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Local D-I universities prepare for upcoming NCAA chances [Dayton Daily News, Ohio :: ]
[August 17, 2014]

Local D-I universities prepare for upcoming NCAA chances [Dayton Daily News, Ohio :: ]


(Dayton Daily News (OH) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Aug. 17--Five framed front pages from the Dayton Daily News hang in Archie Miller's office at the Frerick's Center at the University of Dayton. They commemorate 10 days in March when the Flyers took on teams from four of the five so-called power conferences and came away with three victories and an Elite Eight run that proved once again how magical the NCAA tournament can be.



In basketball, at least on the court, the gap between Dayton and schools in the Big Ten, SEC, ACC, Pac 12 and Big 12 is not vast -- and often doesn't exist at all as the Flyers have shown time and again over the years -- but the 64 schools in those five conferences, plus Notre Dame, took a step earlier this month to separate themselves from the other 27 Division I conferences.

By a 16-2 vote Aug. 7, the NCAA Division I board of directors voted to allow the five wealthiest conference to write their own rules. They will have the autonomy to do things such as pay their athletes cost-of-attendance stipends, provide better insurance benefits for athletes or increasing staff sizes or training hours. This new model faces a 60-day veto period before it becomes official, but at least 75 schools would have reject it to make the board reconsider.


In all likelihood, this is the future of the NCAA, and the Division I schools in the Miami Valley -- Dayton, Wright State and Miami -- are keeping a close eye on the developments.

"The autonomy that has been given to the five what we call higher-resource conference is autonomy that allows them to better use their resources for the student-athlete," said Wright State President David Hopkins, a member of the NCAA Board of Directors. "They had proposed autonomy around transfer rules. They had proposed autonomy around having their own enforcement. That was all taken out. They did not get everything they wanted.

"The only things that we designed very carefully are in the categories that we think make sense in support of student-athletes, and these conferences have the money to do that in ways that we should allow them to do it. What happens is they have the autonomy to now propose policies within these categories. It still has to be vetted with the entire D-1, not approved by the entire D-1. We of the other 27 conferences will have a chance to pick and choose which ones we want to be with them on." Remaining competitive In other words, if the big five conferences vote to pay their athletes $2,500 stipends on top of their scholarships to help cover the cost of attending college, the other conferences can do the same. Not every conference will be able to afford to do that, and there are even great financial differences between schools in each conference.

Miller has been assured by President Dan Curran and Athletic Director Tim Wabler that UD will go all out to remain competitive with those conferences.

"We've known something was going to happen for a long time," Miller said. "I think the communication from (Curran and Wabler) has always been the same. Because of who we are as a basketball program in general and because of how important that is to what's going on, we're going to do everything we can to be a part of whatever they do." Dayton and the Atlantic 10 faced a similar issue in October 2011 when the NCAA board voted to give athletes $2,000 stipends on top of their scholarships. Each conference had to vote on the issue, and the A-10 approved it. But in late December of that year, 160 schools voted to override the legislation.

The stipend issue will come up again when the power five conferences decide what they're going to do. They are required to submit their legislation changes by Oct. 1. Those changes could then become official at the NCAA convention in January.

"Each one of the rules will be looked at separately on their own, seeing how it makes sense for the conference and voted on accordingly," Wabler said, "with the whole goal in mind of keeping the Atlantic 10 Conference at the level that it currently is. Last year it was No. 6 in the country (in men's basketball).

"We're going to obviously need to wait to see how everything plays out as to what all the different items are that are going to be legislated. We're certainly in favor of helping the student-athletes in regard to their ability to be successful in college, being more successful in their entry into college and more successful when they walk out of college and ready to move on into their careers, whether that has to do with insurance or providing other benefits that help them with their adjustments." Miller likes UD's position because he knows programs that don't attract 12,000 fans per game year after year will have a harder time paying stipends.

