The NCAA March 23,1983, Volume 20 Number 12 Official Publication of the National Collegiate Athletic Association A ste back Testimony heard into Kis tory on Specter bill NCAA President John L. Toner last have the right to sign a professional of basketball week told the U.S. Senate Judiciary contract during his undergraduate Women’s basketball returns to the Committee that “the present number career if it is in his own long-term, best Gay ’90s this week with a series of of student-athletes who are tempted to interest to do so.” events in Northampton and sign [professional contracts] prema- When questioned about the NCAA Springfield, Massachusetts, corn- turely does not warrant the adoption of rule declaring a student ineligible if he memorating the sport’s 90th annivcr- a national policy to prevent an individ- hires a lawyer-agent to look out for his sary. ual from having that choice. ” best interests, Toner said, “There is no The first recorded women’s bas- Toner was among several members gray area between eligible and ineligi- ketball game was played March 22, of the collegiate sports community ble.” 1893, in Northampton. The Smith who testified concerning a bill to grant Toner told the committee that the College freshmen defeated the soph- a limited antitrust exemption allowing See Tesrimony, page I2 omores, S-4. in a game that was professional leagues to adopt rules closed to men (the bloomers and against the signing of underclassmen long-sleeved blouses were consid- without the threat of being sued by the Compliance ered too risque). player. Players from Smith and Wellesley The legislation was sponsored by with-policy reenacted that first game last night in Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Northampton, and another reenact- Republican, after the United States ment will be staged Saturday Football Lcaguc signed Hcrschcl encouraged between halves of the 1983 NCAA Walker of the Umvcrsity of Gcorgla to Division II Women’s Basketball a professlonal contract while he had Member institutiom are encouraged Championship in Springfield. one year of college eligibility remain- by the NCAA Administrative Corn- Smith coach Jim Babyak has mg. mittee to comply with the provisions reconstructed the game from news- University of Michigan football of new Rccommcnded Policy 13, as paper accounts. Besides squeezing coach Bo Schembechler and Pennsyl- adopted by the membership (Proposal 18 players onto a 7O-foot by 35-foot vania State University football coach No. 85) at the I983 NCAA Conven- court, the early rules also called for Joe Paterno testified in favor of the tion. no dribbling, a point for each basket bill. The new policy urges members to See A uep. page I2 Toner told the committee the NCAA identify an institutional staff member bclicvcs that “a student-athlctc should to be responsible for coordinating the 0 application of NCAA rules to the insti- tution’s athletic program. It was spon- sored by the NCAA Council in an Rules or not, scoring shows increase attempt to control the rapidly increas- - ing number of contacts with the NCAA By James M. Van Valkenburg played Division I teams, and the over last season and I .X6 above the increased without the three-pointers. national office for rules interpretations NCAA Director of Statistic5 maJors annually win close to 90 per- national offcnsivc average ot 70.03. As it is, the national average through and other legislative services. cent of nearly 600 games with nonma- The rest of the nation avcragcd 68.82 the regular season is 47.66 percent, It now is obvious that a national “Some institutions already have jors. often by wide margins. offensively, up 0.34 point5 per game. compared to the final 1982 figure of scoring increase would have come this identified in writing the individual on The I2 experimental conferences National field-goal shooting accu- 47.91 percent, down slightly from the season in Division I basketball, the campus who will serve in this combined averaged 7 I 89 offensively, racy dcclincd a second consecutive record 47.97 pcrccnt in 1981. regardless of the experimental rules. capacity.” according to Stephen R. an increase of 4. I2 points per game season, but it is likely it would have The I2 conferences-I08 teams in SeeRules, page 3 Morgan, director of legislative scrv- all-using cithcr the three-point goal ices. or shot clock, or both, simply have “In addition. we are monitoring the made the scoring increase a little calls we receive from each institution larger. and sending lcttcrs to the institution in The scoring increase reverses a cases where we continue to take calls seven-year downward trend. The fig from several dltfcrcnt campus person- ures are through