Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Feb. 5, 2004, edition 1 / Page 19
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wmmmmm 3C SPORTS/C|e Ctarlotte $at Thursday, February 5, 2004 UnR Ireshman engHitii Amner coaches say By Joseph White THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON - Former ACC coaches Tferry Holland and Dean Smith expressed their concern this week over the state of college athletics and renewed their push to make freshmen ineligible. Tfestifying Monday before the reform-minded Knight Commission, Holland said college sports remains beset by a “growing litany of irre sponsible and outrageous behavior.” He proposed that future shares of television money be awarded to schools whose athletes meet the institu tion’s academic profile. He also recommended an over haul of game schedules - to play only local rivalry games on weeknights, for example - so athletes would miss fewer classes. “If we really want students to put academics first, then, by golly, make them go to class,” said Holland, the for mer coach and athletic direc tor at Virginia who now is a special assistant to the uni versity's president. NCAA President Myles Brand as well as university faculty members and TV executives were among those at Monday’s forum. The Knight Commission, formed 15 years ago in response to various scandals in college sports, plans to make recommendations to the NCAA’s board of direc tors before its April meeting. Georgia, St. John’s, Fresno State, St. Bonaventure, Iowa State, Ohio State, Alabama, Washington and Colorado have all had problems over the past 12 months. ‘We’ve had a bad year,” said commission chairman William Friday, president emeritus of the University of North Carolina. “Everybody’s acknowledged that. But I think that fact has caused a lot of the for ward motion we see.” Smith, longtime North Carolina coach and the all- time leader in NCAA coach ing victories, said freshman recruits should play only for freshmen-only teams. He also suggested that junior college transfers be forced to sit out a year before playing with the varsity. “You have to show you’re a student first before you have the privilege of playing inter collegiate basketball,” Smith said. Whether any of the propos als will get far beyond the meeting room is uncertain. The NCAA has taken some action recently. New stan dards for test scores, course requirements and degree progression wiU soon take effect. Brand said a final vote could come in April on a pro gram of rewards and penal ties for schools based on how athletes make progress toward their degrees. Scholarship cuts and post season bans could be levied against the worst offenders. Brand said the next issue to target should be finances. He said the notion that ath letic programs can pay for themselves is an “ideal that very few can reach,” and it could be causing schools to spend more in hopes of somehow getting a return. “The way we financially support intercollegiate ath letics needs to be re-exam ined,” Brand said. While Smith, Holland and Brand were the big names in the room Monday, the real head-turner came from a medieval literature profes sor at Oregon. James Earl, co-chairman of a faculty group called the Coahtion on Intercollegiate Athletics, said the faculty at his school last month debat ed a censure motion against university president Dave Frohnmayer. The professors are upset, Earl said, because the school is considering borrowing $100 million to pay for a new basketball arena for the Ducks, even as the academic side of the school faces up to FAMU slows I-A drive THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Florida A&M president Fred Gainous has recommended that the school’s trustees delay their deci sion to move the football program to Division I-A. Gainous, who has been president of the school for 19 months, plans to meet with trustees Monday about pulling back from an announced plan to move up from I-AA this fall. “The proposed move to Division I-A has the greatest potential to threaten our capacity to carry out our great mission,” he told trustees in an e-mail obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat. Gainous cited a desire to devote more financial resources to academic programs. At least two trustees support Gainous’ notion. “It would be hard for me to see a situa tion where I would not support his recom mendation,” trustee Randy Hanna said Sunday. Added trustee R.B. Holmes: “I think it is a good idea to go to Division I-A, but I think we need more time.” Holmes said he still thinks FAMU should move up to Division I-A eventually, but not until the school’s athletic facilities have been upgraded and the financial support of boosters has been strengthened. Holmes also recommends that FAMU remain a member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in all sports, including football. He said the school should put together a master plan for the next seven to 10 years before making another effort to move to Division I-A. The decision to move up from Division I- AA cost football head coach Billy Joe sev eral Division I-A transfers last summer because of newly toughened NCAA trans fer rules. The university has been under pressure from the Board of Governors, which over sees all 11 of Florida’s public universities, for sloppy accounting practices. Gainous hired a' new vice president for finance two weeks ago. Halftime show hits sour note By Steve Wilstein THE ASSOCIATED PRESS It’s hard to work up too much outrage over Janet Jackson’s bared breast and tawdry halftime perfor mance with Justin Timberlake at the Super Bowl. They gave new meaning to the phrase “boob tube,” but nothing on TV shocks much anymore. Sure, the bustier-ripping scene brought the Super Bowl to a higher level of crassness. Yes, it was offensive to many viewers who prefer that female breasts not be exposed on prime time net work television. True, it incurred the wrath of the Federal Communications Commission chief, who called it “deplorable” and ordered an investigation. But a generation of kids has been growing up watch ing “Sex and the City,” and movies with nude, lewd scenes. Flip the channels and you can find more flesh any time of day. Dating shows in the early evening get down and dirty. The Internet puts sex sites in reach of anyone with a computer. Sex sells sports and practi cally everything else in our society. Athletes pose sugges tively in all kinds of ads. Cheerleaders and dancers prance about games in the skimpiest of costumes. Was a little more skin - Jackson’s right breast dappled only by a sun-shaped, metal nipple decoration - such a leap of propriety? A lot of people saw it that way. Switchboards lit up at CBS and its affiliates as the moral majority registered complaints. The network and MTV, the halftime show’s producer, issued apologies, saying it was unrehearsed and uninten tional. But that hardly will be the end of the matter. FCC chief Michael Powell, who has been under political pressure to shield the public from smut on radio and TV, voiced his outrage. “Like millions of Americans, my family and I gathered around the televi sion for a celebration,” PoweU said. “Instead, that celebration was tainted by a classless, crass and deplorable stunt. Our nation’s children, parents and citizens deserve better.” President Bush said he fell asleep after the first half and missed the show, but the White House weighed in. “Our view is, it’s important for families to be able to expect a high standard when it comes to programming,” spokesman Scott McClellan ' said. Like what? The rest of the trash on television? The halftime show, for all the millions it cost, was just more offensive junk. Whether the breast bit was planned, as it appeared to be to promote Jackson’s upcom ing album, or an accidental “wardrobe malfunction” of her leather gladiator thingy. as Timberlake says, it was. part of a raunchy duet that didn’t work. What it lacked in good taste it equaled with a lack of talent. “I’m gorma have you naked by the end of this song,” Timberlake wailed in “Rock Your Body,” at the moment he tore at Jackson’s outfit. Some people heard the words, others heard nothing but noise. Jackson apologized Monday, saying her unveil ing was a stunt that went avrry and was a last-minute idea thrown in after final rehearsals. Her spokes woman said a red lace gar ment was supposed to remain when Timberlake tore off the outer covering. “It was not my intention that it go as far as it did,” Jackson said. “I apologize to anyone offended — including the audience, MTV, CBS and the NFL.” Planned or not, it was a performance reminiscent of the time Roseanne Ban- grabbed her crotch and spat on the ground while screech ing the national anthem at a baseball doubleheader in San Diego in 1990. The Super Bowl is mom and apple pie, beer and chips, families and fiiends gathered around the cool fire ■of television. It is America trying to be its most whole some, watching good of boys slamming each other silly for a trophy and a ring. Winners go to Disneyland, where wholesomeness is next to godliness. $6 million in budget cuts. He said the faculty first will try other measures to deal with the president. “The vote of no confidence in the president is a kind of ultimate weapon that a fac ulty has, and it can only be used in a really extreme case,” Earl said. “But I think athletics provides an extreme case.” M. r-' ■Ai
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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