"There's going to be some people who aren't going to be able to keep up, which is why I've always said this is a great place to be," Miller said. "You can stand on your own two feet and run a great program. We have an unbelievable fan base. You're going to be able to give your players the same resources as everybody else." Miami AD David Sayler wonders if the Mid-American Conference will decide as a whole what to do on specific issues or let each school decide. He said Miami is supportive of paying a cost-of-attendance stipend, but there are limits as to what it will do.

"We feel that's something that's definitely a recruiting issue if one school is doing it," Sayler said. "When it comes to gold-plated media guides or lavish meals for recruits, that's stuff that frankly we're not interested in." Blurred line One of the concerns about paying an athlete more than the cost of a scholarship is that it blurs the line between amateur and pro athletes. Wright State men's basketball coach Billy Donlon can only work with his athletes a certain number of hours per week. If they start getting paid more, will he have to treat them more like employees than student-athletes? The NCAA is a big business, but as it stands now, Donlon is more coach and mentor than boss.

"The difference between us and the NBA is you never see a coach get in trouble when an NBA player gets in trouble with the law," Donlon said. "In college, if we get a guy or two get in trouble with the law, our jobs will be in jeopardy. That's because part of the mission statement at Wright State -- and it should be like this -- is to help develop young men into grown men and help them earn educations. If we go to a strictly a business model and maybe you're paying a player and giving a player some money when he's finished, at the end of the day, it's going to become almost strictly about wins and losses. The change in this regard, I don't know if I like that." The autonomy issue isn't the only big change coming to the NCAA. The recent court ruling involving former UCLA star Ed O'Bannon clears the way for college athletes to earn money off the use of their likenesses: as much as $5,000 per year, which would be put in a trust fund for them access when they leave school. In short, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken, of Oakland, Calif., struck down the NCAA's definition of amateurism.

The athletes have more power than ever before, but no matter what happens, Wright State Athletic Director Bob Grant doesn't see Donlon's worse fears being realized.

"We're not in the widget business," Grant said. "Our business is to take 18 to 22-year-olds and make them better people, better citizens. Nothing's going to stop that." No worries Grant won't lose sleep over the issues, he said. That's also how first-year Miami football coach Chuck Martin views it. He called this all "much ado about nothing," because it's not going to change how Miami recruits.

"When we go up to Michigan, we don't recruit against Michigan," Martin said. "We're still not going to be recruiting against them. (The big five conferences) have got to get together on what they want. When they lay down what they're going to do, then I think I'll probably have an opinion, but there's a big difference between USC, Notre Dame and Indiana. To me, it's going to affect more of the power five conferences and create an unlevel playing field with those guys." Even if Miami, Wright State and Dayton can't compete with the Michigans and Ohio States of the world in the revenue they generate, it can compete on the field in many sports and will continue to do so. It was very important for Hopkins to make sure the Horizon League and other like conferences continue to get the chance to automatically qualify for the NCAA tournament in many different sports.

There was a fear the top five conferences would split from Division I entirely to form their own division.

"I think that was a reality," Hopkins said. "I don't think they wanted to. I think they become much more vulnerable to a lot of other views from the rest of the world when they're all by themselves. I do think that was a possibility. Personally, I would tell you, sitting on this eight-person steering committee that redesigned it, that we were trying to find a way to stay together because we thought that was in the best interest of everyone, including all the smaller conferences, the less-resource conferences, because it does provide us with access to revenue sharing of the NCAA." The NCAA gets no money for the Bowl Championship Series in football. About 90 percent of its revenue comes from the NCAA men's basketball tournament. That's another reason to maintain the status quo in that regard.

"Although change is coming and it's evolving, what's clear is there is still some tie to the educational aspect," Sayler said. "We're not going to have a situation where there's a completely broken-off semipro model. I don't see that happening, and I don't think any of the ADs I know see that happening.

"If they lose their tax-exempt status and they have to start handling things more like a corporation than a league, then I think other things change that could make it not beneficial to them. So there's lots of factors at play here. I think all those schools are committed to the amateurism model." ___ (c)2014 the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) Visit the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) at www.daytondailynews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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