family. It is about the appropriateness of holding a convention of athletics directors in a city and state where gambling on collegiate and professional sports is an everyday reality. The findings of the University of Michigan study, made public during the recent NCAA Convention, were clear: We have a huge problem with sports wagering on our college campuses and our athletes are directly involved. How do we keep a straight face in educating our students on the dangers of gambling if we travel to Reno this year? Will everyone who chooses to attend participate in gambling? Of course not. But it's perception, not necessarily reality, that counts. As we scramble to shift the perception of collegiate athletics to the positives, we once again place ourselves in the direct line of an inevitably negative response from the news media that will almost certainly seize the moment to criticize us once again. Surely the good people of Nevada recognize the dangers posed by sports wagering since they outlawed betting on in-state college and university athletics programs. It should not be a far leap to realize that sports wagering is harmful to all colleges and universities. The argument that there is a historical precedent of other college athletics meetings held in Nevada, or even close by, holds no sway with me. Since when does historical precedent translate into acceptability? The historical "precedent" of denying females the opportunity to fully participate in athletics leaps to mind. Each individual must make up his or her own mind about attending any meeting in Nevada or any other city or state that might have an open sports book. Just don't be misled into thinking that it will be easily defensible to attend. Our student-athletes -- and our profession -- deserve more consideration than that.
Donna M. Ledwin Opinions -- Governance format gts mixed reviews from Division I
Gregory Sankey, commissioner "It's not a perfect system, but I think it's more effective. To have every athletics director and every president (at the Convention) for three days talking about the men's tennis recruiting calendar or playing season -- in addition to 120 other issues -- is not an effective use of time."
Marino Casem, director of athletics "To be very frank, I don't like it. We're not really in the mix of things. We really don't know what's going on with the cabinets, the Management Council and the Board of Directors. With all the decisions being made at that level, there's not much feedback to us. It's not really a Convention now. It's just a forum where you're given the thoughts of various groups."
Basketball issues
Rick Majerus, head men's basketball coach Discussing college basketball players leaving school early to play professional basketball: "You look at a lot of the kids who have left North Carolina and Kentucky. One of the questions that goes through my mind is whether it makes more sense to try to recruit kids who are maybe a notch below the elite level but will stay for four years and allow you to build a team."
Mike Krzyzewski, head men's basketball coach "The game is in good shape and bad shape at the same time. It's in good shape on the court, because it is still played with intensity and at a very high level. But the game suffers off the court because a lot of it hasn't kept up with all the changes that have taken place. You could say that the house still looks very nice, but maybe we have termites."
Litigation
Gary Roberts, faculty athletics representative "The legal pressures are going to keep building. In many ways, the NCAA seems to be in a headlong rush to collide with itself, while at the same time trying to protect its amateur standing. Those two things are inconsistent with each other."
Murray Sperber, faculty member "In a very real sense, the NCAA is haunted by its past. Ever since it was founded in its modern incarnation just after the Second World War, the NCAA has emphasized damage control and public relations over fundamental reform and thoughtful reflection, particularly in Division I football and basketball. As a result, it has never seriously addressed whether big-time sports are even compatible with higher education. Now the jig is up."
Title IX
Dale Anderson, former wrestler at Michigan State University Discussing the appointment of Rep. J. Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, as Speaker of the House: "Denny will stand up for wrestling. He doesn't believe that there hasn't been a problem for women and their participatory opportunities. I think he's going to say the same thing that I do, which is if we don't do something about the way this quota is being enforced, there aren't going to be any Olympic sports at the college level in 10 years. It's a fact wrestling is going to be extinct at the college level unless we get rid of the quota. The quota and wrestling cannot co-exist on the same planet."
Peter A. Liske, director of athletics Discussing the "1 percent rule" of deviation between participation rates and scholarship allocation developed by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights: "We were being measured -- in participation versus scholarships -- by a stick no one knew about. And the hardest part is that things change -- (athletes) leave midyear or transfer or flunk out."
Nancy S. Footer, general counsel "It will be interesting to see who litigates that point. It's clear that the agency's opinion about what 'substantial proportionality' means contradicts earlier issuances, and there's a very live and viable question about whether it can be made enforceable."
Pay for play
Kyle Murphy, former student-athlete "Yes, we're amateurs and we don't have to be doing it and we're getting an education, but when you see all this revenue being generated and we're not getting any of it, it's frustrating. ... The problem is, you're sitting in an apartment all the way through December because you're still in town and you're getting ready for a bowl game. There's no way to make that money up. You do get meal money and spending money when you get to the bowl site, but for many of us, you have to use it for rent money. ... When we were in the Rose Bowl, I was here until Christmas Day. That's 25 days out of 31 you're not seeing any money and you're working for the school. It doesn't seem right."
Privacy law
Jane E. Kirtley, executive director "For far too long, frankly, universities have been using FERPA (Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974) as an all-purpose exemption to the states' open-records laws. They have, like Alice in Wonderland, said the words meant what they wanted them to mean."
|
While perusing ESPN's Web site January 7, I came across an interesting article highlighting the much discussed comments made by Indiana University, Bloomington, head men's basketball coach Bob Knight during a series of interviews he recently completed for ESPN.