The Wisconsin Magazine; Sports on trial; 1224?

[soft, then loud tone] [tone] [3 beeps] [5 beeps over a tone] [tone beep] [indistinct football game background] The play action fake, [crowd noises] [indistinct football game background] ?It's there, open.? He's got it! [crowd cheering] [crowd cheering fades out] James Lofton always seemed like a walking advertisement for what the dream of collegiate athletics could bring. A gifted student and athlete at Stanford University, now an all pro football player and successful businessman. Baseline, the 3 will count.

Minnesota basketball player Kevin Smith began the night of January 23rd in the way every college athlete dreams. ?Mitt? likes to move. He goes to the baseline. He's been hotness ?for SAT?, hasn't he? He's got 4 from the floor and I'm trying to think if. . . I don't think he's missed, no. [crowd cheering] Green Bay Packer defensive back Mossy Cade, a top draft choice out of college, now finally getting a chance to play. For each of these players collegiate athletics have been the stuff dreams were made from. Then the headlines changed, and the sports pages suddenly began to look more like the National Enquirer. Instead of touchdowns and slam dunks, the stories were about sex and scandal. James Lofton, accused by an exotic dancer of sexual assault. The district attorney has said not enough evidence exists to prosecute Lofton or another player, Eddie Lee Ivery. Mossy Cade, the rookie defensive back, now facing trial for the alleged sexual assault of a family member. And University of Minnesota basketball players Kevin Smith,

Mitchell Lee and George Williams. Players who helped lead their team to an exciting victory the night of January 23rd. The next morning all found themselves in jail, all 3 accused of sexual assault. Suddenly, some of yesterday's heroes seem tarnished and shabby. Where, oh where, were the shining old images: people like Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch. The trouble is in competitive sports there's a reward down for winning, and they do anything to win. Today Elroy Hirsch leads a multi-million dollar a year program as athletic director at the University of Wisconsin, and he is worried about the future of collegiate athletics. It's been a tough year and generally in athletics it seems like. I don't know there's been more hassles and more controversy. And when something like the Minnesota incident hits in your town, you know, it strikes a lot closer and makes you sit back and reflect and wonder, "Hey, how do we overcome things like this?" Number 33, a 6'7" junior from Lansing, Michigan, Kevin

Smith. When Kevin Smith trotted out on the basketball floor that January night, the first player he shook hands with was Wisconsin's J.J. Weber. The only thing that was shocking was that you're on the court with those guys 20, 25 minutes, you know, and all of the sudden you read about 'em in the paper and they're sittin' down in the jail in Dane County, Madison. And one of the things it's, it's real shocking is not only did they do something like that in your city, but they represent the Big Ten Conference. Now all of the sudden the Big Ten Conference's got a bad rap because of 3 individuals. Weber, basketball teammate Trent Jackson, hockey goalie Mike Richter, and football player Charlie Farley are all successful college athletes. Each resent the scandals that have rocked collegiate sports, and each worries about the future. There's a lot of, lot of emphasis put on it now, where it- it's questionable. But I'm more worried about what's gonna happen 10 years from now. I'm more worried about what's gonna happen in the future, you know, how much, how much more emphas- 10 years from now, what's, what's it gonna be like? A lot of it is up to the individual. You can't give athletics a bad rap because a couple guys go astray.

Like you said it's, it's, it's the individuals in any sport, and college athletes now are getting so much press coverage that you're getting into your personal lives and if we, uh, took the average student here at Wisconsin and, and looked at all the things they did - sure of plenty it would be illegal or whatever. But now just because you're an athlete all of the sudden they're in the spotlight, and they did something wrong, athletics have a bad name. Well if you're an athlete though, and, uh, you're a prominent one, you, you expect the spotlight on you I think, and you have to give a little more to society than other people. Uh, after all, the some of the scholarshipped athlete is having his room, board, tuition, books taken care of here, and course he's giving us something in return, no 2 ways about it. But on the other hand there are other pressures on him. There are other pressures on them. From the time these athletes are 17 years old they are treated differently, and that, some observers believe, may be at the root of the problem. Dr. Drew Palin is a Milwaukee sports medicine expert and former captain of the Stanford football team. If an athlete is a very, um, capable, skilled

athlete, from early on he's, uh, um, pampered he's catered to, he's recruited, he's, uh, honored, he's in the limelight. Um, it just creates a very unrealistic self-image. And I think that creates some unrealistic expectations and puts him in jeopardy to have these things happen. So far the University of Wisconsin has largely been free of major NCAA violations, but the same cannot be said for many other institutions. Though mind and body may be interrelated, at some schools it is the body - not the mind - that gets nurtured, and tales of free apartments, free clothes, and plenty of cash are legion. Frank Remington is a UW law professor who sits on the NCAA Infractions Committee. Well there's no question in the Southwest Conference, uh, where recent attention has been directed that there have been flagrant recruiting violations involving very large sums of money

