The NCAA July l&1984, Volume 21 Number 27 Offkial Publication of the ational Collegiate Athletic Association 64-team limit requested for basketball play-offs A minimum five-year cap on a 64-team bracket, wtth no and Trans America Athletic Conferences will be shifted to the more than 30 automatically qualifying conferences, was Southeast region, and the Southwestern Athletic Conference among the recommendations adopted last week by the NCAA will move to the Midwest region. The Southeast, formerly Division 1 Men’s Basketball Committee. designated the Mideast, also picked up the Mid-Eastern The committee met July 8- I2 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Athletic and Southern Conferences from the East. and its recommendations will be considered by the Executive The moves will give the regions the followmg number 01 Committee, which meets in August. institutions; West, 65 (previously46): Southeast, 65 (previously Expansion to a 64-team bracket for the 1985 NCAA 67); Midwest, 63 (previously 64). and East, 7X (previously 94). Division I Men’s Basketball Championship already has been Sites for 1986 first- and second-round and regional play David H. Cavitt. chair. approved by the Executive Committee. A total of 53 teams were announced by the committee as follows: East-first and NCAA DiGsion I Men ‘s participated in the 1984 championship, including champions second rounds at Greensboro, North Carolina (March I3 and Basketboll Committee. of 29 automatic-qualifying conferences. The same 29 confer- IS), and Syracuse, New York (March I4 and 16); regional at and Big Ifust Conference ences have been recommended for automatic qualificatton East Rutherford, New Jersey (March 21 and 23). Southcast- commissioner next year. first and second rounds at Baton Rouge, Louistana (March I3 If the cap is approved by the Fxecutive Committee, the and IS), and Charlotte, North Carolina (March 14 and 16); 64-team field would remain a maximum through the 1989 regional at Atlanta, Georgia (March 20 and 22). Midwest tournament. One additional automatic qualifter would be first and second rounds at Dayton, Ohio (March I3 and 15) permitted. and Minneapolis, Minnesota (March 14 and 16); regional at Kansas City, Missouri (March 21 and 23). West- ~first and In othercommittee action, Seattle, Washington, was recom- second rounds at Ogden. Utah (March I3 and IS), and mended as the site for the 1989 Final Four April I and 3 and Tucson, Arizona (March I4 and 16); regional at Houston, Denver, Colorado, will serve as host for the 1990 national Texas (March 20 and 22). regional semifinal and final losers, and $648,630 for Final semifinals and championship March 3 I and April 2. Seattle The committee also reviewed the financtal report on the Four participants. hosted this year’s Final Four, while Denver has never been a 1984 championship and recommended a new financial drs- Other committee recommendations included a per diem championship site. tribution for 1985. Under the proposed distribution system. 60 increase from $70 to $100 and an increase in the size of the “They both were outstanding,” said David R. Gavitt, percent of the net receipts would continue to he distributed to official party from 22 to 30. In recommending the increased committee chair. “Both answered all the specifics and there the participating institutions (40 percent to the NCAA). per diem, the committee cited the more frequent use of big-city was a lot of enthusiasm. We just felt there was no reason to Distribution units, however, would he based on a five-tier sites for championship play and the corresponding increase in choose between them and make one come back and do this all system rather than the current three-tier approach. expenses. over again.” Projected 1985 distributions under the new system are The committee also voted to support funding for the The committee also made several adjustments in its regional $147,600 for the 32 first-round losers (two units), $295,200 for development of a video presentation that would complement alignments. designed to improve regional representation and the I6 second-round losers (three units), $442,700 for the eight the booklet “A Career in Professional Sports: Guidelines That equalize the number of institutions in each region. regional semifinal losers (five units), $590,300 for four regional Make Dollars and Sense.” The videotape would include The Southwest Athletic and Southland Conferences will be fmal losers (six units) and $737,900 for Final Four teams information on professional athletics careers and the selection added to the West region next year. Both had been in the (eight umts). of honest and competent player-agent reprcsentatton. The Midwest, which added the Big Ten and Mid-American Distributions from the 19X4 championship werrt: %162,15X concept for the tape was dcvcloped by the NCAA Special Athletic Conferences. The Metropolitan Collegiate Athletic (two units) for first- and second-round losers. $4186,472 for Committee on Player Agents. 