SDSU Says Riggins Fired for Dealings With Agent : Women’s basketball: Summary of report to NCAA says he violated rules in spring of 1989. He says school misread actions with regard to Chana Perry.

Earnest Riggins was fired in May after six seasons as the San Diego State women’s basketball coach because he violated NCAA rules by representing a former athlete in dealings with a player agent, the university said in a document released this week.

The allegation was contained in a summary of a report the university submitted to the NCAA detailing last spring’s school investigation into the incident.

Riggins said the player was Chana Perry, an All-American center for SDSU who completed her eligibility with the 1988-89 season. Perry is playing for a professional team in Milan, Italy.

The university released the 2 1/2-page summary Monday following a request for the report by The Times under the California Public Records Act. The university has thus far declined to release the complete report on the advice of its attorney.

The summary does not indicate when the university submitted its report to the NCAA or what action, if any, was taken in response. It does say that it consulted with NCAA officials during the investigation.

The summary said the university declined to renew Riggins’ contract because he violated an NCAA rule prohibiting university personnel from marketing student-athletes to professional teams and organizations or receiving direct or indirect compensation for such services. It also does not say that Riggins gained any benefits from the dealings described.

Riggins has denied violating NCAA rules and said the university has misinterpreted his actions. He said his termination was improper and is contesting it through the California State University system’s grievance procedure. Riggins said he is seeking pay the university owes him on a contract he contends was valid through the 1989-90 season.

Riggins, 52, also contends he was a victim of sex and race discrimination by the university because he was a black male coaching a women’s team, and he filed a separate grievance against the university on these charges.

Riggins said both grievances have been denied at two levels within the university system. He said a hearing on the improper termination grievance has been scheduled for May 11, before an arbitrator from the American Arbitration Assn. He is unsure, he said, how he will proceed with the discrimination grievance.

Riggins compiled a record of 118-67 after taking over at SDSU in 1983. His 1988-89 team, led by Perry, finished 25-9. He said he has been unemployed since his dismissal.

The university said in the summary that the investigation conducted by the athletic department began in April 1989 and concluded that Riggins helped fill out an agreement that served as a basis for a contract the player (identified by Riggins as Perry) signed with an agent a week later.

The conclusions were based on information provided by the athlete, her parents, the agent and members of Riggins’ staff, among others. Riggins is one of only two people identified by name in the summary; S. David Berst, director of enforcement for the NCAA, is the other. All others are identified only by title or their relationship to the player.

The summary said Riggins “met with (the player) and filled in the blanks on a Standard Player Contract.” It also said there was a meeting later that day between Riggins, the agent and the agent’s wife, during “which preliminary discussion took place which would lead to contract negotiations.” At this meeting, Riggins led “the discussion and all of the negotiations,” the summary said.

Riggins said he did fill in portions of the agreement but only on the instructions of Perry, to be used as a guide for further talks.

“I said, ‘Chana what do you want? Let’s put it down on paper,’ ” Riggins said.

Riggins said the discussions took place in Amarillo, Tex., after Perry and SDSU concluded the 1988-89 season by finishing second in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament March 25. Riggins said he introduced Perry to the agent, whom he identified as Joe Betancourt of Crystal City, Tex. But, he said, he was never attempting to arrange a contract for Perry and denied leading the talks.

One week after the meeting, the player and her parents met with the agent and signed an agreement similar to the one Riggins filled out, the summary said.

Perry said by telephone Tuesday that she supported Riggins. She said he did nothing improper and that she had asked Riggins to deal with agents who wanted to talk with her during the season.

“I was shocked that he had been fired,” she said.

She characterized Riggins’ actions as an attempt to protect her from agents who might have endangered her NCAA eligibility.

“I told him I didn’t want to talk to any agents during the season,” Perry said.

But the summary said the player and her parents were upset with Riggins because he withheld information about other agents and professional teams that were interested in the player. The summary specifically mentions a team from Japan with which Riggins would not negotiate, adding that he also refused to tell it how it could contact the parents.

