NCAA Debates Basketball Issues

The room was in dire need of a jolt--at least those people not adequately caffeinated--and Roy Kramer, having heard enough rhetoric, provided that jump-start Monday at the NCAA convention.

His impassioned speech drew loud applause at the forum on the proposals from the Division I working group to study basketball issues. Kramer, the Southeastern Conference commissioner, wanted decisive action and didn’t seem to like what he was hearing.

“The issue will be whether we rearrange the chairs of the deck on the Titanic and let it sink anyway, or whether we do something about the ship,” Kramer said. “If we’re going to do something about the ship, we’re going to do something strong.

“I believe in all of these issues that are out there--and some of them are very strong and very good and very powerful. There are two [eliminating summer recruiting and limiting initial grants-in-aid] that will change the culture of college basketball. Now the question is: Do we have the guts to do it?”

Syracuse Chancellor Kenneth Shaw, chairman of the basketball issues working group, disputed the deck-chair analogy: “I think it was substantially overstated. We have dealt with every issue . . . out there.”

Among other things, Kramer endorsed an alternative conference proposal, 128-B, which would:

* Eliminate the summer evaluation period.

* Increase from 40 to 70 the number of recruiting days that may be used during the academic-year evaluation period.

* Permit coaching staffs to evaluate only basketball activities and events approved, sanctioned, sponsored or conducted by applicable state high school associations, national federation of state high school associations or national junior college athletic associations.

“I realize I’m in the vast minority here,” he said. “ . . . Eighty to 85% of all the violations we deal with in recruiting in college basketball start with the leeches and the parasites that have become a significant fabric of college basketball.

“If we have enough courage to do something, we eliminate summer recruiting, then we turn this sport around. Otherwise we just rearrange the chairs. The question is: Do we pass a group of meaningless pieces of legislation which will make us look good in USA Today or the Chronicle of Higher Education, or will we change the sport of college basketball?”

Outside the meeting room, Tennessee Athletic Director Doug Dickey told Kramer, “I like your style.”