40-feam play-off College football TV in disarray sought by women as groups scramble for contracts College football televtston was rn NCAA should not be allowed to Otis A. Singletary, president of the A plan to expand the Division disarray this week as individual have any TV plan, because they were University of Kentucky. 1 Women’s Basketball Champion- colleges, athletics conferences and Judged guilty of using the power of Singletary, the third CFA president ship field to 40 teams and a site- loosely organized groupings of col- the NCAA to monopolize.” (and the third from the Southeastern selection policy for first-round leges proceeded to negotiate for 1984 The only plan presented to the Conference, following Fred C. Davi- games were approved by the television rights with individual sta- July IO meeting was a national tele- son of the University of Georgia and NCAA Division 1 Women’s Bas- tions, regional syndicators and na- vision program recommended by Joah L. Thomas of the University of ketball Commrttee at its July 8- tional networks in what was described the NCAA Football Television Corn- Alabama, Tuscaloosa) told the Asso- I2 meeting in Colorado Springs. as a buyer’s market. mittcc. Opponents argued that the ciated Press: Both recommendations will he In the wake of the U.S. Supreme pending inJunctton of Federal Judge “Don’t misread the vote. It’s not submitted to the Executrve Com- Court’s June 27 deciston striking Juan C. Burciagacould not be modi- anti-NCAA. What it shows is that mittee, which will meet August down the 1982-1985 NCAA Football fied in time to permit an NCAA plan there was uncertainty and pressure 13-14 in Monterey, California. Television Plan and the Association’s to operate for I984 and urged support because the NCAA would have had The addition of eight teams to contracts with ABC, CBS and ESPN, for a College Football Association to go back to court to get it approved the champtonship bracket would any hope of unified action among plan, which Muchmorc and the plain and the opening game is only six allow a berth next year for all 25 the Division I-A football-playing tills apparently bcltcvcd would meet weeks off.” Division I conferences that applied members of the NCAA quickly dissi- the trial court’s ultimate inlunctive The CFA, reportedly with support for automaticqualification in the pated when the plaintiffs in the orig- decision or at least could operate in from an estimated 60 members, was I985 championship. Seventeen inal lawsuit, the Universities of 19X4 before being outlawed by sub- proceeding this week to market its conferences received automatic Georgia and Oklahoma, and thcrr sequent court decision. plan, and the Big Ten and Pacific- IO berths in 19X4. lawyer refused tojoin with the NCAA Bryan Gregory, legal counsel for Conferences, in a joint effort Thecommittee, chaired by Nora in agreeing upon a modification of the Big Ten Conference, disagreed, approved by the chief executive Lynn Finch, North Carolina State the trial court’s outstanding injunc stating that the plan of the CFA was officers of the two conferences, also Nora Lynn Finch Universrty, discussed format tion, even though the injunction not legal at the present time under were in negotiation with the national changes that would be necessitated four eight-team regionals at pre- clearly had been modified signifi- the outstandmg injunction. Attorneys networks this week. Both CBS and by a 40-tram field. However, the determined sites. cantly by the rulings of the 10th for the Atlantic Coast Conference ABC indicated interest in putting committee will not recommend a Another possibility would he Circuit Court of Appeals and the and the Pacific-IO Conference and together national packages, whereas spectfic format until the Executive to play I6 first-round games at Supreme Court. some institutional attorneys reported NBC, due to extensive fall baseball Committee acts on the expansion on-campus sites and then go to The plaintiffs’ attorney, Clyde ly sided with this view. commttments, said it would be request and until 1984 tournament four eight-team rcgionals at pre- Muchmore of Oklahoma City, The special Division I football interested in some games hut not in a financial reports are examined determined sites. Under this declared that it was the intention of television meeting, in a roll-call vote season-long package. more closely. format, the top two seeds m each his clients to ask the trtal court to July IO, defeated the proposed NCAA Meanwhile, the Southeastern Con- One of the proposed formats region would receive first-round “fenceout”the NCAA organtzational plan, 66 to 44, with one abstention. ference, considered to be in a strong for a 40-team field next year byes. structure from further college football What appears to bc a widely accepted position to act independently, was in would include eight first-round Site-selection criteria for first- television activities for violations of assessment of that vote came from discussions with Turner Broadcasting games to be played March 13-14 round games would be clarified, the antitrust laws.