Wednesday. March 10, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section B · Page 5
NCAA agrees to $54 million settlement
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The NCAA agreed yesterday to pay $45.5 million to entry-level coaches who had sued because they were not being paid enough.
The governing body of college sports also agreed to drop its appeal of a judge's ruling in favor of about 2,000 Division I assistant coaches who had come under the "restricted-earnings" plan.
"This has been a long and — unfortunately — divisive issue," said Charles Wethington, NCAA executive committee chairman. "It has pitted employee against school and sometimes friend against friend."
The settlement was reached through mediation, and both parties had been trying to agree on a settlement figure since Feb.24.
Next step for the NCAA is deciding how to allocate the $54.5 million in damages among the 302 Division I schools. Attorneys' fees will come out of that figure.
Executive director Cedric Dempsey said the NCAA would contribute about $22 million from cost-saving measures the next three years, leaving the schools responsible for $32.4 million. He would not speculate on what the school-by-school allocation might be.
Dempsey pointed to two possible plans the NCAA committee is considering — one, dividing the total equally among all Division I schools, the other based on division by school size.
it is not likely the subcommittee's allocation plan will embrace either of these solutions," Dempsey said.
He said the NCAA would like to decide before the organization's next fiscal year begins in September.
Last year, the NCAA agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle a long-running suit brought by basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian and reached an agreement with the Justice Department allowing learning-disabled students to receive athletic scholarships.
The restricted-earnings rule was adopted as a cost-cutting move by a near-unanimous vote of Division I schools in 1991. The rule capped salaries for assistants in various sports at $12,000 for the academic year and $4,000 for the summer.
the rule was lifted in 1995 after a U.S. District judge in Kansas City, Kan., found the NCAA violated federal antitrust law. That ruling was upheld by an appellate court, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
Following a trial last year on damages, a jury awarded the coaches more than $22 million. Because it was an antitrust case, damages were tripped to $67 million.
Last fall, the NCAA offered $44 million as a settlement, while the coaches sought $60 million. In January, a judge granted the coaches' motion to increase the damages to nearly $75 million to adjust for inflation.
"In cases of this type, there are consequences for everyone." Wethington said. "The important task at hand is to minimize adverse consequences for the student athletes."
NCAA says goodbye after 18 years in KC
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Like so many others who work for, with or near the NCAA, Carol Henry often feels saddened by the NCAA's sale to Indianapolis.
The Associated Press
On Sunday, after delivering food to the basketball selection committee at the Hyatt Hotel for the last time, she wept.
"It was really very touching," said Bill Hancock of the NCAA staff. "Carol had been delivering food to the committee there at the Hyatt for years and years. We had all gotten to know her."
For the men who work with the nine-man committee, and many veteran committee members themselves, there was a tinge of nostalgia to last weekend's proceedings, knowing it would be the last time the panel met in Kansas City.
line governing body of college sports, after taking bids from 10 cities and having the Arthur Andersen firm evaluate the monetary value of each bid, agreed to move its headquarters to Indianapolis for an announced figure of $50 million. The projected relocation date is July, which means when the committee meets next March to select, seed and bracket the 64-team tourney, they'll do it in a
"There was a great deal of nostalgia," said Hancock, who for 10 years has been director of the Division I men's basketball championship/administration.
hotel in Indianapolis.
"When it came time to part with the
"When it came time people there at the Hyatt that we've worked so closely with, a lot of us felt misty-eved."
For many years, the selection committee met only by conference call. Then in the
early '70s, they began meeting at the NCAA office building in suburban Mission, Kan. Since 1983, about the time CBS began televising the announcement live, turning it into a major event, the committee had met on the 40th floor of the Hyatt Hotel.
"We exchanged moments with the hotel people. It was 18 years of memories," Hancock said. "And we had worked out everything so well with the Hyatt and its people. They knew exactly what we needed. I'd had the same sleeping room for 10 years. The facility lends itself to what we needed so well."
Tar Heels await Weber State in first-round West match-up
The Associated Press
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Quick, undersized teams can give North Carolina problems, meaning Weber State is capable of some trouble, in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
The Big Sky Conference champions don't have a starter taller than 6-foot-7.
don't have a starlet
The third-seeded
Tar Heels are one
of the nation's
tallest teams.
The two teams
meet in the West
Regional tomorrow.
Coach Bill Guthridge said a pair of satellite dishes installed at the Smith Center years ago came in handy late Sunday when he and his staff dug up four taped games on 14th-seeded Weber State (24-7), a squad the Tar Heels knew little about.
"I think they've got a couple of future NBA players," Guthridge said yesterday of 6-foot-6 forward Harold Arceneaux
and guard Eddie Gill. "That conference has a good history.
"They certainly like to break, but they can run a set offense, too. They start three guards, and if you count Arceneaux, they have four guards. So they are going to present match-up problems for us."
The Tar Heels (24-9), who are making their 25th straight NCAA tournament appearance and are seeking a 25-win season for the 15th time in the last 18 years, have one huge advantage — NCAA experience. North Carolina has won at least one game in the tournament for 18 straight years and been to the Final Four each of the last two years.
"I don't care about the Final Four no more. I want to win it," forward Ademola Okulaja said. "It's nice to say you've been to the Final Four. Then the next year again you said you were to the Final Four. But both times people say, 'What happened?' I don't want them to say, 'What happened?' I want to say I've won the whole thing and here is my ring."
"I've been spoiled the last three years playing in late March — and I'm not talking about the NIT," he
said of the Stanford squad that has gone 78-19 in his three years as an assistant to coach Mike Montgomery.
Johnson said he would remain with the Cardinal through the NCAA tournament but would mix in some recruiting for the Wolfpack at his native Seattle this week.
"I don't know who's more excited, you all or me," he told a small crowd that gathered for the hastily called
"I don't want to be in a position where we're always looking at UNLV." he said.
"I think this is very,very doable in terms of building a winner, building a program," Johnson, 42, said Monday on the Reno campus of the Big West Conference school.
RENO, Nev. — Stanford assistant Trent Johnson says his goal as the new coach at Nevada is to turn UNLV into the "other" basketball team in the state.
HOOT at the LAWRENCE COUNTY
JOHNSON signed a 3-year contract.
news conference on the basketball floor at the Lawlor Events Center.
son 50,000
worth about
$125,000 a
year, with a com-
miti- ment
to extend two
years, athletic direc-
tions.
The Associated Press
Ault said he wanted to make the announcement quickly to get some publicity during the NCAA tourna-
tor Chris Ault said.
Stanford assistant hopes to bring winning to Nevada
ment. He said Johnson would bring Nevada "something we haven't had — an idea of the recruiting base, which is his strength.
---
Nevada finished 8-18 overall and 4-12 in the Big West this year, failing to qualify for the conference tournament in Reno last week.
"He is a resident and a legend in Seattle. Tomorrow night he'll be knocking on doors recruiting for the Wolfpack," Ault said.
Pat Foster, who announced his resignation late in the season, was 90-81 in six years with the Wolfpack.
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