NCAA BACKS AWAY FROM A FRESHMEN INELIGIBLE STANCE

ROSEMONT, Ill. -- A committee studying problems with NCAA Division I basketball urged tying the number of scholarships schools can award to their academic success, but stopped short of supporting a proposal to make freshmen ineligible to play.

"We have had to temper the enthusiasm of some with the realities of what we can accomplish," said Syracuse University Chancellor Kenneth "Buzz" Shaw, the committee chairman. He said he favored making freshmen attend college for a year before playing basketball, but that the majority on the panel did not.

Shaw said opponents of freshmen ineligibility raised practical concerns as well as issues of fairness. He and NCAA president Cedric Dempsey also suggested that such a move was likely to bring a court challenge.

Instead, the committee wants the NCAA to encourage incoming freshmen athletes to attend summer school to get used to the more challenging academic programs they will face in college.

The proposals would tie the number of scholarships to schools' academic success, limit the number of new scholarships colleges can award each year to four, establish new regulations for recruiting and offer several steps aimed at cleaning up the sport's image.

"This is a showcase sport," Shaw said. "It is very important to the people in this country, and we must and we do expect and demand more."

Shaw said the committee wanted to offer athletes more help succeeding in the classroom while also demanding more of them academically.

"This combination of extending opportunity while greatly increasing our expectations for student performance creates what I believe will be seen as a stern compassion for basketball student-athletes," he said.

The 27-member committee was formed to study issues such as low graduation rates, gambling scandals, recruiting problems and the influence of agents.

According to the NCAA statistics, only 41 percent of male basketball players in the 1991 entering class got their degrees, including just 37 percent of black players. That was the lowest of all groups.

Under the committee's proposal, the NCAA would consider not just a program's graduation rate, but how many students were in good academic standing when they left school.

Those schools with rates of 75 percent or higher would be allowed 14 full scholarships; schools with rates of 33 percent to 74 percent would be allowed 13; schools with rates below 33 percent could award 12.

The committee also urged changes in the recruiting process that Shaw said were designed to increase the influence of high school and junior college coaches on their players, and keep academics in the forefront.

The regulations would increase the period during the academic year when coaches could evaluate players while shortening it during the summer, tighten regulations on events at which high school players are evaluated and ban agents from any involvement in them.

The committee also urged stiffening the penalties for gambling and considering new rules to enforce proper behavior during games.

The proposals, which go to the NCAA's executive committee Aug. 5, could be in place by fall 2001 if the executive committee approves them, Shaw said.