Tuesday, November 6, 2001

Basketball coaches question NCAA’s new scholarship rule
By Jordan Blum
Staff Reporter

TCU men’s basketball coaches say the NCAA’s addition of a ninth scholarship to the “5/8 rule” is a step in the right direction but that it is only the improvement of a bad rule.

The NCAA Board of Directors approved the extra scholarship beginning next year for schools meeting NCAA criteria Thursday. The new rule will allow schools to give out no more than nine scholarships over two years and no more than five in any given year, when they were previously only allowed to give out eight scholarships over two years.

The ninth scholarship will apply only for the 2001 and 2002 and will go back to an eight-scholarship limit in 2003.

Head coach Billy Tubbs said Sunday the fact that the rule needed to be modified serves as proof it was a bad rule to begin with.

“We failed to replace two scholarship players from last year because we lost seven players and we were only allowed to bring in five, so we’re two under the limit,” Tubbs said. “We didn’t violate any NCAA rules but we’re under the same penalties as a school that loses two scholarships for violating rules.

“Only a few people think these rules are good and they’re away from the game and don’t know really know anything,” he said.

Assistant coach Robert Flaska said the extra scholarship will not affect TCU this year since the five scholarship limit has already been filled. Flaska said the scholarship will serve as a backup in case one of the recruits has to leave the team due to academic reasons.

Tubbs said schools like Arizona and Michigan State that lost a lot of players to the NBA receive additional punishments.

“Arizona lost four players to the draft they’re not able to replace,” Tubbs said. “Say they have four declare for the draft and another four graduate, then they can only bring in five to replace them.”

Flasks said schools should be given a maximum of at least five scholarships every year to keep schools who lose a lot of players from being punished.

“Seventy-five percent of schools gave out five scholarships last year and they’d only have three this year,” Flaska said. “That’s between 400 and 500 less scholarships for (players). The additional scholarship will cut that in half, but it’s still a lot.”

According to The NCAA News, proponents of the “5/8 rule” claimed it was implemented to address, among other things, the issue of coaches being able to “run off” student-athletes who were on scholarship but may not be living up to expectations on the court.

Tubbs said it’s unfair for men’s basketball to be restricted when women’s basketball has no scholarship specifications.

“If (the NCAA) thinks it’s a good rule for men’s why don’t they apply it to women’s as well?” Tubbs said. “Not only do they get more scholarships but they can give out 15 in one year if they wanted to.

“It seems some people don’t trust men’s basketball and they don’t trust the coaches to be fair,” he said.

Jordan Blum
j.d.blum@student.tcu.edu