NCAA mends rules
Student-athletes to see financial incentives

By Matt Stiver
Skiff Staff

With college athletes defecting to the professional ranks in record numbers, the NCAA Management Council approved rule changes Tuesday night that will allow athletes in certain sports to benefit financially while enrolled in school.

Athletics Director Eric Hyman said the changes are reasonable.

“It’s a huge leap forward from these changes (to actually paying athletes),” Hyman said. “I don’t see that happening at all. They are all within the bounds and spirit of amateurism. Ultimately, a balance must be struck between the classroom and the athletic field. These rules don’t upset that balance.”

The changes will allow current student-athletes to secure NCAA-sanctioned loans and disability insurance, conduct private lessons for compensation, enter professional drafts without losing eligibility and receive expanded Operation Gold, which allows athletes to earn award money based on place of finish in international events, such as the Olympics. The council also approved legislation further regulations on men’s and women’s basketball.

The rule changes will now face the NCAA General Assembly in October. If the assembly approves, the rules will become law.

In addition, the management council also approved rules affecting “pre-enrolled” high school students that will be subject to a 90-day review period. The pending legislation would allow athletes to compete in athletic events with professionals, sign contracts and accept prize money without losing NCAA eligibility.

“There must be strong concerns, otherwise they would have passed by now,” Hyman said.

The loan, lesson and draft rule changes potentially will have the greatest impact on collegiate athletics, which for more than a century has triumphed the virtues of the amateur athlete.

The NCAA approved a program under which certain athletes could secure as much as $20,000 in loans based on “potential earnings” and expanded an existing program, allowing athletes to take out insurance policies against injury their senior year. Under the new rule, athletes no longer must pay the premiums of their insurance policies. To qualify for the loan, the athlete would also have to take disability insurance in the event that injury hinders repayment. Both changes would take effect August 1, 2002.

Marc Evans, director of compliance, said the athletes would file loan applications with their university’s compliance office, which would then file with the NCAA. Football and hockey athletes deemed at least third-round draft picks (first round picks in men’s basketball and baseball), and thus having earning potential, would be granted approval.

Though the NCAA will have to specify how the athletes’ potential is judged, Evans said it would be similar to the NCAA board, whichevaluates disability insurance claims and consists of professional scouts and general managers.

Evans said the rule attempts to reduce the influence of agents and boosters on athletes.

“The thinking behind this legislation is that if athletes get a little extra money, they won’t sign early with agents and accept other endorsements,” Evans said. “The rule is trying to protect the athletes from people who come (to campus) and are not supposed to be here.”

TCU head men’s basketball coach Billy Tubbs laughed at the NCAA’s notion that the program would encourage students to remain in school.

“(The NCAA) is doing nothing to keep kids in school,” Tubbs said. “It’s a dream world. If I offered you $20,000 that you had to pay back and $2 million that was yours, what would you take?”

Tubbs raised the example of former TCU basketball player Lee Nailon, who many claimed a “sure first-rounder” in 1999. Nailon went in the second round.

“Would he have to pay back the money?” Tubbs asked. “What would they do? It’s all a mess.”

The NCAA also approved a program that would allow athletes to earn compensation for private lessons, previously a violation of self-employment rules. The program would begin August 1, 2001.

Hyman and Evans said the lesson rule would only apply to athletes in golf and tennis. Calls placed to the NCAA were not returned. The actual rule change document, obtained from (www.ncaa.org), did not specifically limit the rule to golf and tennis, nor did it exclude other sports.

Evans said the payment schedule for such lessons would be based on an average of the current rate for private lessons in that particular sport. The NCAA set a $2,000 limit for each academic year.

In a statement on its Web site, the NCAA said “student-athletes should have the opportunity to earn money.”

The amendment excludes athletes from using university facilities.

Both Hyman and Evans said a system for billing would have to be developed to ensure compliance and prevent fraud.

“We have to make sure kids aren’t being paid $5,000 to wash cars,” Hyman said.

Men’s golf coach Bill Montigel said he was shocked when he learned of the rule.

“Tiger Wood’s coach charges $1,000 an hour, so who’s to say what’s the going rate,” Montigel said. “If one of my golfers is a talented instructor, can he charge $500? There are a lot of alumni with a lot of money. They’re opening up a can of worms.”

Montigel said he will look for a ruling from the United States Golf Association, which determines “amateur” and “professional” status.

“I always thought you couldn’t give lessons and be an amateur,” Montigel said. “We’ll have to wait and see what the USGA decides.”

The NCAA also agreed to allow athletes who enter professional drafts to retain their collegiate eligibility. If approved, the draft amendment would take effect August 1, 2001.

Tubbs said this decision is a mistake.

“I think once a guy signs a contract and takes money from a professional team, he should lose his eligibility,” Tubbs said.

The council also approved rule changes affecting only men’s and women’s basketball. The changes will affect scholarships, exempt tournaments and set a 29-game season length.

Tubbs blasted the new men’s basketball rules as a “big mistake.”

“The NCAA is taking its $1 billion industry and continues to degrade and slap it in the face,” Tubbs said. “The rules we have are bad enough already.”

Beginning August 2003, teams with a graduation rate less than 50 percent will drop from 13 scholarships to 12.

Current NCAA standards for graduation allow six years from the time a student enrolls to earn a degree.

Preseason and single-elimination tournaments, which currently count as one game in the standings, will count as each game played.

Tubbs said making the tournaments non-exempt would cut down on the level of competition and force elite schools to “buy wins.”

“I could call (Syracuse head coach Jim) Boeheim and ask him if he wants to play a home and home, and you know what he’ll say? No,” Tubbs said. “In past years, we’ve played Connecticut, Auburn, Minnesota, Illinois and Syracuse, the kind of people we want to play (at tournaments). They don’t play us otherwise. The Dukes, the Kentuckys, the North Carolinas will schedule bottom Division I opponents.”

Asked whether the rule changes signaled a shift toward paying athletes, Tubbs mused on his own past. As an athlete at Lamar in the 1950s, Tubbs said that he received a stipend of $25 a month in addition to his full-tuition scholarship.
“I don’t see it happening,” Tubbs said. “Back then, there were maybe six sports. Now there are 14. Financially, it would be almost impossible. The face of athletics has changed.”

Matt Stiver
mrstiver@student.tcu.edu