NCAA Convention : New NCAA Head Stressing Communication

Dick Schultz, new executive director of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn., believes the organization needs to improve communication with member institutions.

“Since August (when he took over from long-time director Walter Byers), I’ve been in Kansas City (home of the NCAA) only two weekends and one of those was at Christmas,” Schultz said. “I think it’s important that the NCAA communicate with its constituency.

“My reception has been very positive. I think the trips have been very important for the future of college athletics. If we are going to accomplish what we need to accomplish, we have to set up a line of communication.”

Nashville is site of the 82nd annual NCAA convention, which has been conducting committee meetings since Friday and officially started Sunday.

The NCAA is expected to approve a resolution shooting down, at least for the immediate future, the idea of a playoff game to decide the major college football championship.

“I’m not sure this is going to be a hot issue at this convention,” Schultz said. “It’s probably going to be voted down by a substantial margin. However, it’s one of those issues that keeps coming back up year after year.

“If it is voted down convincingly, it just means the timing is not right. There is tremendous media and fan interest in the possibility of a playoff.”

NCAA President Wilford Bailey said Saturday the reason the organization is expected to eliminate deadlines for bowl invitations is because the NCAA has had little success in enforcing such deadlines.

“There may be some opposition to this,” said Bailey, faculty representative at Auburn University, “but there has been so many blatant violations that we feel a change is warranted to preserve the integrity of our legislation.

“It is impossible to enforce all legislation equally across the board. That would require a bigger police force than the NCAA has.

“We feel this is a tremendously important convention even though there are not as many highly debateable items as at some of our recent conventions in the past,” Bailey said. “We need time to evaluate the changes made at those conventions.”

Bailey said there is a trend within the NCAA “to make rules more flexible . . . while maintaining the integrity of legislation. There are times when the (NCAA) staff finds itself in awkward positions. I will actively support rules changes that will provide the NCAA staff with more flexibility to deal with day-to-day issues.”

The NCAA Division I Steering Committee has upheld a two-year probation which the NCAA Committee on Infractions levied against the Marist College basketball program.

Marist was found guilty of 17 violations from 1984-86 for recruitment of foreign athletes, extra benefits after enrollment and false and misleading information during an NCAA investigation.