Nebraska Sanctions Tempered : NCAA Council Restores 60 Players’ Eligibility, Revokes Pass Privilege

The NCAA on Tuesday restored full eligibility to all 60 Nebraska football players who were told last week they would be suspended at least one game for improper use of game passes.

Instead, the Council Subcommittee on Eligibility Appeals said the guilty players will be stripped of game-pass privileges this season. Furthermore, Committee Chairman Dave Maggard of the University of California said every NCAA Division I men’s football and basketball and women’s basketball program will be asked to review their student athlete’s use of pass lists from the 1985-86 academic year.

Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne, who had said there was a possibility the Cornhuskers might have forfeited the season opener against Florida State if the situation wasn’t reviewed, was pleased with the NCAA’s ruling.

“I think this is the best step they could take,” Osborne said from Lincoln, Neb. “We are really pleased. I think it is a tough, but fair, decision.”

Any violations will be dealt with in the same manner as those at Nebraska, with loss of pass privileges, Maggard said.

“We found no indication of financial gains by the student-athletes,” Maggard said in a statement released by the NCAA. “If we had, our decision would have been different.”

The subcommittee heard Nebraska’s appeal by teleconference call Tuesday morning for 90 minutes and didn’t reach a decision until late in the afternoon. The suspensions were levied last week by the Eligibility Committee, the first time the controversial pass rule had been dealt with since its adoption in the January 1985 convention.

O’Hanlon said Nebraska officials had offered some proposals that were more severe and involved “phasing (the penalties) by the number of violations of the athletes involved.”

The University of Tennessee held 10 players out of its game last Saturday with New Mexico, saying that it had been guilty of violating the rule, which says only a players’ relatives and fellow students can use the four passes Division I players receive for each home game.

Will Bailey of Auburn, the NCAA’s secretary-treasurer and a member of the subcommittee, said “we didn’t consider Tennessee at all” during the conference call.

Tennessee Athletic Director Doug Dickey said from Knoxville, Tenn., that school officials have a conference call set for Thursday with the NCAA on the school’s suspensions.

“We will still have our discussion with them,” Dickey said. “I’m sure it’s a situation we can work out, based on the Nebraska situation. I feel sure we’re in the same situation.

“We may want to consider asking for some different penalties for those who gave up one game,” Dickey said. “Reasonable minds have prevailed.”

The NCAA announcement said one pass would be revoked during the 1986-87 academic year for each violation. The Division I programs will be asked to report the results of their internal audits of their 1985-86 pass lists to their respective conferences, which in turn will forward the information to the NCAA.

Independents will report directly to the NCAA.

This will involve, counting women’s basketball, more than 500 programs.

Some other alleged violations against members of the Nebraska football program were not considered by the committee.

Only four members of the five-person committee took part in the hearing after Mary Jean Mulvaney of the University of Chicago excused herself because she is a Nebraska graduate.

The other committee members are Kathleen Wear, director of women’s programs at La Salle; and Ray Burse, president of Kentucky State University; plus Maggard and Baile.

The pass-list rule was drawn up and sponsored by the Southwest Conference and is the latest of several attempts to curb the practice of players selling game tickets at inflated prices. It could be amended at next January’s NCAA convention.