State Assembly Keeps Alive NCAA Legislation : College sports: After Senate puts issue on back burner, Rep. Floyd introduces bill that will be considered Monday.

Legislation in California that would make NCAA enforcement procedure conform to legal due process standards has been given new life in the Assembly after it was shelved for at least a year in the Senate.

Rep. Dick Floyd (D-Gardena) has introduced legislation that would prohibit the NCAA from imposing sanctions on California schools unless certain standards of legal due process are met.

The legislation, presented as an amendment to a bill dealing with radio amplification equipment, was introduced Tuesday, one day after the Senate Committee on Business and Professions decided to refer similar legislation introduced by Sen. Frank Hill (R-Whittier) to its subcommittee on sports for a hearing in the fall.

The committee’s decision to refer Hill’s bill, introduced in March, to subcommittee removes the bill from further consideration by the legislature this year.

But Floyd’s bill, its language identical to that in Hill’s, opens another window of consideration for the matter.

The Assembly Governmental Organization Committee, which is chaired by Floyd, is scheduled to consider the bill Monday.

According to Jeff Ruch, the committee’s counsel, Floyd will recommend to the committee that it, too, deal with the legislation after conducting a hearing in the fall.

The legislation is sponsored by a nonprofit lobbying and public relations organization, the Federation for Intercollegiate Fairness and Equity (FIFE).

Although billing itself as a broad-based organization, FIFE’s fund-raising efforts have, to a large extent, involved Nevada Las Vegas basketball Coach Jerry Tarkanian, who has engaged in a long-running feud with the NCAA.

Ruch said that FIFE representatives, concerned about the way Hill’s bill was received by members of the Senate Business and Professions Committee, approached Floyd, a co-author of Hill’s bill, last week with the idea of introducing NCAA due process legislation in the Assembly.

“After their experience in the Senate, they would like to try the Assembly,” Ruch said.

He added that FIFE is as interested in making a statement as it is in passing legislation in California.

“If (the due process legislation) passes the Assembly in the state of California, given (the state’s) size, (the legislation) might have an impact even if it is not enacted,” Ruch said.

Similar legislation has been considered in eight other states in the last year. Two of the states, Nebraska and Nevada, have adopted it.

In addition, federal legislation along the same lines was introduced May 1 by U.S. Rep. Ed Towns (D-N.Y.).

In vigorously opposing such legislation, the NCAA has argued that its enforcement practices are in line with those found in most non-criminal proceedings.

Opponents of the legislation, including Pacific 10 Conference officials, further point out that the NCAA has set up a 10-member committee to study the enforcement process and make recommendations this year. Warren Burger, former chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, is among the members of the NCAA committee.