Appeals Court Decides NCAA Can Use Test Scores

A Philadelphia federal appeals court Wednesday reversed a lower-court ruling and decided that the NCAA may use minimum standardized test scores in determining the eligibility of freshman athletes.

But it did not disagree with the lower court’s ruling that the practice is discriminatory.

The lower court in March struck down the eligibility requirement, called Proposition 16, ruling that it was unfair to blacks. Four black athletes sued the association for not allowing them to play or denying them scholarships because their test scores were not high enough.

In a 2-1 opinion, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that since the NCAA did not directly receive federal funding, it was not subject to conform with Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that forbids discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin.

U.S. Circuit Judges Morton Greenberg and Walter Stapleton said the colleges, not the NCAA, are responsible for disbursing and using federal funds. Therefore, they deemed it unnecessary to address arguments that the NCAA’s eligibility requirements violate federal discrimination law.

“The ultimate decision as to which freshmen an institution will permit to participate in varsity intercollegiate athletics . . . belongs to the member schools,” the appeals court wrote.

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C.M. Newton will retire as Kentucky’s athletic director next summer. Newton, 69, was hired in 1989 in the midst of an NCAA investigation of recruiting violations in the Kentucky basketball program that led to probation.

Newton was the athletic director when Kentucky won NCAA basketball titles in 1996 and 1998. He hired Tubby Smith, the school’s first black basketball coach, and ran the NCAA tournament basketball committee from 1992-99.

Soccer

Newcastle United breezed into the fourth round of the English F.A. Cup with a 6-1 thrashing of Tottenham Hotspur at London. Also, Leicester defeated Hereford, 2-1, and the Blackburn Rovers beat West Bromwich, 2-0, after extra time to earn a visit to Liverpool. . . . Bayern Munich cruised through to the semifinals of the German Cup by crushing second division FSV Mainz, 3-0, at Berlin. Bayern now meets Hansa Rostock, which defeated VfB Stuttgart, 2-1, in the only quarterfinal clash between first division clubs.

For the sixth consecutive year, Brazil has won FIFA’s team-of-the-year award, given to the organization that tops FIFA’s rankings in December. Brazil had 839 points to the Czech Republic’s 774.

Chris Smith, Britain’s secretary of state responsible for sports, detailed a $760-million plan for London’s Wembley Stadium to be rebuilt as a soccer-only stadium and the centerpiece of England’s bid for the 2006 World Cup.

Miscellany

LaDainian Tomlinson ran for 124 yards and two touchdowns to lead Texas Christian to a 28-14 victory over 20th-ranked East Carolina in the inaugural Mobile Alabama Bowl at Mobile, Ala.

It was the second consecutive bowl upset for TCU (8-4), which knocked off heavily favored USC in last year’s Sun Bowl.

The Horned Frogs confused East Carolina (9-3) with a two-quarterback option attack and completely shut down the Pirates’ running game, holding them to minus-16 yards.

Christian Mayer of Austria, winning for the first time this season, was clocked in 2 minutes 25.83 seconds for two runs in winning a World Cup giant slalom at Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria. Teammate Hermann Maier, the World Cup overall leader, was timed in 2:26.13.

The Kentucky Racing Commission voted unanimously to ban the controversial thoroughbred racing practice known as “milkshaking,” which some research shows may mask the presence of illegal drugs in a horse’s system.

Milkshakes are a mixture of baking soda, confectioner’s sugar, water and sometimes electrolytes delivered to a horse’s stomach via a tube through the animal’s nose and esophagus. Some believe milkshaking reduces fatigue and helps speed recovery from the rigors of racing.

Three former East German swimming officials--Jargon Tanneberger, Egon Mueller and Wolfgang Richter--were convicted of causing bodily harm for their participation in the nation’s state-run drug system in women’s swimming from 1975 through 1989 and were sentenced to one year’s probation and ordered to pay $2,600 each to a charity for women in Berlin.

Tennis great Don Budge, in critical condition after a car accident Dec. 14, is on a ventilator but making progress, a spokesman for St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., said.

Tracy Stewart, the widow of golfer Payne Stewart, is writing his biography, targeted for a June release. Stewart and five others died in a plane crash Oct. 25.

Former USC fullback Kennedy Pola has been hired as the Trojan running backs coach.