Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 15, 1994 TAG: 9401150136
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"If the [House] Energy and Commerce Committee and the Ways and Means Committee are willing to let the Justice Department mediate health care reform, we'll think about using their services on these issues," said Francis Canavan, an NCAA spokesman.
The coaches are protesting the NCAA's decision not to restore a 14th scholarship in Division I men's basketball programs. They also have voiced their opposition to higher academic requirements for scholarship athletes. Both are considered moves that would affect mostly minority players, because blacks represent 64 percent of the Division I players.
In any case, a boycott and other threatened job actions such as head coaches walking off the floor but leaving their teams to play under the guidance of assistants will not occur this weekend. BCA leaders had been vague on whether the boycott would involve merely the coaches or also the players.
"We have agreed to delay the boycott, and I emphasize the word `delay,' " said Drake coach Rudy Washington, executive director of the BCA, after meeting for an hour with black members of Congress.
Rep. Kweisi Mfume, chairman of the 40-member Congressional Black Caucus, said he had phoned the White House on Friday and asked the Clinton administration to provide an independent third party to "arbitrate the differences that currently exist."
Within two hours, Mfume, D-Md., said he received a call from the Justice Department offering its Community Relations Service to mediate the dispute.
"Apparently, they already had started looking into it," Mfume said of the Justice agency, which was set up under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to mediate disputes involving matters of race, color and national origin.
Washington cited "interest from the White House" as a reason for putting off the boycott but he, Mfume and Georgetown coach John Thompson said they were not willing to delay action indefinitely.
The White House said it had no role in the dispute other than fielding Mfume's call. Officials said Rep. Cardiss Collins, D-Ill., had earlier made the request to the Justice Department on her own.
Collins, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee that claims oversight of the NCAA and the Black Caucus' task force on intercollegiate athletics, had asked the black coaches to delay the boycott.
"I want to strongly urge you and your members to postpone making a decision of such critical importance . . . in hopes of avoiding the disruption of the season," she said in a letter to Washington.
With support from some members of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, the black coaches began planning a boycott or other activities to disrupt this weekend's games after the NCAA on Monday rejected their proposal to restore the 14th scholarship to Division I programs.
"The 14th scholarship is not the issue," Washington said Friday. "It's just the straw that broke the camel's back. We've had 11 years of constant reductions."
by CNB