UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, December 4, 1996
CHILDREN
Continued from Page 1A
financial aid. The state went after Henley for child support.
When NCAA rules clash with court rulings, children get caught in the middle.
"He hasn't supported Tanyan from day one," Lanueo said. "He hasn't taken any interest in her. It's the state that is going after him for support. I haven't asked for anything from him. But when he is determined the father, I will ask for child support."
Lanoue said she understood some of Henlev's problems.
"The courts should think about if they want him to pay child support," Lanoe said. "But he should also get some help from the NCAA. If the athletes are supporting these schools and making them money, then the schools need to help the athletes. None of this is happening."
Henley agreed. He said everyone's life was complicated by unbending NCAA rules and the lack of flexibility from the court.
"I am going to do what is right," Henley said. "I am going to take care of my responsibilities. But that has been really hard because of all these rules."
Make no mistake: No one involved is saying that Henley is not responsible for his actions. But everything would be easier if the court system and the NCAA worked out some compromise.
"We are kind of forgotten," Lanoue said.
"No one worries about us, but there is nothing I can do about that."
Gary Pomeroy, an attorney who tries to collect child support, is much tougher on the college athletic system
Richard Devinki / KANSAN
Kansas running back June Henley has felt the clash of NCAA rules and court rulings.
and I have to wonder what is coming out the other side," Pomeroy said. "What I am doing lies outside of food and laundry money. It is much bigger. I have to ask: Why are the athletes not getting anything? Why is there no help? Look around and you see that it is affecting everything."
THE COURT
omeroy, an attorney for the Department of Social Rehabilitation Services, fights to collect money from those commonly P
ents": sometimes mothers, but mostly fathers, who don't pay child support.
"It's not an easy job," Pomeroy admitted. "And sometimes it seems as if it is getting harder."
Pomeroy recently fought to collect child support from Henley.
He knows getting an NCAA athlete to pay child support is not simple. NCAA rules restrict most Division I athletes on scholarship from taking money from anyone but parents or legal guardians.
Do Division I athletes like Henley deserve a break on child support?
Nobody seems to have a definitive answer.
As a hearing officer in Division III of the Douglas County Courthouse, John Chappell has seen athletes, besides Henley, go through the courts on child support matters. He said ordering athletes to pay was tricky business.
"You can't always consider student athletes dead beat dad;s," Chappell said. "I am not sure what category they are in, and that is the problem."
Chappell determines if an individual is guilty of contempt for nonpayment of support.
"I if the guy does not have money and cannot earn an income, then he is not guilty of contempt," Chappell said. "But in an athlete's case, there isn't anything physically wrong with them. The only problem is that they have rules restricting them. How do I consider that?"
Pomeroy understands the dilemma but said that athletes had a responsibility to their child.
"There are many unfortunate situations out there," Pomeroy said. "But my responsibility is to focus on the child and the needs of the child. If they have the ability to pay, then they need to take care of their responsibility and pay."
For Chappell, it isn't just NCAA rules that cloud the issue.
"In the long term maybe the child is better off to suffer for a year or so if, in the long run, it will be taken care of," Chapell said. "The minute an athlete signs that big contract, it is going to go down on that worksheet."
Should he consider the future earning potential of someone like Henley, who was a Heisman Trophy contender early in the season and is the leading running back in KU history?
The worksheet is what determines an individual's income, or projected income,
and formulates how much someone should pay in child support.
"My analysis is always going to be the same — what's realistic and what's not," Chappell said. "That is the only thing that I have gone on."
Chappell said he would not go out of his way to give athletes special treatment.
Chappell could not discuss Henley's case in particular. He did say that the court makes every determination case by case. In Henley's case, which was dismissed, the court decided that Henley could pay $107 a month, despite NCAA regulations.
The NCAA rules in Division I do not limit an athlete from fulfilling his responsibilities. "Mallonee said." They can always outit. There is no conflict here."
Steve Mallonee, NCAA legislative director, said the NCAA played no role in the problems of the court.
NCAA officials claimed to have no position in any of this.
Pomeroy admitted that asking athletes who may make it professionally to quit is asking them to give up their future. But in the end, he said, he can't worry about the fact that someone is an athlete with NCAA-imposed restrictions.
"I understand they have problems, but we all do." Pomeroy said. "I don't care who they are in the sense that, if they have a child, then they need to be responsible for that child. That is what this is all about."
