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The NCAA News -- May 24, 1999

Sportsmanship panel targets gambling initiatives

Committee recommends focus groups to prioritize sports wagering strategies

The NCAA Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct Committee reviewed issues related to the newly created NCAA Outstanding Sportsperson of the Year awards and developed priorities to be included in a comprehensive plan that will be used to address gambling-related issues during its May 4-5 meeting in Indianapolis.

The committee reviewed the selection process for the initial set of awards announced earlier this month.

The first honorees, Allison Beightol from Randolph-Macon College and Jarrett Erwin from Rice University, will be honored at the Citizenship Through Sports Alliance (CTSA) summit June 29 in Washington, D.C.

Beightol and Erwin, along with six other finalists, were selected from more than 160 nominees.

The committee also reviewed the selection process for future years and noted that selections for the 2000 awards will include nominees from the spring semester of 1999 as well as the 1999-00 academic year.

Selections for subsequent years, however, will include nominees from only the preceding academic year.

Award winners (one male winner and one female winner from each division) will be selected in the late summer or early fall immediately after the academic year in which the student-athletes were nominated (an exception was created to include the spring semester of 1999 in the process for the 2000 award winners). Award winners will be announced each fall and will be recognized at the NCAA Convention and at the NCAA Foundation Leadership Conference, in addition to the awards luncheon at the CTSA summit.

Gambling-related issues

The committee also reviewed several gambling-related initiatives during its meeting and developed a comprehensive strategic plan that would provide a significant step toward addressing on-campus gambling.

The committee developed the plan with the help of Bill Saum, NCAA director of gambling and agent issues, who will present the plan on the committee's behalf to the Division I Strategic Planning Cabinet.

A major emphasis of the committee's plan is educational awareness. Among the recommendations is the establishment of focus groups composed of current student-athletes, athletics administrators and former student-athletes involved in sports wagering in order to determine what strategies presented in the comprehensive plan would be most effective in deterring student-athlete involvement with sports wagering.

The committee noted that the Division I Management Council and the Strategic Planning Cabinet had supported committee recommendations that called for $135,000 in reallocated funds for gambling initiatives for fiscal-year 2000.

Both bodies, however, had requested more information regarding the scope of the gambling problem and the means of addressing it. The committee believes the plan provides evidence of the pervasive problem of on-campus gambling and also outlines proactive measures that could be taken should the proposal be adopted.

The plan will be presented to the Strategic Planning Cabinet in June.

Public-address spots

In another action, the committee discussed the importance of regular public-address sportsmanship announcements at member institutions' regular-season intercollegiate events.

Though the committee recognized that such announcements could not be legislated, it nonetheless will ask the Divisions I, II and III Management Councils to recommend that the following public-address announcement be distributed to all institutions and conferences for presentation before each regular-season event:

"The (name of school or conference) promotes good sportsmanship by student-athletes, coaches and spectators. We request your cooperation by supporting the participants and officials in a positive manner. Profanity, racial or sexist comments or other intimidating actions directed at officials, student-athletes, coaches or team representatives will not be tolerated and are grounds for removal from the site of competition."

The statement, which currently is announced before all NCAA championship events, is recommended for use should the institution or conference not have an existing sportsmanship statement that is announced before regular-season contests.

In other actions, the committee:

  • Discussed a request from the divisional Student-Athlete Advisory Committees regarding student-athlete representation on the committee and noted that the Divisions I and III Management Councils were supportive of the request. The committee asked staff to contact the appropriate Divisions I and III governance groups for the identification of the student-athletes to be named to the committee.

  • Noted that the Division I Management Council had approved $8,000 in reallocated funds for the creation and distribution of a sportsmanship poster that would be placed in high-traffic areas within an institution's athletics department. The poster would emphasize the sportsmanship values of respect, fairness, civility, honesty and responsibility.

  • Discussed ways in which the Collegiate Commissioners Association and various coaches associations could become involved in helping the committee improve sportsmanship and ethical conduct.

  • Reviewed its strategic plan and identified priorities for 2000, including the development of public-service announcements about sportsmanship to be broadcast during NCAA championship events; and an annual program of 30 to 60 minutes in length devoted to sportsmanship and ethical conduct.