In Penalizing USC, NCAA Has Kicked Everybody in Seats

If you’re a USC football fan, you won’t be able to see your team on television in 1985 because an assistant coach helped players sell tickets between 1970 and 1978, which is against NCAA rules.

You did nothing, yet you’re being penalized.

Something is wrong here, you say?

Yes, something is. What is wrong is the NCAA’s use of a television ban. It hurts too many innocent people.

Besides viewers, there are USC opponents, such as Notre Dame, UCLA and Washington. The USC-Notre Dame game brought a TV rights fee of $1 million last season, with $500,000 going to Notre Dame. That payday will not be there for the Irish this year.

Then there is the television industry. It may be difficult to work up a tear for the huge, money-making networks, but they are still being penalized by losing some top attractions.

Then there are the current players. They came to USC with the idea of getting national exposure. They haven’t been found guilty of anything. They haven’t even been charged with anything. Yet they are being penalized.

Take quarterback Sean Salisbury, for example. The former high school All-Ameri- can from Escondido, now a senior, was injured early last season and decided to sit out the rest of the year, retain his eligibility and return in 1985.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Now he learns that, through no fault of his own, his games won’t be on live TV. His friends back home won’t get to see him play unless they drive to Los Angeles and buy a ticket. Also, the lack of TV exposure could hurt his chances of being selected high in the 1986 NFL draft.

There are alternatives to TV bans. A school could get just a straight fine. But can you imagine what the reaction would have been had the NCAA fined USC $2 million?

Actually a $2-million fine would be a lot less severe than a two-year TV ban. The monetary loss to USC alone is $2 million. But banning a school from TV doesn’t sound quite so bad. The severity is camouflaged.

There are other ways of penalizing schools besides fines. Another possibility is for the NCAA to permit a penalized school to appear on TV but not share in the monetary benefits. Or reduce the number of scholarships. Almost anything would be better than banning a school from TV.

The Trojans will be permitted to appear on television on tape-delays. Channel 2 has been carrying the Trojans’ tape-delayed telecasts in recent years, but there have been scheduling problems.

Because Channel 2 is a network affiliate that carries network shows on Saturday nights and pro football on Sundays, the Trojans get shoved into different time slots each week. Sometimes, only two hours are allotted for a three-hour game, so large blocks are cut out.

Despite the problems, Jay Strong, Channel 2 program director, says his station plans to continue carrying the Trojans on tape.

Channel 11, however, is also making a pitch for the USC football package. To show its good intentions, the station will carry two basketball games--Feb. 23 at California and March 3 at Texas.

With Channel 11 carrying those games, five of the Trojans’ last eight will be on TV. Channel 5 will carry games against Arizona Feb. 16, UCLA Feb. 28 and Oregon State March 9.

Demoted: Saturday’s UCLA-Washington game was originally supposed to be televised nationally by NBC, but the network decided to show it only on the West Coast, opting to make SMU-North Carolina State the national game. This is another example of West Coast basketball losing national prestige.

Notes Pacific 10 officials met in Los Angeles this week, and one of the orders of business was to talk to various syndicators about next season’s football package. TCS-Metrosports, which has been experiencing financial problems, is out. Tom Hansen, the conference’s executive director, said the company hasn’t paid the conference $500,000 of its $3-million football deal, and may be unable to pay another $1 million owed for basketball coverage. . . . With both USC and Arizona unable to appear on TV because of NCAA penalties, the Pac-10 football package loses a lot of its luster. . . . The Los Angeles Express, only a couple of weeks away from its opener, is having trouble finding a Los Angeles radio station to carry its games. . . . Radio station KRLA has new owners, and they have altered sportscaster Rich Marotta’s airtimes. Marotta was doing three five-minute reports in the morning, at 6:30, 7:30 and 8:30. Marotta will now be doing six two-minute reports on the hour--four in the morning, one midday and one in the afternoon . . . Marotta said KRLA will continue to carry the Raiders.

“Men of Steel, Fingers of Butter,” a half-hour special featuring sports bloopers, will be shown tonight on Channel 7 at 7:30. Rick Monday is the host. . . . Add bloopers: “Bob Uecker’s Wacky World of Sports,” an hour-long comedy series featuring bloopers, will debut on Channel 4 Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Uecker and 11-year-old Chris Johnston host the show. Among the bloopers in the first show is Howard Cosell forgetting his name. . . . Highlights of the “Race Across America,” a bicycle race from Huntington Beach to Atlantic City, N.J., will be shown in two parts on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” the next two Sundays. Nineteen men and four women competed in the nonstop, 3,047.4-mile race. Shoemaker Productions, an Irvine-based company, taped the race.

Attention dog lovers: The two-day Westminster Kennel Club dog show at Madison Square Garden will be televised on the USA cable network next Monday night, live at 5, and Tuesday night, delayed at 8. The announcer is Bob Wolff, who said: “I can truthfully say, in the 27 years I’ve been telecasting the Westminster Show, no dog has ever had an unkind word for me.” . . . ABC has signed Tracy Austin to work as a commentator on its coverage of the men’s and women’s finals of International Players Tennis Championships at Delray Beach, Fla., next weekend. ESPN is offering early round coverage this weekend. . . . Attention baseball fans: The Cal State Fullerton-Arizona State baseball game will be on ESPN Sunday at 5 p.m. . . . Attention Pepperdine basketball fans: The Waves’ game at DePaul Saturday will be carried by Chicago superstation WGN, which is picked up by some Southern California cable companies. Game time is 5:30 p.m. . . . Program change: A Davey Moore-Mike McCallum fight originally scheduled on CBS’ “Sports Saturday” has been cancelled. So the Robin Blake-Adolfo Medel fight at Midland, Tex., has been moved from Sunday to Saturday to fill the void. . . . L.A. basketball ratings from last weekend: UCLA-USC Friday night, 6.8; Clippers-Lakers Saturday night, 6.0.