Colleges

Meet the NCAA president

NCAA president Myles Brand addresses a variety of issues facing college athletics today:

By Times staff writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 17, 2003

ON THE IDEA OF COLLEGE ATHLETES BEING PAID: "If you start to pay student-athletes, you ruin the integrity of the college game. You turn an incredibly important, interesting, invaluable set of activities into third-rate professional sports. You could never pay them enough to compete directly with the professional leagues. So the very best student-athletes will still go to the professional leagues. We're not going to have multi-million dollar contracts for sophomores who are attending college full time. That's absurd. If (athletes are paid), the institutions will no longer have the integrity of the game on which to count. They essentially will be sponsors of semipro teams. And that's very unattractive. ... If we paid every student-athlete $100 a month, the CBS contract would be billions of dollars short. So practically, it doesn't make any sense. It's a bad idea."

ON THE TV CONTRACT WITH CBS, WHICH FOR THE MOST PART, FUNDS THE ENTIRE NCAA: "I think it's a superb relationship. Not only does it provide financial support for collegiate athletics, it also provides a good opportunity to enhance the integrity of the game. ... Ninety-five percent of the money that comes from the contract is redistributed (to schools). That's healthy and helps intercollegiate athletics. The contract itself helps the integrity of the game. It keeps commercialism in its proper place."

ON LAST SEASON'S FIESTA BOWL, THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL NATIONAL TITLE GAME: "It was a great football game. But at least as I watched it on TV, I found the over-commercialization irritating. There is a good way to do things. Part of the CBS (basketball) contract is it provides the opportunity to set the stage and enhance the game itself. I would like to see a contract that speaks less to revenue and more to the integrity of the game. The timeouts were two and a half minutes."

ON THE POSSIBILITY OF A NATIONAL COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF: "The playoff issue is a really complicated one. ... The decisionmakers here are the presidents of the six (Bowl Championship Series) conferences. I think the NCAA can help. Maybe it can partner in helping to design what could be effective. But we're not the decisionmakers. The presidents are. The ABC contract under which the BCS works will need to be renegotiated in the next 12 to 24 months. I think during that time frame the presidents of those groups will decide whether they want to go in that direction.

"One bowl, one-game playoff. Or a multiple-game playoff. We will work with them in whatever they want to do. I am against an NFL-type playoff system. Aside from four or six bowls. I think the other bowls serve a different purpose than a run-up to the championship. And I would not like to see all those other bowls harmed in the process. But what happens with the four bowls we have or if we add a couple to that group? Whether we have a playoff or not is still a question.

"I think it's going to be seriously considered. The (Big Ten, Pac-10, ACC, Big East, Big 12, SEC) have named individual presidents to form a committee and they are going to look at this seriously."

ON SPORTS GAMBLING: "It's a serious problem and one that has to be addressed in the strongest way possible. The NCAA has consistently been against sports wagering on intercollegiate athletics and I couldn't agree with that more. It tends to undermine the game. The case (at Florida State, where ex-quarterback Adrian McPherson is accused of betting on games) might be a good example. You do not want players, coaches, someone with influence, to have any financial stake in what happens in the game. It takes away the integrity in the game. ... College campuses have a real problem with sports wagering. Most large campuses now have bookies who may be students."

"... The NCAA has been very supportive of federal legislation to try and prevent that. We've been in favor of a bill that would prevent Internet gaming by making it illegal to use credit cards. ... You regulate the financial institutions. I think it has an excellent chance."

ON THE INCREASING COST OF RUNNING A COLLEGE ATHLETIC PROGRAM: "We do have to find a way to get that under control. I'd say that's a part of the overall reform movement. Facility costs are rising. The cost to athletic programs goes up in proportion to tuition increases. Schools that are playing in Division I-A and are highly competitive are recruiting athletes from all over the country and the majority are probably from out of state. Which means at a public university, you have to pay out-of-state tuition. So those costs are going up. The cost of assistant coaches, support personnel, is going up very rapidly. Facility costs are high as well. There is a limit and we may have already passed the limit. We have to figure out a new way to finance intercollegiate athletics and bring this under control."

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