Big Ten Conference administrators are in widespread agreement that enforcement rules and bylaws relating to college men’s basketball recruiting processes are in need of serious address, University of Wisconsin Athletic Board Director Walter Dickey said Friday.
Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delaney has been pushing for men’s basketball reform, specifically regarding laws regulating the recruitment process and payment to people associated with prospective student athletes, Dickey said at an Athletic Board meeting.
Dickey added there is widespread agreement among conference administrators — who have been urging the NCAA to adopt policy changes — they will agree to several courses of action to address these concerns.
The first course of action being recommended is a reinterpretation of certain rules relating to the question of payments to people associated with prospective student athletes, according to Dickey.
“This reinterpretation of the rules, I think, is going to significantly tighten up what I think has been a corrupting influence of money in the recruiting process, and is going to subject institutions, as well as coaches to penalties,” Dickey said.
Secondly, there has been urgent legislative reform put into play to tighten up rules to address questions of money and recruitment.
“Longer term, there is going to be legislation introduced in the NCAA process that is in the more normal course of things,” Dickey said. “It may take a year or more, but it is also attentive to these questions.”
Dickey added at the last conference meeting Delaney asked the institutions to informally vote in support of advancing these initiatives, and the conference unanimously did so.
Board members also sounded off sentiments that the athletic department is an indispensable university entity in promoting diversity on campus, which is not considered in the annual budget.
Board member Adam Gamoran said of 331 black students at the university, 40 of them are on the football team.
“Something that doesn’t get noticed in the annual budget is the football programs contribution to diversity on campus,” Gamoran said.
Gamoran added since UW is a diversity-challenged campus, the role of athletics in promoting student diversity takes on special significance.
The percentage of the minority population on campus who are student athletes is something that has caught Dickey’s eye. If you take minority students who are athletes out of the mix, the diversity on campus looks a lot worse than it already does, he said.
UW Athletic Director Barry Alvarez also expressed a desire to increase the visibility of the athletic department’s connection and contributions to campus at the meeting.
The athletic department frequently gets questions about what the connection is with campus. At his first meeting with Chancellor Biddy Martin, Alvarez said this was the first thing she asked him.
“It’s vital that people know about this,” Alvarez said. “It’s not just what we give back, but the magnitude of what we give back.”
Athletic Board member Mark Covaleski added it tends to play well for organizations that are under pressure to show how they are giving back.
