NCAA Officials to Oppose Bok Plan

A top official of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) said yesterday that his group would probably not accept a controversial new proposal to re-organize the governance of intercollegiate athletics, put forward recently by a committee chaired by President Bok.

Bok, as chairman a special committee of 38 University presidents set up to investigate intercollegiate athletic abuses. Proposed three weeks ago that a board of University presidents be set up with powers to legislate and pass rules themselves and veto any actions by the NCAA as a whole.

Made up of more than 800 schools, the NCAA makes most of the rules currently governing college sports.

Such a panel, which would become part of the NCAA, is needed because university president do not have a large enough role in trying to reform abuse-filled intercollegiate athletics, Bok said this week.

But John R. Davis, secretary-treasurer of the NCAA, said that a although the governing group felt that university presidents should have a greater influence in making policy, the board should only have advisory power with final decisions being left up to annual NCAA conventions. Unless the panel's powers are sharply limited, NCAA officials will likely oppose the plan, he added.

"we will probably respond in a positive direction to having the new board, but with powers short of what president Bok wanted," he said.

The NCAA will voice its objections to President Bok and his committee in a Washington, D.C. meeting according to Davis. Even if a compromise can not be made then, Bok would be able to bring the proposal to the December NCAA convention IN Dallas where the whole membership would have to pass it by two-thirds vote.

Scaled Down

Bok said that while he would always listen to the arguments of the NCAA leadership, he did not think that any scaled-down advisory panel could be effective in dealing with the problems. "In order to have the minimum of powers that we think are necessary-subject certainly to the necessity of consulting and advising and using the established organizations within the NCAA--it is necessary to have ultimate power either to propose new rules or veto others."

Although the presidents ostensibly now have control of their institutions' dealings with the NCAA, Bok contended that often it is the athletic directions and faculty representatives who control the university's actions-often to the detriment of the ideals his group is working for.

Circumstances

"You have an enormous number of things on the ballot, many of which are quite intricate. Theoretically, the presidents could instruct their delegates, but as a practical mater, that does not open not happen, "he added.

Opponents of the plan announced by Bok in an August 25 meeting of university presidents and chancellors in Keystone. Colo have argued that there is not a sufficient check on the powers of the proposed panel.

Bok said in the plan that if the NCAA objected to any of the panel's legislation they could override by a two-thirds majority in a mail vote. NCAA officials, however, charged that the mail vote would violate the open convention discussion that usually precedes NCAA legislative votes.

"It does not seem like the most democratic way of doing things," Davis said.