Not long ago, Jim Love was talking about the rules regarding booster
contact with athletes and the like, and how it even meant you can't
buy a player a beer at a bar.  Well, not only that, but you can't EVER
buy that player a beer for the rest of his life.  Even after he
graduates.  Even after he uses up all of his eligibility.
 
Source for this is again, the book "Undue Process".  A couple of years
ago, the NC$$ interpreted the rule regarding "extra benefits" (those
extended to the player but not to the rest of the student body) to
mean that it was a violation for the player to receive these benefits
even after graduation and the using up of eligibility.  An example
given by the NC$$ is if 20 years after a player graduates, he gets a
good deal on a car from an auto dealer/booster, then that is against
NC$$ rules.  Note that it is necessary to be a booster or in some way
connected with the school.
 
This interpretation was discovered when someone in the AD dept at UNLV
wanted to help a former player (who was playing in the CBA and no
longer had any college eligibility) with some dental bills.  UNLV
called the NC$$ and was told it was not legal.  Basically, if you give
something to a player (or, apparently, former player) that you didn't
give to another student, and you do so because that person was an
athlete, then that violates the "extra benefits" rule, according to
the NC$$.
 
This clearly points out a major problem with the power vested in the
staff of the NC$$...while the NC$$ is quick to defend criticism by
saying that "the member institutions make the rules, and we just
enforce them", the NC$$ nevertheless has all the power to interpret
rules any way it sees fit, and they are answerable to no one (except
if the schools choose to directly address the interpretation at the
following convention, as happened in the Steve Alford/calendar case).
The schools make the rules...then the NC$$ spends lots of time writing
up its own interpretations of those rules, as well as interpreting
them on the fly in ways that are unknown to many of the schools, the
schools that passed the legislation in the first place.
 
If this rule has changed since 1991 (publishing date of the book), I'd
like to hear about it, btw...if it hasn't, better be careful about
buying that beer for a guy who played 10 years ago...it could come
back to haunt you.
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Mike Machnik           [log in to unmask]    [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                  *HMN* 11/13/93