Posted on 04/24/2002 5:07:29 PM PDT by GeneD
Filed at 7:51 p.m. ET
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The future of the NCAA is up for debate this week in Indianapolis.
On Thursday, the Board of Directors will discuss a series of proposals that could redefine the term ``amateur'' athletics. Then on Friday, the executive committee will begin its search to find a replacement for retiring president Cedric Dempsey.
It's a 48-hour period that could dramatically change the governing body does business.
``We're asking the NCAA to move away from one of its founding principals,'' said Ohio State president Brit Kirwan, chairman of the NCAA's board of directors. ``Given that fact, it's made it a really difficult issue.''
At the top of the agenda is allowing ``elite'' student-athletes to take one-time loans of up to $20,000, based on potential earnings. Another proposal would allow high school athletes to enter a draft and go to college without losing eligibility if they do not sign a contract or with an agent.
And that's only the beginning.
The committee also will debate a measure that permits student-athletes to compete professionally for one year, then sit out a year and enter college. The athlete would then have three years of eligibility remaining.
Other proposals would let the NCAA pay for the disability insurance of ``elite'' student-athlete and permit the acceptance of educational expenses to high schools or prep schools without losing eligibility if the money is distributed by the school.
An ``elite'' student-athlete is determined by where they are projected to go in the draft although the standards are different for the five sports included -- football, men's and women's basketball, ice hockey and baseball.
The catalyst for the changes, Kirwan said, has been the increase in college athletes leaving school early for the pros and high school athletes who skip college and enter the draft.
But solutions have been difficult to find unanimity on.
``The most divisive elements are those with allowing athletes who have ever been paid for playing on professional teams much more so than the loans,'' Kirwan said. ``I think we've already accepted the idea that athletes could borrow money for disability insurance, so I don't think loans are as big an issue.''
If the proposals are approved, they could change the face of college athletics as early as next season.
Still, Kirwan is uncertain what the board will do. He called the debate ``intense'' at times, and acknowledged that some items may not even be voted on Thursday.
The other big issue is finding a new president, which the executive committee must approve.
Tulsa president Bob Lawless heads a four-member search committee formed to winnow the field of candidates. The search committee consists of Lawless, Kirwan, Patricia Cormier, president of Longwood College in Virginia and chairwoman of the Division II Presidents Council and Bette Landman of Beaver College in Pennsylvania. Landman is chairwoman of the Division III Presidents Council.
Lawless said two or three finalists are expected to be determined in September and that those finalists would interview with the 12-member executive committee at a special meeting Oct. 10. He anticipates a final vote Oct. 11.
``I think we are looking for leadership more than we were the last time,'' said Lawless, who also is chairman of the executive committee. ``In changing from an executive director to a CEO, we're looking more for leadership than we were the last time, and I think we got good leadership from Ced.''
Lawless expects the executive committee to approve Friday the choice of Baker-Parker, an Atlanta-based firm, to conduct the search.
Lawless said he has not yet received any applications for Dempsey's replacement. Dempsey announced in January during the NCAA convention that he would be retiring when he term ends Jan. 1.
I do however think the NCAA needs to address paying the atheletes something. The scholarship atheletes (elite) are not allowed to work, yet, you can walk into any major university in the nation and find that "elite" kid's jersey on the wall with a $50 price tag attached to it.
Let's face it, 90% of the "elite" atheletes could care less about getting an education. Their eye is on the big prize....the pro league.
No, the article says that elite atheletes are defined by where they are expected to go in the draft for their sport. How many elite kids can the average school have? Five or six? A sports factory school might have 10 or 15, in all sports. What is special priveledges for these few telling the other 100 kids on the various teams, who don't have the "special" status? Without help from the non-elite, most of the elite would never come to the attention of the pro teams.
What is the academic side of the schools going to say about this (academics is after all 98% of a colledge)? There is already a movement in the PAC-10 to de-emphasise the athletic department. Many of the universities have already cast the athletic department onto its own resources, to no longer receive any university money. Pressure is building behind the scenes to do away with the major sports entirely.
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