BEEBE: SOUTHEAST HAS PROVEN IT CAN COMPETE; OVC COMMISSIONER HOPEFUL THAT NCAA WILL AMEND EIGHT-YEAR TOURNAMENT RULE

(Last in a series)

In its move to Division I athletics, Southeast Missouri State University has proven it can compete.

Dan Beebe, commissioner of the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC), in which Southeast now competes, said the Cape Girardeau school has clearly shown its ability to play at the Division I level.

Beebe said that in its first year and a half of Division I play, Southeast has demonstrated it was ready to move up from Division II athletics.

"I think, from my view, it is a perfect situation for Southeast Missouri to be in, with the (OVC) institutions located where they are," he said Monday.

"I think the whole mission and situation of the university overall, not just in athletics, was one that needed to be associated with Division I member institutions in this region rather than probably Division II or Division III or some other level," he said.

Beebe was in Cape Girardeau Monday for one of his regular visits to Southeast. He spoke briefly at a noon meeting of the Cape Girardeau Rotary Club at the Holiday Inn.

In an interview Monday afternoon, Beebe said Southeast fits well into the OVC, a conference comprised of nine regional, public universities.

The schools are also relatively close in distance, a major contrast compared to many Division I conferences. "We are probably the most geographically compact conference in the nation," said Beebe.

"We are in a great situation where all the trips can be made by bus, and most of them relatively easily."

Beebe said Southeast has already demonstrated that it has strong fan support, particularly in men's basketball.

That's proven by the fact that Southeast led the OVC in attendance in basketball in 1991-92, its first season as a Division I school, Beebe said.

Southeast, however, has been hindered by a NCAA rule prohibiting the school from competing for an automatic conference bid to the Division I basketball championship tournament until 1997. Under the rule, a school that moves up to Division I can't qualify for an automatic bid for eight years.

In its case, Southeast was successful in getting the penalty reduced to five years. But Beebe and the OVC would like to see the rule scrapped altogether in the case of schools that move up to established Division I conferences.

The presidents of the OVC schools recently signed a petition that asks the NCAA executive committee to amend the eight-year rule. Under the proposal, no penalty would be assessed a school that moves up to a Division I conference that has had an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament for eight consecutive years.

The OVC, which has been a Division I conference since 1948, has had an automatic bid for years.

Beebe said the NCAA executive committee meets in May. A favorable decision would mean that the two newest members of the OVC former Division II schools Southeast and the University of Tennessee-Martin would be eligible to compete in the OVC post-season basketball tournament in 1994 and seek the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

"I think every (OVC) coach, athletics director and president wants Southeast and Tennessee-Martin to be eligible next year for our tournament. They know that it is good for our league. They know it is good for the institutions themselves, and I think that is important," said Beebe.

He contended the climate is right for the NCAA committee to consider changing the rule. The committee, he said, is looking at the whole issue of athletic championships.

The rule, implemented in 1989, was designed to discourage schools at the Division II and III levels from moving to Division I in basketball while making no real effort to compete at that level in other sports, Beebe said.

A number of new conferences were formed in the last 10 to 15 years, many of them comprised of former Division II and III schools, he said.

"They (the schools) had 30 scholarships, enrollments of less than 3,000 and played in very small arenas before very small crowds," said Beebe. "They weren't real Division I institutions in the judgment of many in Division I," he said.

That's clearly not the case with Southeast and Tennessee-Martin, two schools that have been admitted to the OVC in the last two years, Beebe said.

In addition, NCAA regulations now require Division I schools to offer a certain number of athletic scholarships.

"Our schools (in the OVC) didn't fight that because we were close to that level anyway," said Beebe. "But a lot of those smaller, private schools that now have to spend $500,000 for their men's and women's programs were really against that minimum scholarship (requirement)."

Southeast was able to get the penalty reduced in its case because the school had taken steps toward moving to Division I prior to the eight-year rule taking effect, Beebe said.

The university started moving toward Division I in 1988. It didn't actually begin Division I play in the OVC until fall 1991.

The NCAA tournament, with its huge television package, is a financial boon for Division I conferences, including the OVC. Last year, the OVC's share of money totaled $431,000, Beebe said. The money was divided equally among the seven schools that competed in the post-season OVC tournament.

Each conference's share is determined by the number of units it earns over a six-year period. Each game played by a conference team in the NCAA tournament counts toward that number, Beebe explained.

"The OVC had 10 units last year which is better than most conferences at our level because we had success in '87, '88 and '89 in the NCAA tournament.

"It's a rolling six-year block, so we are living off the success of '87, '88 and '89 right now," said Beebe.

The OVC used to hold its post-season tournament at the arena of the school that finished first in the conference during the regular season. But last year, the post-season conference tournament was moved to Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky., home of the University of Kentucky.

Beebe believes the move will ultimately pay off with greater visibility for the OVC and higher gate receipts.

Last year, average attendance per game amounted to about 5,500 for the post-season tournament. But Beebe said the OVC post-season tournament could end up generating half a million dollars in the future. That's if the OVC can sell 10,000 tickets to the whole tournament at $50 each, he said.

"The focus on it now is to have a class event and a rallying point for our institutions," said Beebe. "But the long-term goal is to also make it a good revenue source for our institutions."