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Dick S< executive director of the NCAA, addressee the media.
Director detends actions of NCAA,
asks media, public for a little time
By Lory tiowen
Staff Reporter
All the NCAA needs is a little
time, executive director Dick Schultz
said.
Schultz, who was in Lincoln to
speak at the University of Nebraska
Lincoln Director's Club banquet,
called accusatidns that the NCAA
was doing nothing to solve problems
in intercollegiate athletics “ridicu
lous.”
“It's inappropriate to say that the
universities aren’t addressing their
problems or the NCAA isn’t doing
what we’re doing,” Schultz said.
“You get tired of hearing that.
“It seems like regardless of all the
pro-active things you point out that
have happened in the past three to
five years, people just ignore it -
they’re like it just doesn’t exist
“For anybody to say we’re sitting
around and not doing anything is not
a fair statement.”
Schultz, who replaced ^Walter
Byers as executive director of the
NCAA in June 1987, has been forced
to deal with drug testing, improving
the academic integrity of the student
athlete and pay-for-play scandals
since the start of his tenure.
Now Schultz and the NCAA are
forced to defend their actions in light
of such books as Rick Telander’s
“The 100-Yard Lie” which lashes
out at what it claims is the corrupt
nature of college athletics.
“I think we have a rash of that,”
Schultz said. “Sometimes it gets to
the point where that’s the popular
thing to write about.
“Some of the stories I’ve read,
you almost have io ignore because
some of it is so biased and so
slanted.”
Schultz said he read a condensed
piece of Telander’s book in the Oct. 2
issue of Sports Illustrated and found
“seven or eight” quotes where the
author had4 4 taken things people have
said in good faith and made them
sound completely different.”
“I think it’s unfortunate when
people do that,” Schultz said, “but
they’re writing for a purpose, and that
purpose is to sell books.
1 ‘There are a lot of things that are
not right that are written, that are not
factual where the writer hasn’t taken
time to research the topic or they have
a position they want to present, so
they write from that position.
“It doesn’t bother»me if people
really take us to task as long as
they’re balanced, as lpng as they’re
fair, as long as they’ve taken the time
to look at both sides of the issues.
“If they do that and still say ‘hey,
what you’re doing is dead-wrong'
then that’s their right to do that.”
Schultz said criticism arises be
cause of the high visibility and popu
larity of college sports. Some of it, he
said, is too critical.
‘‘The bottom line is,” Schultz
said, “so many people expoct
coaches and athletes to be perfect
people in an imperfect world.”
The public often believes too
much of what it sees or reads, Schultz
said, and schools often pay the price
because or the negative publicity.
“It does have an impact on the
general public, you can tell that by
opinion polls,” Schultz ^aid. “I think
it’s going to correct itself over time
but it makes it tough on university
presidents and administrators while
all this is going on.”
Change will come, but there are
things to overcome before more
progress is made, Schultz said.
“(Sometimes) people who are
critics are too simplistic in their solu
tions and their views,” h» said.
“They think that you can wave a
magic wand and change things right
away, and that doesn’t happen.” .
Schultz said it’s difficult to get
some 800 universities with individual
special interests moving in the same
direction, despite maior interest in
reform. That again, he said, takes
time.
“If itdoesn’i happen in 30 days,”
Schultz said, “people think there’s
nothing happening.”
But Schultz is optimistic about the
future.
“I think some major steps have
beeh taken ... to deal with integrity
issues, to deal with academic stand
ing and more are going to happen.”
Schultz said. “So eventually I think
we’ll see the tide turn on this.”
Some of the measures the NCAA
is making progress with are the three
year-old Proposition 48 and the Aca
demic Progress Rule, which was in
troduced a year later.
While Proposition 48 tightens
freshman eligibility requirements,
Schultz said, the Academic Progress
Rule may make it tougher because it
requires athletes to declare a major
after two years and make progress
toward graduation in that field.
“That rule in itself is going to
have a major effect on the academic
integrity of athletes,” Schultz said.
Both rules are under constant
study to see if they do indeed improve
academic standings and graduation
rates, Schultz said.
Proposition 42, which “just puts
48 in its purest fonn” Schultz said,
came under heavy lire because it used
test scores to determine eligibility.
Proposition 42 prohibits student-ath
letes who fail to meet the academic
requirements established by Proposi
tion 48 from receiving any financial
assistance during their first year of
college.
Proposition 42, according to
Georgetown basketball coach John
Thompson and others who opposed
the rule, was racially biased because
minority students often do not come
from educational backgrounds that
allow them to score high on the ACT
or SAT. . ..
Schultz said the NCAA is working
to devise a type of test, other than the
SAT or ACT, that would solve the
problem by finding another method
to show those in charge of university
admissions dial athletes were capable
of doing college work.
Although the NCAA and those in
charge of designing the test are opti
mistic, again, he said, “it’s going to
be some time before it s completed.
In addition to those rules, Schultz
said the NCAA was moving forward
See SCHULTZ on 8
OSBORNE from Page 6
the top 10. Tq me, that’s a strong
conference.”
Osborne said every conference
will continue to have bad teams, as
long as the current policy of firing
coaches after one or two losing sea
sons is upheld.
“You lose continuity when you do
that,” he said. “You’ve got to realize
what’s possible and then go after it.”
• Osborne said he wouldn’t neces
sarily be in favor of a tie-breaker
system in college football. Last
week, Iowa coach Haden Fry pushed
for the implementation of such a
plan.
“Some games ought to end in a
tie,” he said. “Down at the end, at
some point, every coach has a deci
sion to make whether he wants to live
with a tie or not.”
Osborne said the two-point con
version is enough for the college
game.
• Colorado moved ahead of Ne
braska in The Associated Press last
week, passing the Huskers for the No.
3 spot. Osborne said the teams’ re
spective schedules make it difficult
to compare the two this season.
‘ ‘Obviously, we haven't played as
difficult a schedule as Colorado,' ’ he
said. “Many people look at Colorado
asabetter team rightnow. I just don’t
know.
“The nice thing is that we get to
play them and find out.”
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