To a legislator full of virtuous ambition, collegiate sports are an all but irresistible target. Fat, scandal-ridden, hypocritical and slow to change, the college sports system virtually begs to be ”reformed.”
There`s just one problem: There`s not the slightest evidence that legislation, federal or state, is the only way to set things aright, or even the best way.
In fact, there is good reason to think that the collegiate sports establishment, in the frustrating, irritating fashion characteristic of democratic institutions, is moving toward reform on its own.
The only question now is whether that process will be outrun by the ambitions of legislators eager to get credit for having cleaned up college sports.
Rep. Tom McMillen (D-Md.) is making a bid for the role of knight on a white charger. He introduced legislation Thursday that would force a number of changes in the governance, powers and operation of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the voluntary membership organization that makes the rules for most of collegiate sport.
McMillen`s bill would require, among other things, that the NCAA negotiate all broadcast contracts for collegiate football and basketball; that the organization be governed by an elected group of no more than 33 institutional presidents; that revenue from college sports broadcasts be shared among all NCAA members on the basis of a formula to be devised by the governing group; and that the NCAA follow ”due process” in all rules-enforcement investigations.
None of those is a bad idea; each has support from some thoughtful people. But none is a self-evidently perfect idea, either. If McMillen succeeds in getting them enacted into law, it will not be because of their inherent merit or because a majority of members of the NCAA became persuaded of their wisdom. It will be because McMillen persuaded his colleagues in Congress that this was the best way for the NCAA to run its members` business. It is not as if the organization were dug in against any change. At the last NCAA convention, in fact, the forces of reform-led by the Presidents`
Commission-routed the resisters and rammed through one reform measure after another, from shorter seasons to reductions in scholarships and coaching staffs.
The next convention, in January, promises to be just as fruitful. The President`s Commission is expected to propose stiffening the so-called Proposition 48 academic requirements. The new rules would produce what NCAA President Dick Schultz says is the closest thing possible to a guarantee that a student who gets an athletic scholarship has the capacity to graduate.
Such changes are not insignificant. But the process involved in achieving them is slow and requires persuasion, promises and politicking. In short, it is a democratic process, carried on within a private, voluntary organization. McMillen is not the first person to become frustrated with that process. But precisely because he is a legislator, he ought to be especially respectful of it.