THE NCAA
N CAA and Big 12 Conference officials say they don't know what's going on. Athletes paying child support is all new to them
Prentice Gott is the associate commissioner of the Big 12. He said the issue of athletes not paying child support because of NCAA restrictions is something that has not been discussed.
"The thing is, I am not sure a lot of these questions have been asked," Gott said.
Mallone said the subject of child support had not been brought up at the national offices in Overland Park.
The NCAA may not have been concerned in the past, but Lori Eberhara, director of compliance for the Big 12, said that maybe it's time the NCAA took some interest.
"This is new territory," Eberhara said.
"These questions haven't been asked, but that doesn't mean that they shouldn't be."
"That's not for me to say," Mallonee answered. "If an NCAA rule is being broken, then we should step in and solve the problem. But if no violation is being committed, then the NCAA is not going to be concerned."
Should the NCAA be concerned that athletes may be hiding behind earning restrictions to avoid paying child support?
But SRS attorney Pomeroy thinks the
NCAA needs to get involved. He sees a direct conflict between the courts and the NCAA in situations in which an athlete owes child support but cannot pay because of earning restrictions.
"I don't see either side working to make the situation any better," Pomeroy said. "But the NCAA is not innocent."
Mallonee still insists no problem exists.
"There is not conflict between the two," Mallonee said. "We have our rules and they have theirs. There is no problem."
Stan Johnson, NCAA director of professional development, pointed out that the NCAA itself does not set many rules. It is only the enforcer.
"Keep in mind that the NCAA is more like the police," Johnson said. "It is the member institutions, the schools themselves, that create and vote on the rules. All the NCAA does is enforce those rules."
However, Johnson also said the NCAA would step in when conflicting rules were created.
Britton Banyowsky, Big 12 associate commissioner for administration and compliance, said that earning rules sometimes do create problems. He said that he didn't know about the issue of child support directly, but that in similar conflicts the NCAA needed to have the ability to help the situation.
"Our regulations are very difficult sometimes," Banyowsky said. "From my perspective, our regulatory system should have a degree of flexibility to help accommodate the athlete and the child to help solve the problem."
Banyowsky doesn't know exactly what role the NCAA should play. But he said that when an athlete stands before a judge, the judge should consider an athlete's situation and the rules that restrict him.
"You have the welfare of the child at stake. You also have the needs and the future of the students and their educations to consider," Banyowsky said. "Chances are, if an athlete is allowed to continue getting their education and participation in their sport, then that will benefit the child in the short- and long-term."
Tell that to a child who needs help this week, Pomeroy countered. He said the NCAA had a responsibility to do something.
NCAA and Big 12 officials agree that they don't see child support being addressed any time soon.
Johnson said at the NCAA Convention in January that two pieces of legislation would be voted on by the schools that should allow Division I athletes to hold jobs. He doesn't know what the outcome of that legislation would be. But if passed, it could offer some relief.
For a mother caught in the system, even a little relief would be nice.
"It's all so confusing," said Lanoue, Tanyan's mother. "Something needs to change. If it does not, then no one is going to get any help."
State support on athletes' behalf poses new questions for NCAA
By Spencer Duncan Kansan staff writer
Here's an essay exam question for Athletic Law 501: If the state pays for an athlete's child support, and NCAA rules forbid athletes' expenses to be paid by certain outside sources, has an NCAA violation been committed?
No one knows the correct answer because the question has never been asked, said Janelle Martin, University of Kansas compliance director.
"That is one of those things that there is not an interpretation on," Martin said. "But it is interesting to consider."
For what it's worth, in Martin's opinion, no violation was committed when a warrant was issued for the arrest of Kansas running back June Henley for not paying child support while Kansas Social Rehabilitation Services was paying child support on Henley's behalf.
It is not uncommon for the SRS to pay child support on behalf of athletes, SRS sources said.
But this may be a violation of NCAA rules.
According to NCAA rules, an athlete may receive expense money from parents or guardians. They also are eligible for aid in the form of Pell Grants, Merit scholarships and other financial aid through outside programs. They also are eligible for certain types of loans.
But in a case like Henley's, an outside source does indeed pay child support expenses for an athlete.
The line as to whether this is an NCAA violation is blury, said Briton Banyowsky, associate director of administration and compliance for the Big 12.
"The issues here would be whether or not someone related to the University is providing a benefit not available to other students," Banyowsky said. "No one has ever really asked the question. I would say that no violation is being committed, but it is an interesting question that could be looked into."
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