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player ready...THE 79TH ANNUAL NCAA convention opens in Nashville Monday and is predicted to be as laidback as a country ballad. The main reason is that athletic directors and faculty representatives have been busy sorting out the mess created by the judicial edict severing college football telecasts from the NCAA`s control and have had little time to concentrate on much else. As Notre Dame athletic director Gene Corrigan says, ”Everyone`s been so occupied with television that a lot of issues won`t get big until we`re down there.”
DRUG BUST
ONE CONVENTION topic that could provide fodder for many a country tune is Proposition 75, which deals with drug usage. It calls for establishing a drug- testing program at collegiate championships, penalizing coaches who know of athletes using drugs but don`t report it, asking athletes to sign a statement disavowing drug usage and stripping an athlete of his eligibility if he`s found using a banned substance. Many find the amendment laudable, but question its impact on student rights and fear it could result in lawsuits.
”The amendment is quite specific, and some institutions might think it may deny the possibility of counseling,” says Illinois faculty representative Alyce Cheska. ”It makes it hard to allow for individual cases. In USA Today, there was recently an article saying that over 60 percent of high school students have tried drugs. That`s a large majority. If one of these youngsters was in an athletic program and having trouble, the reporting procedure in the proposed amendment may make it difficult to provide help.”
Last year, Purdue adopted a voluntary drug-testing program that was formulated with the help of the university`s legal staff to be sure the rights of athletes were protected. The program combines counseling by the university medical staff with urinalysis done on the campus. ”It`s working pretty well,” says Gil Banker, faculty representative for the Boilermakers. ”The vast majority of our athletes have volunteered for it, and we haven`t found a lot of problems. We found a very low incidence of drug abuse among our football players this past season.”
Postscript: Chicago`s Bob Goldman, author of a book that details the grisly consequences of drug usage in sports, says he has called the NCAA to offer his assistance in setting up a drug-testing program. ”If proper procedures are ensured, there`s no lawsuit,” says Goldman. ”But if they go with the home (administered) test that they`re using at some colleges–those are about as accurate as spit in the air–then you have problems. That`s why I hope they do it in a proper way, and I`m sure they will. I think it`s very courageous of them to do this. It`s not a solution, but it`s the first step in setting up a program.” Goldman says a program for mass testing would cost about $50 a sample, and although that`s a great reduction from costs in years past when the cost of the test ran to $400 a sample, the price of testing all the athletes at an institution may cause a lot of schools to shy away.
STICKS AND STONES
PEOPLE IN BIG 10 circles have sniped about Illinois–publicly–and Illinois hasn`t appreciated it. The school complained to the conference, and now the Big 10`s compliance committee has taken action. ”We developed a monitoring program which we would work out with the NCAA,” says Robert Stein, Minnesota`s faculty representative, describing a Big 10 program that keeps an eye on Illinois to make sure it`s following NCAA rules and regulations. ”The people at the universities know about this, and presumably they`ve advised their coaches, who had spoken out clearly (against Illinois). We thought those were the people who had to know.”
AND FINALLY
INDIANA UNIVERSITY president John Ryan heads the NCAA presidents commission, which seeks to define the role of the president in intercollegiate athletics and which was created after last year`s convention. Says one faculty rep, who thinks the issue will re-emerge in Nashville: ”That remains such a hot one because you`ve got so many egos involved. The whole (NCAA)
organization has always operated on the principle of faculty control.”