Softening of NCAA Proposals Expected

Proposals by the newly formed NCAA Presidential Commission to severely punish cheaters in college sports “intensifies the awareness there is a problem,” but the harshest penalties being considered may be softened before final action is taken, Gene Corrigan, Notre Dame’s athletic director, said Friday.

“My guess is that by the time we get to the June meeting, some of those things will be modified, probably tempered a bit,” said Corrigan, a member of the policymaking NCAA Council that endorsed the series of measures drawn up by the commission of presidents from NCAA-member schools.

The proposals, which would identify major and secondary violations and give the NCAA enforcement staff broad powers to punish violators, will be voted on at a special NCAA convention June 20-21 in New Orleans.

The severest penalty, which could be imposed for two major violations within a five-year period, would prohibit intercollegiate competition in the sport involved for up to two seasons and prohibit the coaches in that sport from any coaching activity for two years.

“Some of the things, like the idea of closing down a football program for two years . . . effectively, if you do that to a Division I football program, is like shutting down the program forever,” Corrigan said.

“But if there are two infractions in five years, probably they deserve to close forever.”

As for other proposed penalties, including curtailment of recruiting visits by coaches and by high school athletes to the colleges, suspension of staff members for at least one year and sanctions against postseason competition and television appearances, Corrigan said: “Those things should be done, absolutely.

“The fact that a student athlete accepts money or illegal inducements, the coach who cheats and then moves on should not be allowed to coach. All those things I think are proper.

“One of the things that has happened is that each year, the penalties have become stiffer. But everyone (on the NCAA Council) feels it’s important to have the presidents involved. The council basically approved the proposals. We said we’d take them to the meeting (in June), and we’re going to support them.”

The proposals resulted from several months of meetings by the NCAA presidents and were not prompted by the recent basketball scandal at Tulane, Corrigan said.

“My feeling of the Tulane affair is it’s really tied into drugs,” he said. “That’s almost a different issue. A combination of factors made the president of Tulane do what he did (dropping the program).”