NCAA to Examine Bowl Alliance System

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — With a nudge from the Western Athletic Conference, the soon-to-be-created NCAA Board of Directors will examine the current bowl alliance system but it is not expected that a playoff will emerge as a leading option.

Helping fuel the move, in part, was WAC discontent--upset over a complete snub of 10-2 Wyoming and that a 13-1 Brigham Young team was ignored by the alliance and passed over by the major bowl games. Last week, WAC’s Council of Presidents rejected a bowl alliance proposal that would have made its conference and three others signatory members, calling for limited revenue sharing.

“Our plan in November included some type of revenue distribution but the critical element was to play our way in,” said WAC Commissioner Karl Benson on Sunday. “To reach a certain minimum ranking and that would then take out the at-large berth. We proposed [No.] 12.

“They [the alliance] did not address that access issue [in their proposal] that we felt was so important. . . . We are hoping we can still impact immediate change through direct negotiation with the alliance, and long-term through the board of directors.”

The board of directors will begin work in March and will submit its findings in January 1998.

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One of the lead plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit against the NCAA was unable to appear at a news conference in Philadelphia.

The suit, filed Wednesday, charges that the minimum test score requirement in Proposition 16 discriminates against African American student-athletes, a violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Leatrice Shaw, a graduate of Philadelphia’s Simon Gratz High School, is now at the University of Miami but is not permitted to compete on the track team during her freshman year. Apparently compliance officials at the school felt that accepting a plane ticket to appear in front of the press might be an NCAA violation, according to Bob Schaeffer of FairTest, the Cambridge, Mass.-based national center for fair and open testing.

The lawsuit received backing last week in the form of an endorsement by the Black Coaches Assn. An initial court date has not been set for the request for an injunction against the NCAA. In a speech to the delegates on Sunday night, NCAA executive director Cedric W. Dempsey said that African American student-male athletes are graduating 10 percentage points higher than five years ago and that the increase is 13 percentage points higher among African American female student-athletes.

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Dempsey also urged the delegates to support Proposal 62, the one permitting student athletes to work under certain conditions, and Proposal 59, which allows some student athletes to participate in certain media activities such as writing and acting.

“I recognize this [Prop. 62] might bring some minor imbalance to that level playing field,” Dempsey said. “But within the parameters of the legislation, it addresses an important financial need for student-athletes.”

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Among the NCAA’s Top Eight award winners--which honors top student-athletes in 1996--were Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel of Florida, and Olympic swimming gold medalist Annette Salmeen of UCLA.

Salmeen, who won as a member of the 800-meter freestyle relay team, has not really suffered from a post-Olympic letdown, especially after winning a Rhodes Scholarship late last year. She will be heading to England in October, and may even swim at Oxford.

“They don’t have an organization like the NCAA, so graduate students can swim,” said Salmeen, who has not officially retired from competition.

In addition to her graduate work, Salmeen has been making speeches to school children. And the same questions almost always are asked. “They ask, ‘How deep is the pool, and if the medal is chocolate,” Salmeen said, laughing.

Also honored was Billy Payne, the president and chief executive officer of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. Payne was given the Theodore Roosevelt Award, an honor presented to a former college athlete who has exemplified the ideals and purposes of college athletics by showing continuing interest in sports.

Payne endorsed the United States’ pursuit of the 2008 Olympics.

“The Olympic Games escalate every time they come to the United States,” he said. “I think it’s important for cities in the United States but for the Olympic movement as well to return periodically to the United Sates. We won it on our first first bid. It is not reasonable to assume the next city will be as fortunate.

“We need to get in line, to establish a city, support that city, until ultimately it is the beneficiary of the games returning to the United States.