European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 22, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 24 a a a the stars and stripes wednesday August 22,1990 90s tee up football t90 by William c Rhoden the new York time faced with Legal challenges shifting alliances and a deteriorating relationship with the National football league College football is beginning the most significant season in its 122-Ycar history _ sweeping winds of change that passed As rumours five years ago have begun to erode conference lies scatter advertisers dollars and even sow seeds of a movement for players rights. They have also presented coaches athletic directors and players with a challenging mandate be successful and raise Revenue but stay within the constraints of an increasingly Complex body of rules. Quot in be never seen a season begin with so Many issues Quot said Roy Kramer commissioner of the Southeastern conference. Quot recruiting financial Aid distribution of Revenue conferences. There a been talk fora Long time about changes but i think we re All convinced that the 1990s will be the decade of  College coaches who have seen salaries and pressures escalate arc caught in the throes of change that will Force Many to alter the Way they operate Quot the status quo is gone Quot said Joe Patimo who is beginning his 25lh year As the Penn state coach. Quot the nil is expanding into College football. Our presidents Are demanding reforms and cutbacks. Yet we have to make Money Lor 27 other sports from Gate receipts and other revenues the presidents have no place to get it from except us. Quot so coaches Are now asking a How do i make More Money and do it legitimately without exploiting the Guys that s the dilemma that a Why you re seeing so Many changes. The world turns and things change. You better change with them or be left  As Tennessee and Colorado prepare for sundays first game of the season the problems confronting College football like an All out Blitz seem to be coming from every direction. A relationship with the pros the once cozy arrangement Between the Mcaa and the nil has become combative As the two enterprises compete fora shrinking advertising Dollar and fight a tug of War Over Star College players eager to test the pro Market. A conference realignment traditional rivalries Are ending As schools and conferences enter into hastily arranged marriages of economic convenience. Earlier this month Arkansas jumped from the Southwest conference to the Southeastern after determining it would be enriched by the move. That came a few months after Penn state abandoned its traditional Independent status to join the big ten where it is expected to begin football Competition by 1995. A television negotiations notre Dame changed the ground rules earlier this year when it went outside the College football association which it helped form. The school independently forged its own Deal with Abc for an estimated $30 million Over five years. This prompted conferences and other independents to look Lor says to Best enhance their own to Revenue and forgo a More collective approach. A advertising to advertisers Are reassessing the free spending of the 1970s and Early 1980s, when they poured millions of dollars into College football. A players rights players won the right this year to apply Lor the nil draft As underclassmen one outraged by this Progress and surrounded by million Dollar deals they Are using the courts to Challenge rules that restrict their ability to test their marketability. I ast week a former notre Dame player Braxston Banks lost his suit against the Mcaa and notre Dame to have a final year of eligibility restored. Banks forfeited that year when he declared for april a nil draft he was one of 20 undergraduates not selected. Banks said he wanted to draw attention to the n a s eligibility rules which he believes ire unclear and unfair. A we want to insure that those who follow will have a better Chance and a clearer understanding of what is going on around them and wont have to go through the same thing in be had to endure Quot he said. Like players coaches have been forced to Deal with new realities and not All of them like it. Quot i hey want to Cut Back and eliminate and have Lime  said John Jenkins the first year coach at Houston. Quot you just wonder whether its going to come rtt cd to v. A via a Quot i ref a a 1 via a a it Quot Quot it  Penn slates Joe Paterno a the status quo is gone Houston a John Jenkins. 5 or 6 games on to to a head where our school and some of the other major colleges step Back and just say a hey enough of this. We re getting out of the Mcaa. Houston has problems symptomatic of those that prompted Arkansas to leave the Sec after having generated a fourth of the conferences Revenue. Despite having Andre Ware the Heisman trophy Winner last season Houston was not a big Gate attraction. The cougars averaged 28,449 fans per Home game. The average attendance last season in the Sec was 37,541, compared with a Coria Cronce Riccord 65,445 in the Sec where six teams ranked in the top 12 nationally in attendance. Quot we be run through the Mcaa record Book As if it were a track meet. And yet As far As sellout crowds and. What not it Hasni to happened Quot Jenkins said. Quot you need to look at the fact a we re