Walter Byers - Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Exploiting College Athletes

The longest, most raucous, and most expensive infractions case in the history of intercollegiate athletics was the National Collegiate Athletic Association versus the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and Coach Jerry Tarkanian (case number 123[47]). An infractions case is college sports terminology for what, in the larger social order, would be a civil or criminal indictment and trial. This NCAA case had a life of 21 years.

The professional ethics, personal morality, and NCAA violations involved were not much different than many other major college crime cases. The UNLV engagement, which began in 1971, reached full flower in the 1980s, however, and with multimedia outlets available, Coach Tarkanian brought his run-and-gun offense to bear upon the NCAA's deliberate, step-at-a-time approach to justice. A man who never seemed to turn down an interview, Coach Tarkanian took control of the matchup for almost the entire time. He still looks like the winner to me; UNLV clearly was the loser.

The NCAA, primarily because of the integrity of its enforcement staff and, particularly, its chief, Dave Berst, came out of the shoot out in better shape than expected. Thereafter, a psychology of complacency seemed to permeate the minds of the policy groups that set the NCAA agenda. In disposing of the Tarkanian matter, good had conquered bad; the NCAA had been proven right; on with business as usual.

So instead of adapting to the changed conditions of the times, the national governing body entered the decade of the 1990s by

reemphasizing that players must be amateurs to qualify for any of the varsity teams at some 900 four-year colleges;

adopting more rules, instead of fewer restrictions;

expanding its compliance inspection service, essentially an exercise in self-emolument designed to soft pedal rules violations;

establishing a centralized bureaucracy to clear the eligibility of players in the belief that the national government can do a better job than the local people; and

funding a beefed-up public relations program to emphasize college athletics virtues and the fact that college presidents are in charge.

The UNLV case, in a sense, was historic. It served as a catharsis for past violators and the current closet sinners of college athletics. They could seek higher ground by pointing with scorn at the outrageous conduct of an upstart university operating in the shadows cast by the neon lights of casinos dedicated to all-night gambling. Greased admissions, suspect grades, under-the-table paymentsthis one had it all.

In fairness, however, it was not strikingly different than the Kentucky case of the 1950s, UCLA in the 1960s, Michigan State in the 1970s, Southern Methodist University in the 1980s, and Florida State or other cases yet to surface in the 1990s. The ambitious have-nots of yesteryear enjoy the moneyed good times of today. They are clustered together with other rich schools in major athletics conferences and look with scorn at the new breed of opportunist colleges that use shenanigans similar to those that made today's nouveau riche well-to-do in the first place. The UNLV-Tarkanian matter ex post facto also became a part of the argument against changing the way the colleges do their business. A liberalizing of NCAA recruiting and financial aid rules, it is said, would only elevate the cheating to higher financial levels. Look at UNLV.

The current, 10-year-old presidential reform movement, originally dedicated to change, now has endorsed the status quo. It started out with a show of force under the leadership of John Ryan, then the president of Indiana University, who successfully managed the NCAA's special Integrity Convention of 1985. Today, the NCAA Presidents Commission is preoccupied with tightening a few loose bolts in a worn machine, firmly committed to the neoplantationbelief that the enormous proceeds from college games belong to the overseers (the administrators) and supervisors (coaches). The plantation workers performing in the arena may receive only those benefits authorized by the overseers. This system is so biased against human nature and simple fairness in light of today's high-dollar, commercialized college marketplace that the ever increasing number of primary and secondary NCAA infractions cases of the 1990s emerge in the current environment as mostly an indictment of the system itself.