NCAA Discovers Hidden Jewelry Is Piercing Issue

The NCAA is concerned about some, ah, loopholes, in its rules.

They involve body piercing.

Jewelry--rings, necklaces and earrings--has long been banned in most NCAA competition because of the risk of injury.

But what of tongue studs, navel rings, eyebrow loops, toe rings and nipple rings?

The unofficial policy as reported in the NCAA News: Don’t ask, don’t tell.

One softball coach didn’t know a player had a tongue stud until she saw the athlete receiving treatment on her tongue from a trainer.

The start of one volleyball match was delayed after an official noticed a player wearing an eyebrow loop, and women’s basketball players have been known to tell officials their opponents are wearing tongue studs.

It’s a matter of enforcing the obvious without conducting a search for hidden piercings, said Cliff McCrath, secretary-rules editor for the NCAA soccer rules committee.

“We’re not going to make a rule that says everyone has to stick their tongues out,” he said.

“In fact, we have a rule now that says if you do that, you get a red card.”

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Trivia time: What event on Sept. 7, 1979, has had an unanticipated impact on the world of sports over the last 20 years?

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Big chicken: Lou Holtz has been greeted with great enthusiasm at South Carolina--though it figures to calm considerably by the time the Gamecocks, who were 1-10 last season, play defending national champion Tennessee on Oct. 30.

About 1,200 women turned out to hear the former Notre Dame coach speak at South Carolina’s annual women’s football clinic.

And at the Southeastern Conference’s media day in Birmingham, Ala., a horde of photographers clamored for position before Holtz stepped to the mike.

“That was unbelievable,” Holtz told the (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper. “I thought somebody had found out something about my past.”

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A donor’s story: After it was reported that Sean Elliott of the San Antonio Spurs needs a kidney transplant, Tom Sorensen of the Charlotte Observer revealed he had donated a kidney to his brother, Pete.

“Pete got lucky, since such compatibility is rare. I got lucky, too. Most of us want to do something to make us feel noble, to give us something to cling to when we wake up dissatisfied and sad at 3:30 a.m. Now I would have something.”

Thirteen years later, Sorensen’s brother is living a healthy, active life.

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Trivia answer: The debut of the all-sports channel, ESPN.

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And finally: ESPN’s ranking of the top 50 athletes of the 20th century has prompted plenty of debate.

Pete Sampras, ranked 48th, was relieved to be ahead of O.J. Simpson but had a question for ESPN’s Dan Patrick about No. 35 Secretariat: “How could a horse be ahead of me?”

Patrick’s retort: “Why don’t you try carrying [Andre] Agassi on your back and play a match, and then you’ll get an idea what Secretariat did.”