Riggins said he placed information relating to teams interested in Perry in a file for her and that he followed his standard practice, with a player’s agreement, of denying agents information concerning parents.

“I don’t do that for any of my players,” Riggins said. “I don’t give out phone numbers or addresses. I didn’t do that for Chana, and I wasn’t going to do that.”

The summary also said that the agent who signed the player was upset with Riggins because he also withheld information about the player’s parents from him, requiring that the agent work through Riggins, the summary said.

“The agent indicated that he was irritated that Mr. Riggins was involved in the negotiations, but it appeared to be the only way to get the student as a client,” the summary said. The agent also told school investigators by telephone that “he was told by Mr. Riggins that he (Riggins) had the influence to direct the student to the agent.”

Betancourt could not be reached for comment.

The summary said Riggins initially was “inadequate and evasive” in his written response to the allegations. Riggins said a meeting then was held with Athletic Director Fred Miller and two associate athletic directors, Jayne Hancock and Don Kaverman.

The summary contains a description of that meeting, in which Riggins “was at first nonresponsive.” Only after “incriminating information was brought to his attention” did Riggins admit his involvement, the summary said. The “most compelling piece of evidence” was a copy of the contract that “was in his handwriting, which he had prepared as a rough draft for further negotiations with the agent.” The summary also said the internal investigation had turned up two other NCAA rules violations in the program. The university said the violations were “minor” and that it followed standard procedure by reporting them to the Big West Conference. The summary did not describe their nature.

James A. Haney, commissioner of the Big West Conference, said the violations were not considered for further action because SDSU intends to leave the conference in a few months to join a new Western Athletic Conference for women.

The summary said that after Riggins had been presented with the university’s conclusions, he was offered the option of resigning or being released.

When Riggins declined to resign, the university said it notified him on May 12 that it would not renew his contract. The university said the contract contained “a clause allowing nonreappointment if he was found to be involved in any violations of NCAA regulations.” Such clauses are required under NCAA rules. But Riggins said his grievance contends the clause is improper under the collective bargaining agreement between the CSU system and the California Faculty Assn., the union that represents faculty.

Riggins said officials misinterpreted his actions, that they were designed to protect Perry from harassment by agents during the season and keep her from endangering her eligibility.

NCAA rules prohibit a player from signing or agreeing to be represented by an agent. Loss of eligibility is the penalty for a violation.

The summary discusses no possible motive for Riggins’ alleged actions but says the arrangement “gave Riggins some leverage with the professional agent and organization.”

Riggins said he had no financial agreement with Betancourt concerning Perry. He said their only business relationship involved a clinic to be held in Spain last summer and that it began in September 1988, almost three months before the start of Perry’s senior season. Riggins said Betancourt promised him an unspecified fee to lecture at the clinic, along with expenses including air fare and hotels, for him, his wife and their daughter.

Riggins said he never went to Spain and that neither he nor any family members accepted benefits from Betancourt. Perry said she was aware of the clinic but that it had no bearing on her decision.

Perry had a controversial five-year college career. She started at Northeast Louisiana in 1984, but one year later, the school was placed on NCAA probation because of rules violations while she was being recruited. That led to a civil suit against the school and a former assistant coach by Perry’s mother, Ruth Antoinette Perry Smith of Brookhaven, Miss.

The suit was settled out of court, but Perry was prohibited from playing at Northeast Louisiana and transferred to SDSU in 1986. After sitting out 1986-87, she came back strong, averaging 23.5 points and 13.1 rebounds as a senior.

That led to the strong interest from women’s professional teams around the world. Top U.S. college players, especially centers with strong offensive skills, are valued.

Perry would not discuss specific financial terms of her agreement with the Italian team but said she was “well-represented” by Betancourt and that in addition to her salary she received free rent and the use of a car while in Italy.

NCAA BYLAW 11.1.5

Marketing Student-Athletes to Professional Teams/Organizations. Staff members of the athletics department of a member institution shall not represent, directly or indirectly, any individual in the marketing of athletics ability or reputation to a professional sports team or professional sports organization and shall not receive compensation or gratuities of any kind, directly or indirectly, for such services.