NCAA CONVENTION NOTES : Schultz Says Dispute With Tarkanian Headed to Supreme Court

The latest legal battle between the NCAA and Nevada Las Vegas basketball Coach Jerry Tarkanian probably will be decided in the same manner as the previous one--by the U.S. Supreme Court--NCAA Executive Director Dick Schultz said.

The NCAA filed suit against Tarkanian, Nevada Gov. Bob Miller and three others in U.S. District Court in Reno on Nov. 12, challenging the constitutionality of a Nevada law that regulates the NCAA’s enforcement process. The law requires NCAA enforcement proceedings involving Nevada schools to conform to standards of legal due process.

U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben has set the case for trial Feb. 28 in Las Vegas.

“This is the first step and no matter whether we win or lose, it probably will not be the final step,” Schultz said. “This is one of those (matters) that could find its way to the (U.S.) Supreme Court, because it’s kind of a states’ rights issue. . . . No matter whether we win or lose the first round, (the case) is probably going to continue.”

That would be a familiar experience for the NCAA and Tarkanian, who took legal action when the NCAA sought to suspend him for his involvement in rules violations in 1977.

That case, based on whether the NCAA should be considered a government body whose actions must meet constitutional due process requirements, went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled, 5-4, in the NCAA’s favor in 1988.

The current legal action is an attempt by the NCAA to resolve a four-year-old infractions case focusing on UNLV’s recruiting of former New York high school star Lloyd Daniels. The case, which includes charges of rules violations in more than 30 areas, has been removed from the NCAA Committee on Infractions’ agenda indefinitely because of the Nevada law.

Tarkanian, who has announced that this season will be his last at UNLV, last week filed a countersuit, accusing the NCAA of using “enforcement atrocities” to drive him out of coaching.

Three other states--Nebraska, Illinois and Florida--have enacted laws similar to Nevada’s due-process statute.

Schultz acknowledged that the NCAA would be unable to pursue infractions cases in any state with such legislation if the organization fails in its attempt to overturn the Nevada law.

“With all the research we did, we think there are some real strong points of law in our favor,” he said. “But we also know there’s no guarantee we’re going to win the case. Basically, the best (legal) advice we could get was, ‘It will be a tough case, but you don’t have any choice.’

“Either we get (the law) ruled in violation of the constitution or we get out of the enforcement business. That’s what it amounts to.”

University of Texas basketball player Dexter Cambridge will go before an NCAA panel today in Anaheim in a final attempt to regain his eligibility.

Cambridge, a senior, was declared ineligible by the NCAA on Nov. 19 after it was revealed that he received a $7,000 payment from a Lon Morris College booster upon graduating from the Jacksonville, Tex., junior college in 1990.

He reportedly will testify that he was offered $30,000 to $35,000 to attend St. John’s University during his recruitment at Lon Morris. Cambridge’s hope, according to published reports, is to show that his refusal of the offer will demonstrate that he was not attempting to violate NCAA rules.

However, Cambridge told Newsday on Monday: “I did not come out to talk about other schools. . . . All I want to do is play.”

Football bowl alliance members agreed to matchups involving three or four secondary bowls, laying the foundation to for a national championship scenario and a backup system that would prevent member conference runners-up from being left out.

John Junker, executive director of the Fiesta Bowl, said an agreement could come within a month. A major obstacle, however, is the Blockbuster Bowl’s $4.3-million deal to commit the Big East and Atlantic Coast Conference champions. The Big East and ACC are members of the coalition, and have been instrumental in pressing for an alliance that could ensure a national championship matchup.

Mike Tranghese, Big East commissioner, said conference schools have not voted on their preference, but said that how Miami and Florida State, its newest members, feel will be one of the main concerns.

Coalition members tentatively agreed to have the Gator, Citrus, Hall of Fame and Hancock bowls serve as backups. The Citrus’ status could change if it signs the Southeastern Conference to a deal involving its second-place team.

The alliance includes the Fiesta, Cotton, Orange and Sugar bowls, to which Notre Dame and champions of the ACC, Southeastern, Southwest, Big Eight and Big East conferences are committed.

Nevada Las Vegas was granted a waiver from a potential postseason ban on all of its sports because of the way school administrators handled a rule violation involving women’s track and field, said Judy Sweet, NCAA president.

The school was put on one-year’s probation, which in effect is no penalty, after school officials disclosed that they discovered the women’s track program fell below the minimum number of athletes needed to participate during the 1989 and ’90 seasons.

The fact that UNLV officials did not detect the problem until two years after the fact, and took immediate steps to correct it, led the NCAA Council to be lenient.