NCAA Members Agree on Cost-Cutting Moves

The 81st annual convention of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn., which came to a close Friday evening, was, in the opinion of NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers, one of the most harmonious conventions he has seen in a long time.

He was referring to a singleness of purpose as athletic directors went along with the moves of chief executive officers to cut costs and bring athletic excesses of all kinds under control.

But also giving this convention an appearance of harmony was the fact that there really were no major changes made. Nothing worth going to war about.

Everyone agreed, in principle, to make some cutbacks, and then many of the cutback measures were referred to the Presidents Commission’s special convention in June.

No fireworks here.

There might have been some fireworks if football coaches had been allowed to have their say on some novel new rules.

With very little debate, the NCAA adopted rules that would require coaches to report all athletically related income to their chief executive officers--through their athletic directors, who didn’t want to be left out. That includes speaking engagements and their often lucrative camps.

Coaches also will be required to get permission before using the school name or logo for personal gain. And, probably most important, they will have to get the approval of their chief executive officers before accepting money from shoe companies.

It’s not unusual for shoe contracts to exceed salaries.

Commenting on the amounts of money that coaches can earn from outside sources, North Carolina A&T; Chancellor Edward Fort said: “There is something wrong when a Division I-A coach can command more annual compensation than an engineering professor who is teaching future engineers who might help us beat the Russians to the planet Mars.”

The administrators insist that they are not attempting to limit coaches’ compensation, just to monitor it.

Two former basketball coaches supported a last-second effort to reconsider the measure passed Thursday, which will eliminate the part-time basketball coach. Marv Harshman, former coach at the University of Washington, and Hank Raymonds, former coach at Marquette University, did their best. Raymonds pointed out that NCAA basketball brought in $163 million and that part-time assistants don’t get much of that money. Raymonds said: “Let’s not kill the goose that laid the golden egg.”

But their efforts failed.

A change in the football recruiting season that passed was, however, backed by the coaches. Vince Dooley, coach and athletic director at Georgia, reported that a survey of assistant football coaches overwhelming supported the move that shortened that season from Aug. 1-Dec. 1 and May 7-21 to just the month of November and May 10-31.

Responding to problems early in the last football season regarding violations in the way that football players used their complimentary tickets, legislation was adopted specifying that only one of the four people using athletes’ complimentary passes could be other than a family member or a fellow student.

A series of proposals to improve due process in the investigation of violations was passed, including a proposal to hear appeals by division and a couple of proposals designed to eliminate the “confidential” approach and allow for better communication with the media.

Harmony was also noted when the combined membership finally voted to let the separate divisions, individually, determine the amount of financial assistance an athlete receives. Division I-A has been trying to get that move toward federation passed for several years.

The measure opens the door for legislation to make it possible for students who show financial need to receive the same amount of federal aid that students who are not scholarship athletes are allowed to receive.