The California State Senate passed a bill earlier this year that could alter the way things are done in the Pacific-10 Conference and the NCAA.
Senate Bill 193, which passed the California Senate in May after being introduced in February, would affect the 47 schools located within the state’s borders. If the bill passes the state assembly’s Higher Education Committee — where it is currently stuck pending further discussion and amendments — those 47 schools would effectively be deemed ineligible for active status in the NCAA.
That’s a truly scary thought and a possibility that should concern every supporter of the NCAA and of the Pac-10.
SB 193 was introduced by California Sens. Kevin Murray, D-Culver City and John Burton, D-San Francisco, and has been nicknamed the “Student Athlete Bill of Rights.” It is aimed at resolving issues related to scholarships and stipends, health insurance and money earned from outside jobs, according to Murray’s Web site. There are myriad details surrounding the proposed legislation, but the above points are the most key. But virtually all components of the bill would contradict regulations set forth by the NCAA.
In other words, the bill is a challenge to the NCAA and more than 1,200 schools nationwide that belong to the organization.
Imagine a Pac-10 without California, Stanford, UCLA and USC. Imagine an NCAA without San Diego State, Pepperdine, Fresno State and Cal State Fullerton. That’s exactly what would happen if the bill gets passed by the Higher Education Committee. They’ve got until July to do so, and legislative session reopens in January.
The Pac-10 would be down to six teams — Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, Arizona and Arizona State — and render it a shell of what it once was.
The bill is a direct hit to the NCAA, an attempt by Murray and Burton to change policy throughout the nation. They’ve admitted that as one of their main goals.
“I’m not sure that if there’s not a UCLA, not a Stanford, not a Cal, that that $40 million (in NCAA revenue) will be going to the NCAA either,” Murray told the Contra Costa Times in late October. “(Television networks) don’t pay them that amount of money without California schools.
“Do we want to play chicken? No. But if the alternative is to do nothing because this behemoth institution doesn’t want to change, then I think we should step up to the challenge.”
Those are pretty strong words for a step that would alter the NCAA landscape for the worse. The Pac-10 would fail to continue to be a power player. Stanford — which has won nine straight National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Cups, awarded to the university with the best collegiate athletic program in the country — would be on an island of its own.
California, which is commonly referred to as one of the best public universities in the nation, would be gone. UCLA and USC — both not too shabby, either — would be left with less exposure. There would be no bowls, no trips to the Sweet 16 and no College World Series berths.
California schools would be left out in the cold.
“The bill will do far greater harm than good,” NCAA President Myles Brand told the Los Angeles Times. “You put the institutions in a terrible bind — if they follow state law, they’re immediately out of the NCAA.”
Nebraska enacted a bill that gives student-athletes the ability to be paid, but that was contingent on four of the six states that have teams playing in the Big 12 Conference passing similar bills. That has yet to happen.
The California bill would create a dangerous precedent. It’s a scary thought that four prominent Pac-10 teams would be forced out into the cold. It would be an NCAA seriously depleted on the West Coast.
If Murray and Burton really have the best interests of students at mind — as they claim — they’d back off the bill. There wouldn’t be enough money to pay every student-athlete in the state, anyway. Better yet, no bowls and no postseason basketball would be a serious lack of motivation for most of the players. That would be the case even if they did get paid.
Money doesn’t cure all. Let’s hope it doesn’t ail everyone else.