NCAA CONVENTION : Delegates Vote Against I-AAA Proposal

Thomas Iannacone, athletic director of the University of San Diego, does not consider it a crisis, but he has a problem to solve after NCAA delegates voted down legislation Thursday that would have established a Division I-AAA, nonscholarship category for football.

San Diego competes in Division I-A, the large-school category, in basketball and other sports but Division III in football. That will end in 1993 when a school must designate a single classification for all sports.

As a result, schools with successful Division I basketball programs but financially strapped football teams were hoping to form a new category to accommodate their needs at this week’s 86th NCAA Convention in Anaheim.

In an effort to support those schools, the Presidents Commission, a group of 44 college and university presidents who wield wide influence in the NCAA, endorsed the proposal.

The legislation was defeated by overwhelming opposition from Division II schools, who were upset because they would not have an opportunity to join the proposed Division I-AAA.

Iannacone’s choice was either to find enough money to play Division I-AA football--which could cost upward of $300,000 a year--or drop the sport.

“Our direction is clearly I-AA,” Iannacone said, adding that the school will not change its overall status to Division II or III.

Other California schools, including Cal State Northridge, are looking at that option as well and met this week in Anaheim to discuss it.

Northridge plays in the Division II Western Football Conference, but Division I in basketball.

Northridge football Coach Bob Burt said he did not support the I-AAA category because it was a nonscholarship program.

“It’s not an option for a state university of about 35,000 students,” he said. “It makes no sense.”

Benny Hollis, athletic director of Northeast Louisiana State, opposed the proposal because “it is nothing but an attempt to play Division III football and call it Division I.

“Don’t be surprised if the public sees the NCAA as confused or devious,” he told delegates during a heated debate on the floor.

Instead of playing a low-level brand of football with nonscholarship players, the Northridges of the world prefer a scaled back I-AA conference. Bob Hiegert, Northridge’s athletic director, said administrators hope to structure a league that would put West Coast schools on the same playing field.

San Diego, UC Davis, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, St. Mary’s, Santa Clara, Cal State Sacramento and UC Santa Barbara could find contentment with the plan, which would limit scholarships to well below the Division II maximum.

Cal State Long Beach, which recently dropped its Division I program, would have a better chance to rebuild at the lower level. And Cal State Fullerton, whose program is held together by shoestrings, could step down and remain solvent.

Outside of California, many of the NCAA delegates thought the Division I-AAA proposal worthwhile.

“It’s a question of equity and justice,” said David Warren, Ohio Wesleyan University president and a member of the Presidents Commission. “We will create a new dimension of homelessness in America if we don’t give them I-AAA.”

Educators might try to reintroduce the legislation this morning after lobbying Division II delegates Thursday night. If the politicking fails, the idea of I-AAA could be proposed again next year, said Gerald Turner, chairman of the Presidents Commission.

Turner, chancellor at the University of Mississippi, said the bill was defeated because of the provision that barred Division II and III chools from moving into Division I via the I-AAA category. The legislation proposed that schools classified Division II or III as of Sept. 1, 1991 could not upgrade their status to play I-AAA football.

Turner said that provision could be revised.

If the category is accepted, David Bernstein, the faculty representative at Cal State Long Beach, will be relieved. Bernstein, a history professor, said Long Beach hopes to be part of a I-AA California conference.

But if costs in education continue at the present pace, I-AAA would be an option he, for one, would like to have.

“Even $100,000 is a major difference with the state of the economy,” he said.

Money, however, is no substitute for pride. That is why most California schools caught in the economic crunch want to offer some form of athletic scholarship. Burt said it is the only way to recruit quality athletes.

Dennis Farrell, assistant commissioner of the Big West Conference, a league with such schools as Long Beach, Fullerton, UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara, said the schools are located in a big enough recruiting area to find competitive athletes at the I-AA level.

Without scholarships that would be a different situation.

Times staff writers Danny Robbins and Mike Hiserman contributed to this report.