NCAA panel to re-examine recruiting rules
Feb 13, 2004
"We say you can't have inappropriate
recruiting activities, but how exactly do you translate
that? That's the question we have to answer right now,"
Brand said.
Boston Globe
FORT WORTH, Texas -- To NCAA president Myles Brand,
one recruiting visit that includes nudity, sex or violence
is too many.
So with reports circulating that there's been far more
than just one, Brand responded Thursday by ordering
a task force to re-examine the organization's recruiting
rules.
"We say you can't have inappropriate recruiting
activities, but how exactly do you translate that? That's
the question we have to answer right now," Brand
said.
More specific rules also would make it easier for the
NCAA to punish such incidents. Brand indicated the penalties
could be severe.
"It could rise to the level of major infractions,
from the loss of scholarships to the loss of postseason
play," Brand said.
NCAA vice president David Berst, the group's former
head of enforcement, will lead the task force. He'll
have a panel of between eight and 13 members.
Brand wants a report in about 60 days, in time for
changes to be discussed at the NCAA convention in April.
He expects the new rules to be in place by next year's
recruiting season.
Brand said the NCAA's old way of doing things would've
taken more than a year. He proudly described this as
the swiftest response to any situation in his 13-month
tenure.
"It's what I want to do as president of the NCAA
when serious issues that affect student-athlete well-being
come up," Brand said. "This may not be the
last one I so approach. It's a different way of dealing
with issues than in the past."
In the most prominent recruiting scandal, three women
are suing the University of Colorado, saying they were
raped at or after an off-campus party for football recruits
in December 2001.
A newspaper story about Colorado football players allegedly
hiring strippers for recruits uncovered the head of
a Colorado-based stripper agency, who said his firm
has supplied topless dancers at campuses in Colorado,
Texas and Nevada.
On Tuesday, Miami signee Willie Williams surrendered
to authorities because of charges stemming from his
trip to Gainesville, Fla., over Super Bowl weekend.
He's accused of setting off three fire extinguishers
in his hotel, grabbing a woman against her will and
hitting a man at a bar in a span of five hours.
Ohio State athletic director Andy Geiger applauded
Brand's swift response.
"The enterprise of college athletics is obviously
suffering from this," Geiger said. "Let's
do our best to get it right and get it right now."
Brand said it was "an interesting coincidence"
that he took an ethical stand hours before he, Geiger,
Texas football coach Mack Brown and former SEC commissioner
Roy Kramer, the founder of the Bowl Championship Series,
took part in a public discussion on ethics in college
sports.
"But ethical concerns are really at the heart
of what the NCAA and college sports are all about,"
said Brand, who in his previous job as president of
Indiana University also took a stand against basketball
coach Bob Knight.
"College sports is not a business. It's about
educating young men and women in the field and in the
classroom. And that has serious ethical implications."
More than 1,000 people attended the two-hour ethics
conference held Thursday night on the TCU campus.
The liveliest moments centered on the BCS, which was
to be expected considering TCU fought most of last season
to earn a spot in one of the lucrative games. The Horned
Frogs had an uphill battle because they were in a non-BCS
conference.
Kramer defused any tension by opening by saying fans
should thank him for all the publicity his system brought
the school, drawing laughter and applause. Brown was
so awed that he opened his remarks by commenting on
the tame reaction.
"That was unbelievable," he said, smiling.
"I've heard these people cuss you all year."
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