superman7515
February 13th, 2012, 06:47 AM
This isn't up anywhere yet that I can find, but if I find that he has published it to a site, I'll give the link....
STORM WARNING II FOR HBCU ATHLETICS?
New rules being considered for implementation as early as August should make HBCUs examine their athletic operations
By ALVIN HOLLINS JR.
Email redacted by superman7515
Sunday, Feb. 12 – Last Friday’s announcement by the NCAA that defending men’s basketball national champion Connecticut (UConn) would be banned from the 2013 basketball tournament because of chronic rules compliance and substandard academics issues was the first salvo in the Association’s latest crusade reassert control over intercollegiate athletics.
The UConn bombshell, came the same week that the NCAA informed Southern University, that its’ waiver application to have the current one-year postseason ban on its’ men’s basketball team lifted would not be heard, which was disappointing in the wake of the Jaguars’ dramatic turnaround this season with 13 wins versus nine the previous two years combined.
But the NCAA, recognizing that the general public, politicians and the media have questioned its’ capacity to govern its’ member institutions, who have in the past year alone have plumbed the depths of what it means to be outlaw, with coaches and administrators covering up violations, players and athletic personnel engaging in illegal activities and receiving improper benefits, has begun its’ push back against the apparent corrupting influences and behaviors that have threatened to bring the house down.
So as conferences break up and realign, while negotiating billion dollar media deals which only create more distance between the haves and have nots in college athletics, the NCAA has decided to become a 21st Century version of the legendary Eliot Ness and the Untouchables, proposing a new set of guidelines for Division One that at first glance might appear to be slightly less draconian than Prohibition.
NCAA president Mark Emmert has promised a more nimble and effective organization—and one that more severely punishes rule breakers, and the panel formed by the NCAA to propose stiffer penalties for major rules violations has suggested punishments that are eye catching to say the least.
The plan clearly lays out proposed sanctions aimed at hitting hard those who commit academic fraud, willfully provide illicit benefits for athletes and for programs found guilty of a lack of institutional control, penalties which would include postseason bans of three or more years, fines that could reach $1 million or more, season-long suspensions for coaches and 10-year show-cause penalties for coaches and administrators.
The plan is currently being mulled over by the NCAA membership—that is, schools and conferences—for feedback. Then, the plan will go to the Division I board of directors in late April. If approved, the penalties would go into effect in August.
The proposed penalties include:
— A postseason ban of three or more years in severe cases or standard length of one or two years.
— A fine of up to 5 percent of a program’s budget. The standard would be 1-3 percent, the paper reports.
— A loss of up to half of a team’s scholarships, while the standard would be 12-1/2 percent to 25 percent.
— Season-long coach suspensions. The standard would be 20-50 percent of scheduled events.
— Up to 10 years in which a coach or administrator would have a show-cause penalty attached to his record, far more than the standard two to five years.
— Probationary periods of as many as six to 10 years, above the standard two to six years.
So what does this mean for the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) that moved to Division One in the late 1970s and early 1980s, many of whom find themselves languishing in the backwaters of the division, because of not having had any long term strategic plans to effectively operate at this level?
It means that the day of reckoning has finally dawned, and the crossroads have finally been reached for many, if not all Division One HBCUs.
For years, these schools have played a game of Russian Roulette, all but ignoring it seems, the ever-increasing academic and rules compliance edicts from the NCAA, requiring the specialized staffing most HBCUs did not provide, who instead diverted more and more of their limited financial resources toward administrators, and the coaches of the football and men’s basketball programs, in the vain hopes that revenues from those sports would trickle down and lift the entire department.
Perhaps because these institutions moved up together as conferences – the Mid-Eastern Athletic (MEAC) and the Southwestern Athletic (SWAC) – some of the pain of transition was eased by staying with familiar faces, but that initial comfort zone bred a false sense of security which inhibited the necessary growth and the embracing of new ideas to transition into the NCAA mainstream as viable and competitive entities, leaving the whole in dire straits today.
And now, the NCAA is now calling the bluff of not only HBCUs, but those Division One programs in all conferences to straighten up and fly right, because the alternative is nothing nice, as some schools who have already received a taste of the Association’s castor oil can attest to.
So what must happen now is that the stakeholders in the athletic programs at HBCUs must take a cold, hard, unvarnished look at their situations and decide once and for all if Division One is a neighborhood they can afford to live in.
