Opinions

Student-athlete first

Dee Outlaw, director of athletics
University of West Alabama
Birmingham News

"I think in the past, the (NCAA's) answer was always no and you had to prove yourself (innocent). I think now the answer is, 'We think the answer's yes and let's see why it's yes.' "

Recruiting

Bill Blankenship, head football coach
Union (Oklahoma) High School
Athletic Management

Discussing emergency legislation adopted in August that restricts activities surrounding official visits:

"From a high-school standpoint, I'm much more concerned about how early colleges start recruiting than what they do when they take recruits on a visit. The reality is that the recruiting process is a sales process, and these new measures take away some of the fun that seems to me to be fairly harmless.

"I would rather see changes made to when scholarships can be offered. There's no limit on when schools can extend an offer, so a blue-chip player is getting offers very early in his junior year, or even earlier. Once they've earned a scholarship, some of them go into protect mode. It's an issue we've seen in basketball for a while. Now I think we're starting to see it in football."

College sports and higher education

Stan Van Gundy, professional basketball coach
Miami Herald

"College athletics, they're supposed to be this bastion of purity. You've got to be kidding me. Pro athletics are far more upfront and honest. We know what it's all about at this level. They do in college, too, but they try to fool people into thinking it's about the kids and education, which is a bunch of crap. ...

"I listen to Dick Vitale and Billy Packer talking about how these kids should go to college for the education and experience. What a joke. I'm telling you, it's all about winning, and those people will do anything to keep those kids eligible. A lot of them will discourage kids from taking classes that can be very valuable to them. If you think any of those (college) administrators are worried about integrity, you're crazy. ...

"I don't think the NCAA cares anything about the athlete. Some of their rules make that very, very clear. I wouldn't want my kid going to any college that can't teach him it is a good decision to bypass college for $5 million a year."

Len Elmore, television commentator
Miami Herald

"To believe that the NCAA is involved in some sort of conspiracy to prevent young men from dreaming and achieving realistic dreams rather than trying to educate student-athletes to assure that dreams come true, is both ridiculous and simply wrong.

"There always will be the once-in-a-generation athletes who successfully forgo or leave college early for megamillion-dollar contracts in professional basketball. More power to them, but they are the very few. For the rest -- those who are laboring under the false hope that professional sports is their only way to a better life rather than a college degree -- we, especially anyone who bears the title 'coach,' should be building superhighways leading to college doorsteps rather than placing insidious roadblocks in their way, disguised as opportunity."

Weekday football games

Craig Thompson, commissioner
Mountain West Conference
Indianapolis Star

Discussing the league's decision not to enter into television contracts that call for Tuesday or Wednesday games.

"We're all mesmerized by the pull of television, the recruiting advantages we think come with it, but our board was very strong that we need to take back control of our product. We need to be fan friendly and student-athlete friendly. We can't ask them to miss all this class and then try to graduate as well."

Bowl Championship Series

Wendell Barnhouse, columnist
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Discussing the "piggyback" fifth BCS game as opposed to a "plus-one" format that would be played after the other four BCS games:

"Presidents for years have said they would never allow 'second semester' football. Turns out the piggyback game would be played in the first week of January. Less than 25 percent of Division I-A schools start their second semesters that early. But if the BCS rides piggyback, it rides into the second semester.

"Presidents rejected the plus-one format because they believed it represented a 'slippery slope' toward a multi-team playoff. A plus-one format would certainly have solved the 2003 postseason mess.

"What's the difference between two teams playing a championship game in the plus-one format and two teams playing a 'championship' game in the piggyback format?

"If the presidents are in charge as they say, let them stand up and say: 'OK, the plus-one is the only viable solution and that is as far as it goes. Period."

"There is NCAA legislation being considered that would permanently add a 12th regular-season game. That's a money-making deal for the big I-A BCS schools who would get to stage an extra home game.

"If the 12th-game legislation is approved by the Division I Board of Directors (presidents), that will be just one more example of how the big bosses say one thing (it's not about the money) and do another (it is about the money)."