promised and paid to the athletes. The NCAA is struggling to put its house in order. But while it concentrates on rules infractions there is still a long way to go in establishing basic academic requirements. Right now the NCAA does not require athletes to make progress towards a degree. There is no such regulation. The, um, regulation tends to read in terms of good academic standing, and I've been in a number of cases in which the dean of the college has been asked what is good academic standing and says if you're in school, you're in good academic standing. There are no requirements. Can you take one credit and be in good academic standing? Sure, why not? I don't think that you can make any special exceptions in terms of education. I mean, there's been talk about having special classes for athletes. Well, you know, the first thing that's gonna happen is you're gonna to go out in the job market, somebody's gonna look at that and say, "Well, you're taking all these special classes. You really don't know what it's like to be out in a real college world. You don't know how to compete at a college level."

Just to learn how to learn. Many athletes, of course, do learn. Weber points out that teammate Rod Ripley could actually graduate early if he so chose. But the academic achievements of athletes like Ripley often go unnoticed. Out of their frustration athletic department took an ad in the Wisconsin State Journal to announce the fact that Rod Ripley had been selected as a Big Ten and all-American academic basketball team. It had been printed in the local media under the headlines of "Scott Skiles in Trouble Again". More attention is paid to athletes like Skiles, a brilliant Michigan State basketball player who's been arrested several times on drug and alcohol charges. But it's tough to ignore cases like Skiles or the alleged assault of a Madison woman by three Minnesota basketball players. But ironically, ignore those cases is precisely what the NCAA will probably do. Their rules are designed to limit cheating and recruiting violations. There are no

NCAA rules on rape. Will that be something that ever finds its way to a committee like yours, which seems like such a terrible situation, and yet I'm not sure they violated any NCAA regulations. No, did not. There is a ethical conduct, uh, standard in the NCA which talks about, uh, acting at the highest level of sportsmanship, and one could argue that they clearly did not do that. But, uh, it has not been applied and, uh, it's an interesting question as to why it has not been applied to behavior off the court or off the playing field. And there are a lot of people who feel that it,uh, should be. I think the fear is where to draw the line. And given the blurry distinction between amateur and professional athletics these days, drawing the line will not be easy. You know, what's the distinction now between amateur and professional when you're talking Olympics? The amateurs put it in a trust fund, the professionals put it in their pocket. You know.

And so I think to make things more consistent it may be just better to if you can earn your way by athletics, so be it. If you can't, enjoy it for participation, but why make those artificial distinctions? Palin and others believe that athletes should simply receive cash up front to help put an end to under the table subsidies. Then it's at least up front. Now it's a farce. It is a view many athletes support, especially since NCAA rules prohibit athletes from holding jobs during the academic year. I can't see anything wrong with compensating athletes for what they're doing. College athletes nowadays is a big business. The big industry makes a lot of money, and there's not many people that work, that have a job every day and then have time to go to school. 'Cause this is kind of just like a job that we have. I think that they should try and propose a law that would allow an athlete to receive some. . . I know I'm playing football.

There's times where I've really thought about, geez you know, um next play I could break my neck and be paralyzed. You know, or something could happen and I, and you know this I won't be able to use this arm ever again or this leg ever again. You know there's things that. . . You know there's too I'm just, I'm throwing my body on the field and it just doesn't seem, it just doesn't seem equal that just the tuition is just enough. That's a fair question. I notice in California there's a bill in the legislature, uh, right now which would, uh, make athletes, uh, subject to workman's compensation. And I've always felt that's, uh, proper move because there are accidents to athletes that deserve more compensation than sometimes is available. In that sense I think recognizing it as a job is a good thing. But Remington stopped short of endorsing cash payments for athletes. Neither does such a plan have the support of Elroy Hirsch. You, you drive an awful lot of schools out of business if you said "Hey, you can pay your athletes." I don't think that's the answer. Um, I don't. . . That's, that's out and out professionalism. And then you're going to get in a bidding war, and you're gonna have a handful of wealthy schools or with alumni backing some way are gonna dominate.

At least this way we all have a shot at it. To have a shot at the dream of collegiate athletics. [basketball game background noise] Inside, Weber, jockies for position. Over to ?Nasky?. Scores. To have a shot at the dream - a dream that may be tarnished, but a dream athletes still believe in. It's, it's every kid's dream, right. You got 4 guys sitting right here. And for the 4 of us there's 4 million kids out there that'd give their right arm to sit where we're sittin'. It's worth it. Everybody wants the level, everybody wants the recognition, but you make sacrifices. Whether those sacrifices will be made by athletes and their institutions will dictate whether the dream will be worth pursuing in the future.