=========================================
Alvin Hollins Jr., is a former Assistant AD for Communications at Florida A&M University, and now works as a free lance writer and occasional consultant.
STORM WARNING II FOR HBCU ATHLETICS?
New rules being considered for implementation as early as August should make HBCUs examine their athletic operations
By ALVIN HOLLINS JR.
Email redacted by superman7515
Sunday, Feb. 12 – Last Friday’s announcement by the NCAA that defending men’s basketball national champion Connecticut (UConn) would be banned from the 2013 basketball tournament because of chronic rules compliance and substandard academics issues was the first salvo in the Association’s latest crusade reassert control over intercollegiate athletics.
The UConn bombshell, came the same week that the NCAA informed Southern University, that its’ waiver application to have the current one-year postseason ban on its’ men’s basketball team lifted would not be heard, which was disappointing in the wake of the Jaguars’ dramatic turnaround this season with 13 wins versus nine the previous two years combined.
But the NCAA, recognizing that the general public, politicians and the media have questioned its’ capacity to govern its’ member institutions, who have in the past year alone have plumbed the depths of what it means to be outlaw, with coaches and administrators covering up violations, players and athletic personnel engaging in illegal activities and receiving improper benefits, has begun its’ push back against the apparent corrupting influences and behaviors that have threatened to bring the house down.
So as conferences break up and realign, while negotiating billion dollar media deals which only create more distance between the haves and have nots in college athletics, the NCAA has decided to become a 21st Century version of the legendary Eliot Ness and the Untouchables, proposing a new set of guidelines for Division One that at first glance might appear to be slightly less draconian than Prohibition.
NCAA president Mark Emmert has promised a more nimble and effective organization—and one that more severely punishes rule breakers, and the panel formed by the NCAA to propose stiffer penalties for major rules violations has suggested punishments that are eye catching to say the least.
The plan clearly lays out proposed sanctions aimed at hitting hard those who commit academic fraud, willfully provide illicit benefits for athletes and for programs found guilty of a lack of institutional control, penalties which would include postseason bans of three or more years, fines that could reach $1 million or more, season-long suspensions for coaches and 10-year show-cause penalties for coaches and administrators.
The plan is currently being mulled over by the NCAA membership—that is, schools and conferences—for feedback. Then, the plan will go to the Division I board of directors in late April. If approved, the penalties would go into effect in August.
The proposed penalties include:
— A postseason ban of three or more years in severe cases or standard length of one or two years.
— A fine of up to 5 percent of a program’s budget. The standard would be 1-3 percent, the paper reports.
— A loss of up to half of a team’s scholarships, while the standard would be 12-1/2 percent to 25 percent.
— Season-long coach suspensions. The standard would be 20-50 percent of scheduled events.
— Up to 10 years in which a coach or administrator would have a show-cause penalty attached to his record, far more than the standard two to five years.
— Probationary periods of as many as six to 10 years, above the standard two to six years.
So what does this mean for the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) that moved to Division One in the late 1970s and early 1980s, many of whom find themselves languishing in the backwaters of the division, because of not having had any long term strategic plans to effectively operate at this level?
It means that the day of reckoning has finally dawned, and the crossroads have finally been reached for many, if not all Division One HBCUs.
For years, these schools have played a game of Russian Roulette, all but ignoring it seems, the ever-increasing academic and rules compliance edicts from the NCAA, requiring the specialized staffing most HBCUs did not provide, who instead diverted more and more of their limited financial resources toward administrators, and the coaches of the football and men’s basketball programs, in the vain hopes that revenues from those sports would trickle down and lift the entire department.
Perhaps because these institutions moved up together as conferences – the Mid-Eastern Athletic (MEAC) and the Southwestern Athletic (SWAC) – some of the pain of transition was eased by staying with familiar faces, but that initial comfort zone bred a false sense of security which inhibited the necessary growth and the embracing of new ideas to transition into the NCAA mainstream as viable and competitive entities, leaving the whole in dire straits today.
And now, the NCAA is now calling the bluff of not only HBCUs, but those Division One programs in all conferences to straighten up and fly right, because the alternative is nothing nice, as some schools who have already received a taste of the Association’s castor oil can attest to.
So what must happen now is that the stakeholders in the athletic programs at HBCUs must take a cold, hard, unvarnished look at their situations and decide once and for all if Division One is a neighborhood they can afford to live in.
=========================================
Alvin Hollins Jr., is a former Assistant AD for Communications at Florida A&M University, and now works as a free lance writer and occasional consultant.