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B-ball players may be able to play for 5 years....
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broncobob Offline
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B-ball players may be able to play for 5 years....
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With NCAA Chief's Backing, Coaches Call for Extending Basketball Players' Eligibility to 5 Years

The Chronicle of Higher Education
by WELCH SUGGS


Basketball players would have five years to compete in college, and coaches would be allowed to telephone 11th-grade players regularly to recruit them, if the National Collegiate Athletic Association accepts a set of proposals from the National Association of Basketball Coaches. NCAA officials, including the organization's president, Myles Brand, have endorsed the proposed measures enthusiastically.

Giving players five years of eligibility would be a radical departure for the NCAA, which has always permitted athletes in all sports only four seasons of competition. Athletes are given five years in which to use those four seasons under current rules. The president of the coaches' association, James A. Haney, would not give specifics about the group's proposal, but it would have to be written very carefully to withstand legal scrutiny.

No sport permits five years of eligibility, although football coaches have campaigned for such a change for years. If a group of male athletes were allowed such a benefit but female athletes were not, colleges could be in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which forbids gender discrimination at institutions receiving federal funds.

Most students take more than four years to graduate, Mr. Haney said, and the NCAA's academic standards for athletes are based on their being in college for five years, so allowing players an extra year would give them a better shot at earning a college degree.

For years, men's basketball teams have faced criticism for their lousy graduation rates. Only 42 percent of players entering college from 1992 to 1996 -- and only 36 percent of black players -- earned degrees within six years of matriculation. Those are the lowest rates for any sport, and are well below the rates for other students.

The coaches' association also wants to allow coaches to have more contact with recruits earlier in their high-school careers. Doing so would give coaches a better chance of getting to know players and deciding whether to offer them scholarships, Mr. Haney said. That could cut down on the number of players who transfer from one institution to another, he said.

"Right now, a lot of young people, when they make a decision on college, have the attitude that if things are not working out, they're going to transfer," he said. That puts them at greater risk of not graduating and forces them to go through the recruiting process a second time.

The proposals are two of a set that the coaches' association will present to the NCAA's Division I Management Council, which is scheduled to meet on July 20 in Baltimore. Mr. Brand, the NCAA's president, encouraged coaches at a meeting in April at the Final Four to come up with a broad list of proposals to improve athlete welfare and to change rules that were causing problems.

Mr. Brand told USA Today on Thursday that the coaches had put forward "a very solid proposal."

The coaches have already scored one victory: getting the NCAA to rescind a measure that restricted them to five recruits in any one year and eight in any two-year period.

The rest of the coaches' proposals are designed to increase graduation rates, improve players' chances of meeting the NCAA's academic standards, and encourage players to stay in school instead of transferring, dropping out, or entering the National Basketball Association draft, Mr. Haney said.
07-12-2004 09:25 AM
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