Nebraska players ready
for first night game
Weather.Tartly cloudy today
with MhIim in l ho upper 70s. Mild
v ml lu-r will cont iniH I his weekend.
Sports, Page 15
Grab some rocks
to wash your jeans
Arts & Entertainment, Page 12
t 7 ti Daily -n
Septembers, 1986
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Vol. 86 No. 9
ayeirs eligible for Mwday9 game
By Bob Asmussen
Night News Editor
The National Collegiate Athletic Association
Thursday granted the Nebraska football team a
stay of its ruling on the eligibility of 60 Corn
husker players.
The stay will allow all Nebraska players to be
eligible for Saturday night's nationally televised
game with Florida State. A hearing will be held
Tuesday on Nebraska's appeal of the NCAA
penalty.
On Wednesday, Nebraska coach Tom Osborne
was informed by the NCAA that 60 players were
ineligible for Saturday's game. The NCAA ruled
that the players have violated rules regarding
the use of complimentary tickets.
Nebraska requested a stay of the ruling
Thursday so that it could appeal the penalty.
"We will play Saturday with a full roster of
players," UNL Chancellor Martin Massengale
said at a Thursday press conference in the South
Stadium lounge. Massengale said he was
happy with the NCAA decision. He said the
NCAA was cooperative in its discussions with
the university Thursday.
"I think we've had a very good relationship
today with the NCAA," Massengale said. "We
now look forward to our game Saturday against
Florida State as scheduled."
The NCAA ruling helped eliminate the possi
bility of a Nebraska forfeit. Osborne discussed
forfeiting the game Wednesday, despite the fact
that the game is scheduled to be televised by
ABC.
"I think we were pleased with the stay in that
it gives us an opportunity to draw a breath,"
Osborne said Thursday. "Obviously, if you were
going to have to hold players out, you would have
to pratice accordingly."
Massengale said the timing of the NCAA rul
ing wa a major factor in its decision to allow the
stay. He said the NCAA worked rapidly Thursday
to resolve the situation.
"Obviously we thought the initial penalty was
on the strong side, or we would not have
appealed it," Massengale said.
James O'Hanlon, Nebraska's faculty represen
tative to the NCAA, said the main concern was
the right of the player to have a chance to appeal
the decision before his eligibility was affected.
"The individual right of Ihe player was the
number one item," O'Hanlon said.
Osborne said his main concern now is getting
the team ready to play Saturday's game. Florida
State is ranked No. 11 in the country.
"Now we just got to go out and play well,"
Osborne said. "We're a little bit amazed by the
whole process."
Osborne told the players about the stay in a
meeting Thursday. He said the investigation and
announcement by the NCAA has been a distrac
tion to the team's preparation.
"They're all a little bit emotional about the
thing now," Osborne said. "Naturally, we're dis
appointed we have to go through4ll this."
Osborne said the players will be off limits to
the media until after Saturday's game.
"I did ask the players not to say much,"
Osborne said. "I feel at this point I've already
said plenty, probably too much."
"I'm kind of tired of talking about it."
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ichard WrightDaiiy tte&raskan
UNL Chancellor Martin Massengale announced Thursday the NCAA's deci
sion to postpone ineligibility sanctions against the Cornhusker football team.
The Florida State-Nebraska game will be played as scheduled Saturday night
at 7:05 p.m.
JB
oosalis. Off stFess better education
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Candidates debate
at State Fair Park
Andrea HoyDaily Nebraskan
DoossHs
By Todd von Kampen
Senior Editor
Nebraska's two gubernatorial
candidates opened their first face-to-face
debate Thursday by stress
ing their desire to improve Nebras
ka's colleges and universities.
But tax and spending issues took
center stage during the rest of the
debate, witnessed by about 2,000
people at State Fair Park's open-air
auditorium. Both Republican Kay
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Orr and Democrat Helen Boosalis
opposed tax increases and called
for property tax relief, but Orr
called for lower spending rather
than higher sales taxes as the best
way to lower property tax bills.
Judy Basler, president of the
Nebraska League of Women Voters,
served as moderator for the debate.
The candidates answered questions
from Keith Blackledge, editor of the
North Platte Telegraph; Loretta
Carroll of Omaha TV station KMTV;
Kent Warneke, farm editor of the
Omaha World-Herald; and Paul Wice
of radio station KGFM in Kearney.
Neither candidate discussed how
they would handle NU's budget,
which has been cut in mid-year sev
eral times during the 1980s. But Orr
said the best way to improve higher
education would be to help Nebras
ka's economy recover. More jobs for
Nebraskans means more tax revenue
to support colleges and universi
ties, she said.
Andrea HoyDaily Nebraskan
Orr
"Government doesn't create the
jobs, but government does provide
the climate and the opportunity,"
she said. "And none of our educa
tional institutions are going to fare
well unless we address that."
Boosalis offered a list of 10 ways
she would help higher education if
elected. Although a governor doesn't
run the colleges and universities,
she said, she can use her power to
make things better.
See DEBATE on 8
Students:
NCAA
too haFsh
By Lisa Rood
Staff Reporter
UNL students' reactions varied Thurs
day on the NCAA's decision to punish
60 players for ticket violatons.
The NCAA imposed the sanctions
after an investigation of the Cornhusker
football team revealed that 60 players
had been improperly distributing their
complimentary football tickets. Play
ers, according to NCAA rules, are only
supposed to give the tickets to family
members or other UNL students.
Eligibility of the players will be
decided Tuesday when UNL officials
meet with the NCAA subcommittee of
eligibility appeals.
Senior Rob Haase, a mechanical
engineering major, said he feels the
Wednesday decision was too picky,
"considering they've changed the rule
five times in the last four years. It's a
wonder the players themselves know
the rule," he said.
Some students said the Nebraska
team is being picked on.
"It happens at every university, it's
not like they were scalping," said
senior finance major Diane Sharp.
Sharp was standing in line Thursday for
football tickets at the South Stadium
ticket office.
Coach Tom Osborne said in a Thurs
day news conference, that he would
most likely choose to remove 10 players
for six games, if the appeal is denied
See REACTIONS on 9
