Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained in Meetings

The likelihood of a Division I-A football playoff went neither forward nor backward Thursday. Instead, the NCAA Special Committee appointed to examine the feasibility of a championship was stuck in neutral after the first of two days of meetings.

“We still got a lot of work to do,” said committee member Chris Plonsky, University of Texas associate director of athletics.

Asked if the 24-person committee, chaired by UCLA Chancellor Charles Young, would be ready to vote on a recommendation by the end of today’s session, Plonsky said, “I don’t know. That’s a real good question.”

During the Thursday dinner break, Young said he would not steer the committee toward a forced vote.

“I think the committee will know when it’s ready to do something,” he said.

The options:

--The committee could recommend a specific playoff plan and write proposed legislation for the January NCAA convention.

--It could vote against a Division I-A football championship scheme.

--It could do nothing and meet again, presumably before month’s end, when the powerful Presidents Commission convenes. At that point, the Special Committee also could recommend to table the proposal until the 1996 convention.

“We’ll just see,” Young said. “It may take a little time, or a lot.”

Meanwhile, in Destin, Fla., the Southeastern Conference used its annual spring meetings as a sounding board against a playoff system, voting, 12-0, to oppose any proposal to adopt one.

Thursday’s sessions here included reports from the Structure, Student-Athlete and Revenue Sharing subcommittees. Also, issues remaining from Special Committee meetings in May were discussed, but not always resolved.

“I can only speak for me, but (on) some of the issues I feel the same, others I’ve changed my mind,” said Florida State linebacker Derrick Brooks, one of three student-athletes on the committee.

Brooks declined to comment on the specific issues, but it is safe to assume that the subject of financial compensation, as it relates to the NCAA football playoff pie, was discussed at length.

As for the most recent allegations leveled against his Seminole program--charges of booster-supplied loans and phony jobs--Brooks was equally reluctant to comment.

“The things happening with my school, I just hope we weather the storm. That’s all I have to say about it,” Brooks said.