Old issues to await Brand

Outgoing IU President Myles Brand has taken on the thankless task that is the National Collegiate Athletic Association presidency. Intercollegiate athletics has made an easy media target because the issues are so broad and because progress only inches forward. Here are just a few of issues on Brand's plate come Jan. 1.\nGambling\nWhat's scary is that it takes only two people to infect a game with point shaving. The 1997 guilty plea by former Arizona State basketball stars Stevin "Hedake" Smith and Isaac Burton on sports bribery charges for shaving points during some games during the 1993-94 season still hangs over college athletics. Benny Silman, an average undergrad shlub, became the unofficial campus bookie around this time and knew an easy way for the two players to pay off their debts.\nSmith, Burton and Silman worked the three-man operation until wildly fluctuating point spreads in Las Vegas gave them away.\nWhile it may be hard for the average Joe to get in contact with famous pro athletes like Donovan McNabb, Kobe Bryant or Alex Rodriguez, some ordinary student might know a famous college athlete. Maybe they are in one of that student's classes or in that student's residence hall. This easy access by the gamblers to the people who play the games makes gambling a bigger problem on college campuses than anywhere.\nAlcohol Advertising\n"We need to sever the tie between college sports and drinking -- completely, absolutely and forever," then-U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala said in 1998. Right now, there is what is described by the NCAA as a "narrow ban" on NCAA Tournament games.\nBeer companies are desperate to appeal to young people to develop a lifetime of brand loyalty (er, no pun intended). Yet how many beer commercials does one have to sit through to watch collegiate athletics, often played by those who are not legally old enough to enjoy the products?\nThe narrow ban limits alcohol ads to just 60 seconds per hour and prohibits liquor-related signage on the court or field of play, but it needs to go farther. If the NCAA is going to have a policy against advertisements "not in the best interests of higher education," then all alcohol ads need to go.\nAcademic Reform\nDo you ever get the feeling that we are going to be arguing about this until the end of the world or until every student-athlete turns out like Bill Bradley or Shane Battier, whichever comes last?\nOutgoing NCAA President Cedric Dempsey said on the NCAA's Web site that student-athletes get a bad rap and that critics take a small sample of high-profile academic failures and apply it to many. He also points out that Proposition 48, a piece of NCAA legislation, setting forth minimum academic requirements for student-athletes, has increased graduation rates by six percent overall and nine percent for African-Americans.\nDempsey instead puts the responsibilities on the institutions' shoulders. He's right. Schools should recruit athletes based on whether they can graduate just as well as they should recruit based on whether they can score a touchdown or make a jump shot.\nCollegiate Athletes Coalition\nThe Collegiate Athletes Coalition is the closest thing there is to a union for college athletes. Dempsey proved unwilling to want to meet with the CAC, saying that it was unified with the United Steelworkers. The CAC wanted a United Steelworkers representative at a meeting late last year because the CAC thought the Steelworkers brought expertise in the area of medical policy. Offseason football workouts became an important issue for college athletes in the aftermath of the death of Northwestern football player Rashidi Wheeler of an exercise-induced asthma attack during an offseason practice.\nESPN.com reported that Dempsey actually wanted to meet with the CAC but that conference commissioners talked him out of it. The commissioners, whom many believe are more powerful than the NCAA president, didn't want Dempsey meeting with representatives from a professional union. They thought that if Dempsey even sat down with such a union that he would be encouraging that student-athletes receive benefits associated with an employee rather than a student-athlete.\nStudent-athletes' power is somewhat limited anyway. If a coach left for a better job tomorrow, then a player who went to a particular school just for the coach would really only have one option: transfer and sit out a year. This is especially difficult in college basketball where NBA hardship rules practically encourage players to get their clock started so they can become a free agent as soon as possible and make the really big bucks.\nCollege Football and the BCS\nGiven the headache this one is, I think Brand might just wait until Jan. 2.