THE NCAA passed a ground-breaking legislation to allow Division I athletes on full scholarships -- football and basketball players being the most greatly impacted -- to work during the school year. NCAA makes it possible
to hire a RainbowIt's about time athletes are allowed to do what regular students can do.
Originally introduced as Proposition 62, the legislation was approved by the NCAA board of directors yesterday after it had been recommended by the organization's management council last week. It becomes effective Aug. 1.
Athletes on partial scholarships already are allowed to work. Incoming freshmen, though, will be prohibited from working. As it should be. They have enough to worry about in their first year of college.
Under the new rule, athletes can earn up to $2,000 while working during the school year, even during their season. Obviously, they can earn more in summer jobs.
The new legislation will permit athletic department officials and boosters to help them find work, other than jobs within the athletic department.
Monitoring for abuses will be the biggest concern for university officials. There have been zealous boosters who've bent the rules before, and it could happen again.
But it would be folly for a university to overlook its responsibilities and jeopardize its athletic program by allowing any cheating. The death penalty is too steep a price to pay for an athlete's $2,000 salary cap.
HUGH Yoshida, the University of Hawaii athletics director, is all for the new legislation.
"I think it's good for our student-athletes, especially because of our high cost of living here," Yoshida said.
"I see it as an advantage to us in the sense that there's a lot of protracted travel for our athletes," Rainbow football coach Fred vonAppen said.
But vonAppen took a good news, bad news approach to the news.
"It's not duty free. There are some problems," he said. "It does impinge upon an already demanding time schedule. One, there's finding a job, and two, there's finding the time to do it."
He doesn't see how one of his players could work during the season, though it will be allowed.
Even though the NCAA limits a student to 20 hours a week in his sport, a football player realistically puts in about 35 hours, counting time in the training room and traveling to and from games and practices.
Add studying and classes and there's not a lot of time to do anything else, especially during the season.
"Whether it's a solution, it's too premature to tell," vonAppen said. "But I've been one in favoring of expanding athletic scholarships. I think student-athletes are underpaid now."
THE "haves" of college athletics will figure out some way to use it as a recruiting advantage. But because they have enough perks already, the blue-chippers might look down their noses at part-time work, deeming it unworthy of their time and talents.
Yoshida didn't feel comfortable talking about the new legislation until he could get a copy of it with all the parameters laid out.
But he's confident there are a number of on-campus jobs available for athletes, such as working at the Stan Sheriff Center or Rainbow Stadium.
"That's the kind of stuff we have to look at," Yoshida said.
The irony of it all, though, is the NCAA approving the legislation at a time when local businesses are laying off employees.
Still, it's something long overdue. Maybe now's the time to start a new economic recovery program called "Hire a Rainbow."