Coaches want to run off 5-8 scholarship rule

[NT80]

Coaches want to run off scholarship rule

5-8 provision under scrutiny as NCAA Convention opens today

08:28 PM CST on Thursday, January 8, 2004

By JEFF MILLER / The Dallas Morning News

After months of strife and rancor concerning the Bowl Championship Series, it's almost comforting to focus on an aspect of major college athletics in which there's near unanimity.

Good luck finding an NCAA Division I men's basketball coach who favors the current 5-8 scholarship rule. It's one of many by-laws scheduled to be scrutinized at the annual NCAA Convention that begins today in Nashville, Tenn.

The rule was implemented by the NCAA's management council before the 2001-02 academic year, limiting programs to five scholarships awarded in any year and eight over two years. The intention was to curb the perceived practice of running off unwanted players and improve graduation rates. But it also has strapped programs that have lost multiple underclassmen to the NBA.

"You can't find a coach in the country who is in favor of the rule," Texas A&M coach Melvin Watkins said.

Arizona is probably the best example. After the Wildcats lost the 2001 championship game to Duke, they lost juniors Richard Jefferson and Michael Wright and sophomore Gilbert Arenas to the NBA draft, along with five seniors. They could sign only five players the next year and have remained shorthanded since, though they reached the 2002 NCAA Tournament West semifinals and '03 West final. This season's team has only eight scholarship players.

"Let's get it rescinded tomorrow," Texas Tech coach Bob Knight said. "It hasn't done a thing academically, nor will it do a thing academically."

SMU coach Mike Dement conceded that it was "a solid idea, but it exploded in the wrong way." North Texas coach Johnny Jones noted there's no similar rule for other sports. He said any problems concerning running off players or poor graduation rates shouldn't be dealt with nationally.

"If there's a problem at a school, the administration should address it, not the NCAA," Jones said. "I don't think everyone should be punished because of what some schools are doing."

The Atlantic Coast Conference sponsored Proposal 76 to eliminate the rule, in part because Georgia Tech didn't receive scholarship relief when Michael Isenhour left the team before his senior year in 2001 with what turned out to be a fatal case of leukemia.

NCAA president Myles Brand met last July with members of the National Association of Basketball Coaches to hear their concerns. He said the rule would be implemented more on a case-by-case basis.

That's enough to satisfy the ACC, according to compliance director Shane Lyons. Eliminating the rule, he said, is not "as high a priority as we once thought it was because of some of the relief that has been given," he said.

Baylor plans to request an exemption in connection to the scholarship that was supposed to go to the late Patrick Dennehy for the 2003-04 and '04-05 seasons. Connecticut might ask for an exemption next year if junior center Emeka Okafor goes pro next summer since he is scheduled to graduate in May. In the spirit of a rule based on academics, UConn could receive a scholarship for his slot next year though he's leaving with a year's eligibility remaining.

Even if the NCAA wanted to rescind the 5-8 rule tomorrow, as Knight wants, that can't be done immediately. The January convention is sort of an elimination round of legislation during which proposals are either junked or kept alive for a final vote in April.

Lyons said the rule probably will remain for at least a few years, no matter how unpopular it is with coaches. Other proposals that would hold schools more accountable for classroom performance would make the 5-8 rule unnecessary, but it probably will stay until such academic guardians are in place, he said.

Some other proposals of note on the agenda:

• Proposal 92 would eliminate the practice of Division I men's basketball teams playing exhibition games against teams affiliated with high school recruits. NCAA rules allow Division I teams to play one or two exhibition games against any non-college organizations with no cap on fees paid to the opponents.

The practice has made headlines twice in recent months.

The Baylor committee looking into the conduct of former coach Dave Bliss and his staff determined that Bliss encouraged boosters to contribute to a Houston summer league program. He also played three exhibition games against a team affiliated with that program, paying fees that were two and three times more than those paid to similar teams.

Maryland coach Gary Williams recently finished second in the recruiting competition for Baltimore prospect Rudy Gay, who signed with Connecticut. UConn played an exhibition game last fall against an AAU team coached by Gay's former coach. After Maryland lost an exhibition game to a team in the NBA's developmental league, Williams made a remark that appeared to point toward UConn coach Jim Calhoun: "We could have scheduled an AAU team and given them $25,000."

• Proposal 65 would eliminate the waiver that allows schools in Division III, which doesn't provide athletic scholarships across the board, to offer them on a limited basis in certain sports. This would primarily affect the eight Division III schools that compete in Division I lacrosse. One of those schools is Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where NCAA president Brand played lacrosse as a freshman.