Legislator aims tax at NCAA over Illiniwek dispute

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Tired of what he sees as NCAA meddling in University of Illinois business, a member of the Illinois Legislature has proposed legislation that would tax the organization.

Rep. Chapin Rose, a Mahomet Republican, isn't sure the bill he filed last week will get far in the legislature, but he hopes it eases NCAA pressure on the university over its disputed mascot, Chief Illiniwek.

"Somebody needs to smack the NCAA up side the head," said Rose, a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law. "They're sitting up there in their ivory tower looking down at the rest of us."

Rose wants the university to keep Chief Illiniwek. But he insists his proposed 10 percent gross-receipts tax on any money the NCAA makes in Illinois is about more than the organization's 2005 decision to bar the university from hosting postseason sports. The NCAA considers the chief and his dance a "hostile and abusive" use of American Indian imagery.

Rose argues the NCAA, which is incorporated as a not-for-profit, does not do a good enough job in its self-stated mission of helping graduate college football and basketball players, whose performances Rose believes generate the vast majority of the organization's revenue.

That revenue is expected to reach $564 million this year, according to the NCAA's budget. Just more than 90 percent will come from TV and marketing rights fees.

The federal government's 2006 report on graduation rates showed that 54 percent of football players and 46 percent of basketball players at Division I schools graduated. That compares with 60 percent for all students at those schools and 77 percent for all Division I athletes.

NCAA spokesman Bob Williams defended the Indianapolis-based organization's academic performance.

"In reality, our student athletes perform at a higher rate than the whole student body," he said.

Williams also said 94 percent of NCAA-generated money is returned to its member schools.

He wasn't sure any money would be subject to taxation in Illinois if Rose's legislation became law. Essentially, the NCAA doesn't make any money in Illinois, he said, since almost all of its revenue is generated through national TV and marketing contracts.

Rose, on the other hand, says he doesn't know how much money the NCAA makes in Illinois, but guesses "it's not going to be insignificant." Language in his bill calls for the state to be able to comb the NCAA's financial records to find out.

If the organization generated any revenue in the state, its income-tax exemption wouldn't protect it from Rose's legislation, according to Illinois Department of Revenue spokesman Mike Klemens. Because the gross-receipts tax would be new, there is no existing exemption, he said.

But Klemens added that Rose's tax might not be constitutional because it would be aimed at just one organization. That, he said, would be a question for the state's courts.

The bill would roll anything the tax generates into a fund for the state's universities.

The University of Illinois doesn't have a position on Rose's bill, university spokesman Thomas Hardy said.

The NCAA's 2005 decision regarding Chief Illiniwek added fuel to a long-running debate over the mascot, which many American Indians have called offensive. Supporters argue the chief, which has been used for more than 80 years, is reverential toward American Indians.

The university's board of trustees expects to decide the fate of the mascot this year.

Rose and a colleague pushed a resolution through the House two years ago urging the NCAA to leave the mascot issue up to Illinois.

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The NCAA taxation bill is HB 538.