At 7:43 AM -0500 8/13/96, Jack C. Berenzweig wrote: > As the parent of a collegiate athlete, I have had several occasions to > contact the NCAA for some guidance, relating to questions of collegiate > eligibility. On no occasion was I ever able to receive a definitive > answer from the NCAA as to whether some particular act would jeoparize > by son's eligibility. Sometimes, after receiving an answer from one > person at the NCAA, I would call back a second time and ask a different > person the same question and receive an entirely different answer, which > was inconsistent with the first answer. Furthermore, after the NCAA > rendered its advice, they would refuse, as a matter of policy, to put > their advice in writing. I found this interesting because it almost exactly mirrors examples of cases that appear in the book written several years ago as a sort of expose of the NCAA - author and title escape me and the book is packed away someplace, but it is called something like "The NCAA's Injustice For All" (perhaps a subtitle). The book may have gone a little too far in some cases - I'm not sure - but it did raise some important questions in my mind as to how the NCAA conducts itself and this was one of them. In the book, the author detailed numerous cases in which a student-athlete attempted to get a clarification from the NCAA on an issue and as Jack says, he was either given conflicting information or not allowed to have a written interpretation of the rule in question (or both). In some cases, I believe, it turned out that the verbal interpretation given by the NCAA staff was incorrect and the student-athlete and/or institution was still sanctioned. This seemed scary to me then, and it bothers me that they still seem to have the same philosophy (which I thought might have changed, but apparently not). The NCAA should be willing to stand behind the interpretations it issues as advice to SAs and their parents, in the form of a written declaration that their interpretation is correct. If it is not willing to do this, then its staff should not be rendering these decisions. I'd certainly be interested to hear justification for why the NCAA thinks it is okay for the staff to issue conflicting information and also why it is unwilling to issue written verification. I'm sure we all remember the huge flap over IRS staffers giving conflicting and incorrect information to people who called their help line with tax questions. The NCAA is supposed to be in the position of helping student-athletes, as part of its job, and it does not seem that the way in which it handles questions such as those Jack posed is either helpful or fair. Was there supposed to have been a different way for Jack to pursue this matter in order to get a definitive answer with written proof? If so, what is it? It seems as if even the advice I gave about contacting the NCAA with compliance questions may not fully settle the issue, and I'd like to know what people are really supposed to do. It would be nice if there was a way to get an answer from someone at the NCAA about this. After all, we are only trying to do what is right. When people ask important questions like this, they want real answers, and it looks like there is still some doubt as to whether the NCAA is willing or able to provide those answers. And if that is true, how can SAs and schools really be held responsible if no one is accountable? --- --- Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] *HMM* 11/13/93 ***** Unofficial Merrimack Hockey home page located at: ***** ***** http://www.tiac.net/users/machnik/MChockey/MChockey.html ***** HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.