NCAA considers changing amatuer status

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Posted 6:57AM on Thursday, April 25, 2002

INDIANAPOLIS - The NCAA is considering a range of rules changes that would redefine ``amateur,'' including a proposal to loan top players $20,000 and another that would allow high schoolers to turn pro for a year and then return to college. The NCAA Board of Directors will look at those proposals on Thursday, and the executive committee will start its search to replace retiring president Cedric Dempsey on Friday. It's a 48-hour span that could alter dramatically college sports. ``We're asking the NCAA to move away from one of its founding principles,'' said Ohio State president Brit Kirwan, chairman of the NCAA's board of directors. ``Given that fact, it's made it a really difficult issue.'' Similar changes have been floated in the past, and there's no guarantee any will even come to a vote this time. ``I think it's risky to predict, but I think it's possible some elements could be pulled out and passed and others tabled,'' Kirwan said. The catalyst for the suggested changes is the increase in the number of athletes leaving college early and high school athletes skipping college altogether. In last weekend's NFL draft, for example, 12 of the first 28 players selected were underclassmen. Half of the top eight picks in last year's NBA draft were high schoolers; only one college senior was taken in that span. At the top of the NCAA's agenda is allowing ``elite'' athletes to take one-time loans of up to $20,000, based on potential earnings. Another proposal would let the NCAA pay for disability insurance. Who these ``elite'' athletes are would be determined by where they're projected to go in a pro league's draft, though the standards vary for the sports included - football, men's and women's basketball, hockey and baseball. The committee also will examine a measure that would let high school athletes enter a draft but still go to college without losing eligibility if they don't sign a contract with a team or an agent. Another proposal: Allow high schoolers to head to the pros for a year, then sit out a year and enter college with three years of eligibility left. As for the presidential search, Tulsa president Bob Lawless heads a four-member committee that will narrow the field of candidates. The other committee members are Kirwan; Patricia Cormier, president of Longwood College in Virginia and chairwoman of the Division II Presidents Council; and Bette Landman of Beaver College in Pennsylvania and chairwoman of the Division III Presidents Council. Two or three finalists will be selected in September, and a final decision should come in October. No one has applied yet. Dempsey is retiring when his term ends Jan. 1.