If strip clubs were owned by public companies, you’d be wise to sell your shares.
The NCAA announced Monday the names of nine members of a task force that will examine recruiting practices and make recommendations to try to end behavior that has drawn negative attention at schools such as Colorado and Minnesota.
Chairman David Berst said visits to strip clubs no longer would be options for recruits.
“I think it’s a foregone conclusion that that will not be permitted,” he said.
The task force also is expected to seek an end to the alcohol-fueled parties that reportedly have become a staple of big-time football schools.
“Parents who entrust their children to coaches for a weekend ought to have clear expectations that they will return intact physically and emotionally,” Berst said.
Previous NCAA guidelines merely addressed issues such as how much money a school could spend during a recruit’s visit and the distance from campus he or she could be taken. That will change.
“We’ve been left vulnerable to what some coach’s idea is on how to outrecruit the other guy,” Berst said. “We want to re-evaluate.”
The task force includes athletic directors, a professor of pathology at Vanderbilt and Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association.
Two student-athletes will be named. Four open invitations could boost the membership to 16.
The group will make recommendations by the April 20 Division I Management Council meeting.
Berst expects the proposals to be in place this summer, before the next cycle of football recruiting begins. But the initiatives will apply to all sports.
“Institutions are responsible for the conduct of their student-athletes and staff,” NCAA President Myles Brand said.
“At no time should anyone associated with collegiate athletics involve themselves in activities that erode moral character or that call into question the academic and athletic mission of the school. In cases where potential illegal conduct is detected, we should ensure that such information is made available to law-enforcement officials.”
In addition to Teaff, members of the new task force are Reggie Minton, associate executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches; athletic directors Jeremy Foley of Florida, Gene Smith of Arizona State and Debbie Yow of Maryland; Chris Plonsky, women’s athletic director at Texas; Sonia Price, interim women’s athletic director at Alabama State; Vanderbilt professor Virginia Shepherd; and Stan Wilcox, associate commissioner of the Big East.
Northwestern guard Jitim Young, whose visits to NU, Notre Dame and Michigan State would have drawn a PG-13 rating, said student-athletes should be trusted to know right from wrong.
“It’s like having a child,” he said. “You can’t watch a child 24 hours a day. Hopefully, you’re rearing that child to the right direction, so when certain things happen, he or she will make the right decision.”