the regular season, nel, including coaches.” but the increase will hold up despite The Council decided to submit the the much lower scoring in the NCAA recommended policy after reviewing tournament, where defense has taken the significant increase in calls and let- charge. More about that later. ters to the national office seeking The semifinal national trends com- assistance in applying NCAA legisla- piled by NCAA Statistics Service tion. The Council noted that individ- show that national scoring has reached uals at member institutions apparently 138.61 points per game (both teams were bypassing their normal campus combined, all 7,485 regular-season and conference channels and contact- games involving at lcast one of the 274 ing the national office directly. Division I teams), and this does “WC are studying additional ways include all three-point field goals. This to encourage Institutions to comply is an increase of 3.53 points per game with this policy.” Morgan said, “and over the final I982 average of the Administrative Committee has I35 .O8--lowest in 30 years. directed us to contact all allied confcr- This breaks down to I41 I8 for the ences in this regard. While a rccom- I08 experimental teams and 136.93 mended policy does not constitute for the 166 teams (60.6 percent of enforceable leplslation. WC will be Division I) using the same old rules able to serve all members more effi- under which the college game has ciently if the new policy is imple- reached unprcccdcntcd heights of pop- mented.” ularity Interestingly, if all three-point goals In the News wcrc counted as two points, the national scoring average would be Letters to the Editor . .2 137.56. and this would break down to Championships results in Division III 138.65 tor the experimental teams and men’s and women’s basketball. .4 136.X5 for those using the same old rules. Obviously, a scormg incrcasc Championships results in Division I was coming rcgardlcss of any rules women’s swimming and diving .5 changes. Championships results in Division II It is important to note that the men’s ice hockey . .6 national scoring average of 138.61 breaks down to 70.03 oftenslvely for Moore not enough Championships results in men’s and Division I teams and 68.58 defen- women’s rifle .7 sively. The figure is not simply Jackie Moore (20) of Knoxville College drives to the basket against Brenda Sunder (30) and Camie Women’s basketball celebrates 90th divided in two because it includes the LoudenbeckofNotth Central in Division Ill pluy-ofluction. North Central went on to win the champ- anniversary . .9 scoring by non-Division I teams that ionship Story on page 4 2 March Z&1983 t The NCAA Cofnfnent College coaches face tremendous pressure By George White will contain a clause that the coach can be fired if he breaks the by doling out the tiniest of portions to the smaller schools. The HoustonChronicle recruiting rules. CFA would further benefit by setting up a television program out- This must be the price we’ve got to pay for living in a society Admittedly, the rule contains too many “ifs,” “maybcs” and side the limitations of the NCAA. Two schools, Oklahoma and where man’s No. I motivator is greed. If it’s not six inches long, “shalls” to have a lot of bite. Still, the intent is clear And. at la\t. Gcorgla, have gone to such hmits as suing for the right to cut their green and decorated with a picture of George Washington, it’s not the coaches arc making an attempt to include the school’s admin- own television deals. worth discussing. istratlon in the effort to mop up. It is hoped that the administrators With such a shameless race for more revenue, it hardly is sur- The lcarncd types remind us that sports merely mirror the soci- will accept part of the blame along with the coaching staff, said prising that the coach finds himself under enormous pressure to do ety that spawns them. This, then, is where we find our pastimes University of Houston coach Bill Yeoman. whatever it takes to win. If he is consistently successful, his today-in a mess. “1 think it’s an attempt to make university presidents more annual income easily can outdistance the salaries of his pro coun- At the bottom level, a preteen in Alief, Texas, is the subject of responsible. A coach doesn’t always know what’s going on. I terpart. If he fails, though, he will be fired. a fierce tug-of-war between two rival midget-league football I I Forget the Pollyanna theory that the college experience should teams, one finally suing to retain the “rights” to the youngster. At be an education, and the coach should prepare the youth for man- the high school Icvcl, a small, though growing, number of hood as well as for the pros.