Tarkanian, Brown Ask Congress to Reform the NCAA

Basketball Coach Jerry Tarkanian of Nevada Las Vegas accused the NCAA of conducting “a reign of terror” and said that Congress should step in and reform the organization.

Tarkanian and fellow Coach Dale Brown of Louisiana State lambasted the NCAA for an hour on Wednesday before the House subcommittee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Competitiveness.

“The biggest problem in college sports? The NCAA, period,” said Tarkanian, whose basketball program has been under investigation for eight of the past 18 years.

Tarkanian announced plans this month to resign, two weeks after photos were published showing three of his former players with convicted sports fixer Richard Perry. Next season will be Tarkanian’s last at UNLV, he has said.

Tarkanian said he has been harassed throughout his career by the NCAA. He cited an example of an NCAA investigator speaking to a witness, who secretly tape-recorded the interview. The investigator’s account of the meeting conflicted with the tape recording, yet the NCAA pushed aside the discrepancies, Tarkanian said.

“They wouldn’t listen to the tape,” Tarkanian said. “Everybody is petrified. It’s a reign of terror.”

U.S. Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) introduced a bill requiring the NCAA to accord legal due process to coaches, players and colleges it investigates.

Tarkanian and Brown support the measure.

Brown held up the 477-page NCAA manual and declared: “We’ve got to burn that big heavy book.”

However, Creed Black, president of the Knight Foundation, disagreed. The NCAA “is under courageous and enlightened new leadership,” Black told the subcommittee.

And University of Delaware President David Roselle embraced the NCAA’s enforcement procedures. It’s the body that “we ourselves have put into place to oversee our conduct,” he said.