Panel Calls for Reform of University Athletics : Education: Academic abuses are alleged. College presidents are urged to take control of sports programs.

Charging that college sports are riddled with financial and academic abuses, a blue-ribbon panel challenged the nation’s university presidents Tuesday to seize control of their athletic programs before government officials step in and do it for them.

In a scathing report, the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics called for improved financial oversight of college sports and the adoption of “no-pass, no-play” rules barring student athletes who ignore academics.

“At their worst, big-time college athletics appear to have lost their bearings,” wrote the 22-member commission, made up of 16 past and present college presidents, four business executives, one congressman and the executive director of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. The problems, it warned, “can no longer be swept under the rug.”

The panel’s proposals, if adopted, would represent the most sweeping reform ever undertaken of college athletics, which resemble professional sports franchises at some schools and have been marred by recruiting violations and other financial and academic abuses. Although its recommendations are not binding, the commission hopes that public pressure will persuade colleges and universities to adopt them voluntarily.

“This is a watershed report,” said Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, president emeritus of the University of Notre Dame and a member of the commission. Hesburgh characterized the report as the “bare bones of a new skeleton structure” that could end the widespread abuses that have grown progressively worse in the last 10 years.

In unusually blunt language, Hesburgh said university presidents should take the initiative to clear the “scum” from the “swamp” of college athletics. “We would love to put the sleaziness of intercollegiate athletics to rest today,” he said.

If institutions do not act voluntarily to correct the abuses, federal and state governments could step in to tackle the problem, Hesburgh said in an interview. “That’s the last thing universities need,” he said.

Judy Sweet, the athletic director at UC San Diego who took over as NCAA president in January, said the recommendations are “consistent with actions that are already being taken or will be taken by the NCAA.”

“I think the commission and the NCAA Presidents Council have been moving along parallel paths,” said Sweet, who had not yet seen the report.

The commission was created in 1989 by the Knight Foundation, a philanthropic organization founded by newspaper publisher John S. Knight. The panel will continue to monitor collegiate sports for two more years, said Creed C. Black, Knight Foundation president.

“This is not the type of report that is going to sit on the shelf and gather dust. This is too important,” said Black, who won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on intercollegiate sports for a Lexington, Ky., newspaper.

“We sense that public concern about abuse is growing,” the commission said in its report. “The public appears ready to believe that many institutions achieve their athletic goals not through honest effort, but through equivocation, not by hard work and sacrifice, but by hook and crook.”

During the 1980s, half of all Division I-A schools, the 106 institutions with the most competitive and expensive football programs, were sanctioned for violating NCAA rules. And even those schools that stayed out of trouble “graduate very few student-athletes in revenue-producing sports,” the report said.

The report, “Keeping Faith with the Student-Athlete,” was presented by the commission’s co-chairmen: Hesburgh of Notre Dame and former president William C. Friday of the University of North Carolina, at a Washington hotel. Attending the event was Rep. Thomas McMillen (D-Md.), a former basketball player who served on the panel.

The report is the result of 18 months of study and five hearings. The panel heard testimony from football coaches Joe Paterno of Penn State, Terry Donahue of UCLA and Tom Osborne of Nebraska, and basketball coaches Bobby Knight of Indiana, Dean Smith of North Carolina and John Thompson of Georgetown. Other witnesses included student-athletes, athletics directors, conference commissioners, faculty and professional sports representatives.

The commission’s recommendations are based on the central premise that college presidents must exercise firm control over their athletic departments.

“The president cannot be a figurehead whose leadership applies elsewhere in the university but not in the athletics department,” the report said.

Presidents must have the “same degree of control over athletics” that they exercise in other university affairs, including the authority to hire and fire coaches and athletic directors and oversee all financial matters, it said.

“The fundamental premise must be that athletes are students as well,” the commission said. “Their academic performance should be measured by the same criteria applied to other students.”

“Cutting academic corners” by admitting athletes who are considered unlikely to graduate should not be tolerated, it said.

The panel called for the adoption of “no-pass, no-play” rules requiring athletes to show evidence of academic progress each semester in order to be eligible to play.

Such rules, it said, must be the “byword of college sports in admissions, academic progress and graduation rates.” It defined academic progress as proceeding “toward graduation within five years of enrollment.”

Graduation rates for student-athletes should “be similar to the graduation rates of other students who have spent comparable time as full-time students,” it said.

To guarantee financial integrity, the report said university administrators should oversee all aspects of athletic funding, including outside compensation for coaches and activities of booster organizations.

All funds raised and spent for athletics must go through the university’s central financial controls, “subject to the same oversight and controls as funds in other departments,” the report said.

Contracts for “athletics-related outside income” of coaches must be negotiated through the university, it said. In particular, it cited lucrative commercial endorsements of athletic shoes and other equipment by coaches.

In addition, university booster clubs should not be permitted to provide financial support for athletic programs outside the administration’s direct control, the report said.

The panel said that every NCAA institution that grants athletic scholarships should have a “thorough independent audit of all academic and financial matters related to athletics” every year.

At the commission’s press conference, NCAA Executive Director Richard D. Schultz said that he could see no reason why a university would not adopt the panel’s recommendations.