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Friday, December 13, 2002
NCAA proposes loan for athletes
Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS -- The NCAA management council voted Tuesday to allow student-athletes to receive money for private lessons and to obtain a one-time $20,000 bank loan based on future earnings.
The council approved a series of proposals that are likely to alter the face of college athletics, especially college basketball.
Those changes would allow college athletes to accept pay for giving private lessons in sports such as golf and tennis. They also would allow the NCAA to pay disability insurance premiums and permit Olympic-caliber student-athletes to earn money for high-level performances in the Olympics through Operation Gold.
To qualify for the bank loan, an athlete would have to be considered a likely first-round choice in men's basketball, women's basketball or baseball and at least a third-round choice in football or hockey.
"One of the things of great concern is providing some greater sensitivity to student-athletes' time and their future, and some of the professional demands they may face," council chairman Charles Harris said.
"We believe these are steps in the right direction to changing the environment in regard to student-athletes," added Harris, commissioner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
Those items all passed with at least 31½ of the 51 votes.
The council approved a proposal that would remove the exempt status of basketball tournaments, such as the Preseason NIT and the Maui Invitational. Schools that participate in those tournaments would count all games in which they compete against the NCAA's mandated limit. Current rules allow each tournament to count as one game against a 28-game limit.
If approved by the Board of Directors, which is scheduled to meet April 26, the Preseason NIT could account for as many as four games on a team's schedule. Conference tournaments would still count as one game. The limit of games also would increase to 29 games.
Harris said that legislation passed 27½ to 21½. Seven conferences -- the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Conference USA, Pacific-10 and Southeastern -- each have three votes. NCAA spokeswoman Jane Jankowski said there was no breakdown of how the "power" conferences voted.
"It's very unfortunate, because people forgot the reason for the exemption. It started because of location," said Kathleen McNally, athletic director at Hawaii-Hilo, which stages the Big Island Tournament. "It is so hard to get people to come out here and play, and now it's going to make it that much more difficult."
NCAA president Cedric Dempsey disagreed with McNally. He said universities supported the proposal because of the increase in games played, which led to more missed classes and, he claimed, a decrease in graduation rates.
In fact, Dempsey said, little will change, including the rule that allows schools to compete in only two such tournaments during a four-year span.
"We're not taking away those events," Dempsey said. "The universities will make a decision based on what was voted on today."
The council also sent the Board of Directors, a committee of university presidents, a proposal that would reduce basketball scholarships from 13 to 12 if a school's graduation rate drops to less than 50 percent.
The council approved by voice vote an amateurism deregulation plan that would allow high school athletes to accept prize money, sign contracts, compete with professionals and earn money and enter the draft while retaining their eligibility. That proposal was sent, without recommendation, back to NCAA members for a 90-day comment period. Dempsey said he expected the Board of Directors to address the issues at its August meeting.
"Some people have referred to this as a setback and I disagree with that," Dempsey said. "Had the council taken no action or rejected moving it forward, that would have been a defeat. But this is the normal process we go through."
Also moving forward, without recommendation, was a proposal to restructure basketball recruiting and summer basketball.
If adopted, in-season recruiting days would be reduced from 50 to 40, while summer recruiting days would go from 23 to 20. The legislation also would force corporations such as Nike and Adidas, which sponsor summer basketball events, to provide information about funding and how money is divvied up.
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