Study Discovers NCAA Is Quite a Money Machine

The NCAA does not pay state or federal income taxes because it claims nonprofit status while working to “maintain a balance between intercollegiate athletics and academics.”

Yet the ruling body of college sports could teach its professional counterparts a few lessons in the art of making a buck off the blood and sweat of athletes.

The Kansas City Star, kicking off a six-part series after an 18-month investigative study, said in today’s editions that in the last 23 years the NCAA’s total revenues have increased almost 8,000%, and the NCAA’s $1.7-billion contract with CBS for rights to the Division I basketball tournament is bigger than any single professional sports league deal with any network.

According to research by Notre Dame economist Richard G. Sheehan, at least three college football teams--Michigan, Florida and Notre Dame--are each worth more than the NFL’s Detroit Lions.

The NCAA, however, refuses to let most athletes receive anything more than the estimated cost of attending their school. Any young athlete caught taking gifts or money risks being kicked off the team. But the Star found that an association that punishes young athletes for accepting gifts puts no such restrictions on itself.

For example, the manual for cities holding the Final Four requires a series of gifts to be delivered every night to the hotel rooms of NCAA officials. These mementos cost Indianapolis an estimated $25,000, said John Parry, athletic director at Butler University. At a minimum, gifts for each official included a Samsonite suit bag, a Final Four ticket embedded in Lucite, a Limoges porcelain basketball and Steuben glass.

“Money drives it,” says Tom McMillen, formerly a college athlete, congressman and member of the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, which attempted to reform college sports. “Greed drives it.”

Said NCAA executive director Cedric Dempsey, “I don’t see that we are money-hungry.”

The newspaper said sports generate almost $2 billion in annual revenue--twice the money that the Department of Defense pays colleges for research--just for Division I schools (the top 305).

And in Division I-A--the 100-plus power schools that control the NCAA--the average college makes more than $4 million annually on football and men’s basketball.

Tennis

Two of the hardest servers in tennis, Greg Rusedski and Mark Philippoussis, won semifinal-round matches in the Swiss Indoors at Basel, Switzerland.

Rusedski, seeded fourth, scraped past seventh-seeded Petr Korda, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 7-5.

Philippoussis spoiled what would have been an all-British final today when he beat Tim Henman, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.

Sixth-seeded Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia advanced to his first ATP Tour final, stunning top-seeded Alex Corretja of Spain, 6-4, 6-4, at the $303,000 International Championship of Sicily.

Hrbaty, 19, will take on second-seeded Alberto Berasategui of Spain in today’s final. Berasategui, the 1994 champion, beat unseeded countryman Javier Sanchez, 6-2, 6-3, to reach his second final this year.

Victories by Mary Pierce and Sandrine Testud gave France a commanding 2-0 lead over the Netherlands in the Fed Cup at Den Bosch, Netherlands.

Pierce defeated Miriam Oremans, 6-4, 6-1, after Testud downed Brenda Schultz-McCarthy, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, before 7,000 at Brabant Hall.

Top-seeded Jim Courier overpowered Sweden’s Thomas Johansson, 6-3, 6-4, in the semifinals of the China Open at Beijing and will face another Swede, Magnus Gustafsson, in the final today.

The fifth-seeded Gustafsson advanced with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Denmark’s Kenneth Carlsen in the other semifinal.

Boxing

Dariusz Michalczewski of Germany defended his World Boxing Organization light-heavyweight title by flooring Nicky Piper three times before the Welsh challenger’s corner stopped the fight after seven rounds at Hanover, Germany.

Giovanni Parisi retained his WBO super-lightweight title when challenger Nigel Wenton did not answer the bell at the start of the eighth round at Vibo Valentia, Italy.

The 1988 Olympic gold medalist staggered his English challenger with a left hook near the end of the seventh round. The blow backed Wenton into a corner, and he dropped to one knee after Parisi landed a clean uppercut and a jab with his right hand.

Miscellany

The figure skating season opened with a team event featuring world champion Tara Lipinski and U.S. champ Todd Eldredge at Daytona Beach, Fla.

The combined men’s and dance team edged the women’s and pairs squad in the short program. The free skate will be held today and is worth two-thirds the total score.

The men-dance team jumped to a huge lead as Eldredge scored a perfect 6.0 on 13 of his 14 marks. The U.S. champion dance team of Elizabeth Punsalan and Jerod Swallow began the evening with a pair 6.0s.

The women’s-pairs team narrowed the margin created by Eldredge, as world silver medalist Michelle Kwan was awarded all 6.0s for her performance. Lipinski helped out by earning one 6.0 and eight 5.9s.

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Italian skier Stefania Belmondo, an Olympic and world cross country champion, asked for stiffer anti-doping control in her sport during the 1998 Winter Olympics scheduled Feb. 7-22 in Japan.

Under current rules between 20 to 30 skiers are picked at random to undergo blood tests before the start of races.

Kenya swept the top three places in the men’s World Half Marathon Championship, and Tegla Loroupe of Kenya won the women’s event at Kosice, Slovakia.

Shem Kororia won the men’s gold, beating Moses Tanui. Their times of 59 minutes 56 seconds and 59:58 marked the first time the top two finished under an hour in any half marathon.