in a pro town and b the television. An individual can sit Home and watch five or six games without even gelling out of his chair. Back in the 1960s and �?T70s people were driving 100 Miles to. Go see a game Quot critics Point out that College football created the current glut of televised games that is partly responsible for the downward turn of attendance. The Mcaa negotiated its first television football package Worth $1.1 million in 1952, but a restrictive policy limited exposure. In 1982, Oklahoma and Georgia successfully sued the Mcaa on behalf of the Cha and earned the right for All schools to negotiate their own television deals the big ten and Pacific-10 remained outside the Cha and made their own deals. College football began to fill the airwaves and attendance for division 1-a has declined Ever since it fell to 41.970 per game last season after reaching a High of 43.689 in 1982. Although few coaches feel that leaving the Mcaa is necessary a or practical a an increasing number of them agree that change is necessary to make the game More attractive and Stop further fragmentation. Quot we compete now with the nil the Aba and the Mcaa basketball championships a Paterno said. Quot each of those has done a great Job of promoting itself and they be done it with playoffs. They be spiced up their games. We have not. We be relied on bowls to spice up the end of our  Penn slate sparked widespread talk of shifts in december when it accepted the big ten s invitation. What Many find curious about the move is that the overtures to Penn state came from big ten presidents. They came at a time when the Mcaa presidents commission was calling for More controls Over athletic programs and a constricting of big time athletics. Some coaches complained that Penn states move and the subsequent shift by Arkansas sent the wrong message. Quot in a getting mixed  said Gram Teaff the Baylor coach. A administrators faculty representatives Tell us we have to reign in athletes Cut Back the number of scholarships and coaching stall no athletic dorms no Spring practice Quot then they expand reach out in the name of finance to bring in this team or that team As part of a league to get a larger share of television Money. It seems As it they want to go in two separate  one Clear direction is that the modern Dav Collece football player at most big time programs is no longer the naive teen Ager oblivious to the huge amount of Money his University is making or to six figure contracts coaches Are signing. Banks said that whereas football and basketball teams at Large schools support other programs football and basketball players Lack the Freedom of athletes in Tennis and Golf to compete against professionals without losing eligibility. Baseball and hockey players can enter pro drafts in their respective sports without forfeiting eligibility Quot i think these colleges Are afraid that if these so called Star players were to have the Freedom to test their marketability openly the schools would lose a lot of Money because they would lose a lot of the key players and a lot of the hype that goes with having key players Quot Banks said. Richard d. Schultz the no aah a executive director has said that he favors removing restrictions on football players to allow underclassmen to put their names in drafts without losing eligibility. But legislation on that Issue has not been introduced. Players testing the pro Market is just one of the areas that has strained the relationship Between the College and pro games. The Promise of playing professionally is a Magnet that often attracts outstanding players to a particular College program. But with pressure to graduate players athletic officials have openly begun to Point their fingers at pro scouts. A your concern was that they Lake people out of school during their last semester and that prevents them from graduating Quot said Chuck Neinas the executive director of the Cha. Quot they re telling Young men that they have to visit 16 different professional clubs and then they conduct minicams during final exam period. So obviously they Don t have a Charice to graduate. We re suggesting in very Strong terms that the nil should underwrite the educational expense of those underclassmen who do come out Early whether they re drafted or whether they re free  but the nil apparently weary of the quasi minor league function College football performs has come up with a plan that May succeed where years of Mcaa Reform have failed getting College football out of the Runor league business. The nil is underwriting the world league of american football with the idea that it will serve As a minor league. Some College administrators secretly Welcome a minor league that would finally get their schools out of the sports entertainment business Wou be not at unhappy Quot said Illinois Weir if someone told me tomorrow that All around the country we re going to give up major network coverage of football and basketball and that the billion Dollar contract is going away. Id say a Well adjust to  i believe that the Money is creating a problem. We be got to do something about  schedules on the Way to s playing whom w Hen and where Check saturday s edition of i he stars and stripes for Complete 1990 football schedules for every Mcaa division i a and i a team