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Congress - The Battle Between the NCAA and Kids
A battle of monumental proportions is shaping up in Congress. Congressman Hastert introduced a bill in Congress. The bill says that a college must tell incoming students if the school is going to eliminate the sport or reduce its resources or participants during the next four years. The reasoning behind the bill is that 17-year old kids naively set off for college believing that there is an agreement between themselves and the administrations of the various schools - Kids agree to participate in the sport for four years, and the school promises to sponsor the sport for four years. Unfortunately, administrators do not view this proposition as a sacred trust. In fact, administrators do not even see this as a gentle(wo)man's agreement. Mostly, they view the agreement as an inconveniece easily broken particularly when it comes to male athletes. Anyone reading this is well aware of the hundreds of schools that have dumped a sport leaving the athletes in the lurch after their sophomore year. The NCAA hates the Hastert bill and is lobbying Congress and the Senate to kill or dilute the bill. The NCAA has added language to the bill that says that the school only needs to disclose the fact that it is going to dump kids or resources if the school knows that it is going to dump the sport at the time the student enrolls. This additional language destroys the bill that Congressman Hastert initiated (see below). The bill made it through the House Committees and will soon be on the floor of the House of Representatives to be voted on by the end of April. It was a remarkable achievement that the bill made it out of committee and the credit goes to Congressman Buck McKeon of California (Chairman of the Postsecondary Education Committee) and Congressman Dennis Hastert of Illinois. The bill is bogged down in the Senate. The Senate committee assigned to handle this bill has been lobbied by the NCAA to add the NCAA's language to the bill. Some of the Senate committee's memberbership is buckling under this pressure. The following members voiced concern that NCAA colleges in their states have been calling them constantly: The most important by far is Senator Coates from Indiana. It has been rumored that the NCAA offered to move part or all of the NCAA to Indiana. This may or may not be true. But one thing is for sure. The NCAA has spent a lot of time lobbying Coates and every other Senator and Congressman. Another thing we know is that Coates was in favor of Hastert's bill, but on the day of the "mark up" of the bill (when the language was debated) Coates totally agreed with the NCAA. The long and short is that if Coates fights for the Hastert-House bill, it will probably get through the committee and out to the Senate floor to be voted on by the entire Senate. If he votes for the NCAA bill, that bill will go out to the Senate floor to be voted on. All Senators are important to contact, but the next most important are:
Senator Patty Murray from Washington 202 224-2621 I do want to mention that Dan Gable contacted two Senators, and they apparently spoke up for the kids even over the pressure of the college administrators. They are Paul Wellstone (MN) and Tom Harkin (IA). Another important person in constantly talking to Wellstone has been Pat Zilverberg who has been crucial in our fight. I do not know everything that went on during the committee hearing and I am only repeating hearsay. When I get a transcript I can let everybody know exactly what happened. I do know that the next month is crucial. Both the House and Senate will vote on the bills duriing the next month. I alos knowthat if no one contacts their Congressman, the NCAA will get the House to change the language of the Hastert bill there too. So it is crucial that everyone contacts your Congressman and Senators and tells them to vote for the House (Hastert/McKeon) version of the bill and not the NCAA version - with the added language. The exact language of the bill - For those of you who need to have the exact language of the bill in order to help, that language is as follows: Title IV of the Higher Education Act Section 485 (a) information dissemination activities (1) Each eligible institution participating in any program under this title shall carry out information dissemination activities for prospective and enrolled students... The information required by this section shall be produced and be made readily available ... to any prospective students upon request. (g) Data Required (1) Each institution of higher education ...shall prepare a report that contains the following information... [the following is Congressman Hastert's language added] (K) A statement of any reduction that may or is likely to occur during the ensuing 4 academic years in the number of athletes that will be permitted to participate in any collegiate sport, or in the financial resources that the institution will make available to any such sport, and the reasons for any such reduction. The NCAA got the committee to add the following language to Hastert's: "....to the extent the reduction is known at the time of the preparation of the report." (This language virtually destroys the meaning and spirit of the Hastert language) The committee will decide during April whether or not this language stays in the bill. Please call your Congressman and Senators. Whether kids win or the NCAA wins will be up to the coaches, fans, parents and kids in this country. The issue is principle v power. It's up to you which wins out.
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