Tennis Hurt by Disregard for Rule Governing Expense Money in Pro Events

College tennis is in quite a fix.

An article in November’s issue of Tennis magazine claimed that whenever Miami’s Bertrand Madsen needed money, he simply went to France and played in a couple of tournaments, raking in as much as $7,000 in “expense money” in three weeks.

That is an apparent violation of an NCAA rule governing amateurism.

The article was brought to the attention of Miami’s compliance officer, Craig Angelos, who reported the violation to the NCAA, adding that he believed the problem was widespread.

As a result, the NCAA asked schools across the nation to investigate their players and determine the manner in which they have received money while playing in professional tournaments.

Most of the cases are not as severe as Madsen’s. He received $29,000 in expense money in professional tournaments the past three years and lost his college eligibility because of it.

Still, countless players across the country--including players at USC and UCLA--have been declared temporarily ineligible by their schools in the last week. Most have sat out two matches.

At the heart of the controversy are conflicting rules, one by the NCAA, the other by the United States Tennis Assn.

The NCAA rule says, in essence, players cannot receive more expense money than they would receive as prize money for a first-round loss.

The USTA says amateur players can receive expense money for as many rounds as they stay alive in a professional tournament, as long as the money is documented.

Many players, using the USTA rule, took expense money as they advanced through professional tournaments.

So why didn’t the schools’ compliance officers, whose job it is to know the NCAA rules, ever realize what was going on?

“I don’t think it was a question of people not knowing about the NCAA rule,” said Judith Holland, UCLA associate athletic director. “(Administrators) didn’t know that tennis tournaments were being run in that fashion.”

But coaches knew, and they ignored it.

“Everybody did,” said Bill Zaima, UCLA women’s tennis coach. “It has always been an issue that I think a lot of people were wondering when it was going to come up.”

Said Dick Leach, USC men’s coach: “Since no one said anything, they just didn’t worry about it.”

But sweeping it under the rug didn’t make it go away, and now college tennis is dealing with a monster.

The top-ranked USC men’s team, which declared four players ineligible last week, had to default against UCLA last Friday. It also defaulted against UC San Diego on Monday. The players--Wayne Black, Jon Leach, Lukas Hovorka and Brett Hansen--are expected to have their eligibility restored in time for Friday’s match against Stanford.

Two players on the 15th-ranked USC women’s team also are being investigated.

At UCLA, two members of the 12th-ranked men’s team, Robert Janecek and Sebastien LeBlanc, were declared ineligible last week for two matches. All six starters on the eighth-ranked UCLA women’s team are being investigated.

Michael Zapolski, Pepperdine’s sports information director, said Pepperdine has not received any letters of inquiry from the NCAA concerning any of the school’s tennis players.

But for those who are affected, the problem could not have come at a worse time--heading into the NCAA tournaments next month.

The UCLA men’s team, for instance, was a marginal candidate to receive one of eight automatic berths to the NCAA men’s tournament at Notre Dame in late May. A legitimate victory over USC would have helped the Bruins’ chances. The NCAA might not look kindly on UCLA’s default victory over USC.

In that case, UCLA would have to play in the West Regional qualifying tournament.

And no matter how the problem is ultimately resolved--many coaches are calling for the NCAA rule to be changed--any records set this season probably will have asterisks next to them.

The situation leaves many questions. Among the most disturbing:

--Considering the implications of declaring so many players ineligible, why didn’t the NCAA form a plan of action before beginning its inquiry?

--Why is the NCAA leaving it to the individual schools to investigate this problem when the schools have covered it up for so long?

Notes

After winning the NCAA West Regional at Boise State on Saturday, the UCLA women’s gymnastics team heads into the NCAA meet April 21-23 at Utah. . . . The UCLA men’s gymnastics team placed fourth in the NCAA West Regional at Colorado Springs, Colo., on Saturday, failing to advance to the NCAA team championships at Nebraska April 22-23. Six men did qualify to compete as individuals. . . . UCLA will play host to the Pacific 10 Conference women’s golf tournament April 25-27 at the Brentwood Country Club.