Black Coaches Delay Boycott as U.S. Acts : College basketball: The Justice Department offers to mediate dispute over reduction in NCAA scholarships.

A walkout scheduled this weekend by the Black Coaches Assn. was averted Friday when the Justice Department publicly offered to mediate in the group’s dispute with the NCAA. There was no immediate acceptance of that offer by the NCAA.

The boycott had been expected during some of today’s games, which coincide with Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.

Some form of protest during the season remains a possibility, the BCA said, even though this week’s protest seemed to have lost some support.

Cedrick Dempsey, the NCAA’s executive director, said that neither he nor NCAA President Joseph Crowley had heard from the Justice Department, and another NCAA spokesman indicated that the group would not accept the government’s offer.

“If the (House) Energy and Commerce Committee and the Ways and Means Committee are willing to let the Justice Department mediate health-care reform, we’ll think about using their services on these issues,” the NCAA’s Francis Canavan said.

That response probably will exacerbate the dispute between black coaches and leaders of America’s colleges and universities.

Drake Coach Rudy Washington, executive director of the BCA, said action could eventually be taken, although he would not say when.

Coach George Raveling of USC, a leader in the BCA, said a walkout had been planned for today’s game against Washington State in Pullman, Wash.

The coaches backed away from their threats after learning that the Clinton Administration was involved in the dispute. Although the White House’s help was solicited Friday by the Congressional Black Caucus, the Community Relations Service of the Justice Department already had offered to intervene.

The Community Relations Service was organized under civil rights laws in the 1960s to mediate disputes involving matters of race, color and national origin. It has no enforcement or investigative power.

Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.), chairman of the black caucus, said: “The Justice Department has expressed a desire to help mediate and arbitrate the differences that exist. We are asking that they look at a full range of issues. A number of things have festered far too long.”

Exactly what could come out of any mediation is unclear. NCAA rules are implemented and modified at its annual convention and only school representatives can vote to add scholarships or change academic standards.

“I regret the entry of the Congress or the Justice Department in this,” said Tom Hansen, commissioner of the Pacific 10 Conference. “This is not a legal matter whatsoever. It is very regrettable.”

Hansen said an arbitrator is not necessary because the NCAA has been willing to discuss broad issues of opportunities with the black coaches.

But when the NCAA rejected a proposal to restore Division I men’s basketball scholarships from 13 to 14 at this week’s convention in San Antonio, the BCA chose to act. NCAA cost-containment initiatives have reduced the number of scholarships from 15 in 1991 to 14 last year and 13 this year.

Monday’s 191-119 vote against the proposed increase caused a rift between the coaches and administrators at a time when tensions were already high. The black coaches said they felt betrayed because they had thought the NCAA had agreed to restore one scholarship.

Still, the scholarship issue was minor, considering that many Division I programs do not use their allotted grants as it stands. Thus it became symbolic of the black coaches’ fight with their institutions.

“I think the resulting actions in Washington, D.C., states unequivocally that our actions have greater magnitude than 14 scholarships,” Raveling said Friday in Pullman.

“I resent all the suggestions and articles that were written suggesting that this was all about 14 scholarships. People found that as a convenient rationale to attack our credibility. It never was an economic issue, it was always an issue of ethics.”

Working within the system, the coaches had lobbied administrators to adjust tough academic standards that they claimed limited educational opportunities of blacks.

Raveling said in November: “We don’t want to go down in history known as people that could have made a difference but were not interested.”

Raveling’s response came as the black coaches expressed concern about limits--limits on the time Division I athletes are allowed to spend in organized off-season sports programs, and recruiting limits that inhibit the coaches from reaching out to inner-city neighborhoods, where they are role models.

Much of this has been lost behind the cry of boycott this week.

“It does appear they have seized on too narrow an issue to make too big a statement,” the Pac-10’s Hansen said. “I think they found they were going to face severe opposition across the country . . . more if they were going to try to use the student athletes (in the protest).”

Raveling countered that administrators want to keep players ignorant of the overriding issues.

“That’s no more than a throwback to the days of slavery,” he said. “You kept the information away from the slaves and then you can always control them.”

Still, administrators, commissioners and coaches expressed relief over Friday’s action.

UCLA Coach Jim Harrick said in Seattle: “I’m glad we get a chance to sit down and get everybody’s sides and feelings and maybe even get some rationale.”

Times staff writers Dan Hafner in Pullman, Wash., and Thomas Bonk in Seattle contributed to this story.