NCAA, Brand Want to Remain ‘Flexible’

Some people have funny ways of helping out.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the NCAA took a backseat to no one in its efforts to help student-athletes retain some semblance of normalcy. The agency relaxed its “extra-benefit” rules so ballplayers who lost everything could accept money and meals from just about anyone -- including, get this: boosters! -- without documenting every donation in triplicate.

Those who don’t have classes to attend were assured they could continue to play, and even those who attend classes at a new school can continue to play for their original one. A quick visit to the NCAA’s Web site turned up nearly a dozen instances where rules covering financial aid, benefits and eligibility, recruiting and personnel, and playing and practice seasons have been eased so schools in New Orleans and across the Gulf Coast crippled by the storm can continue to put teams on the field.

It was, as athletes themselves like to say, “all good.”

Or at least it seemed that way until NCAA chief Myles Brand told an audience in Rhode Island on Tuesday that one rule would not be bent. That was the one requiring Division I basketball, football and hockey players to sit out one year if they transfer to another Division I school.

“I’m really surprised there’s any objection,” Brand said Thursday during a telephone interview while on a break from meetings. “We had several stories about trying to steal stars from schools, and in one instance -- it may be apocryphal -- trying to steal an entire team.

“To me, that’s like kicking somebody when they’re already down -- twice. Besides,” he added, “we’re going to be very flexible in cases where there are special circumstances.”

Exactly how flexible, though, will determine whether the NCAA’s decision to stand firm on one rule while playing fast and loose with so many others was a wise choice. And this much is true either way: A man in Brand’s job should always choose his words carefully.

What he said to his audience about poaching on Tuesday was this: “Let me call that athletic looting, to be provocative,” said Brand, no stranger to provocation, since he used to be Bobby Knight’s boss at Indiana, “and we won’t stand for that.”

And just like that, all the goodwill flowing to the NCAA for its sensible, compassionate response weeks earlier, dried up.

On its face, Brand’s decision seemed not just wrong-headed, but greedy. It makes infinitely more sense, after all, to go after the coaches trying to steal players and punish them -- there are already rules on the NCAA books covering that situation -- instead of going after players who legitimately seek transfers to be close to home, or those few who actually take the student-athlete paradigm seriously.

But worse than that was the appearance that the NCAA was looking out for itself by making sure its two big moneymaking sports, basketball and football, suffered as few disruptions as possible.

Division I athletes in every other sport, after all, will still be allowed to transfer into another Division I program and play immediately. All they need is a release from their original school. And considering how little revenue is at stake in college golf, tennis, gymnastics, lacrosse, and so forth, few requests for a release go begging for a signature.

Even worse, perhaps, is that any of those coaches who might be poaching are free to skip out on their contract at one school, no matter how many years are left on the deal, and sign a new one at another school without missing a beat.

“I don’t like that, either,” Brand said, “but it’s a different situation and something we can talk about at the proper time and place. There are rules covering both situations, and whether justified or not, we have to address things according to their priority, and ‘poaching’ is an immediate threat.

“So let me say it again,” he said. “There’s no question we’re prepared to be flexible in individual cases and grant waivers.”

Here’s hoping the NCAA does a better job of picking its way through this mess than it did just six weeks ago, when the agency put 18 schools on notice that it would bar any athletic program with an American Indian nickname or logo considered racially or ethnically “hostile” or “abusive” from using them in postseason events.

The NCAA is still digging out from the heap of scorn that one inspired, and under threat of lawsuits, it has been handing out waivers ever since. For all the sensible things the agency has already done, and would like to do as the aftershock from Hurricane Katrina spreads across the sports landscape, it’s worth remembering that plenty of roads are littered with good intentions.