TIME
January 22, 1951 12:00 AM GMT-5
A year ago, the big question at the annual meeting of the National Collegiate Athletic Association was what to do about half a dozen colleges that more or less admitted violating the intercollegiate “Sanity Code.” Some members were for throwing the violators out of the N.C.A.A. Last week, after a year’s reflection, the N.C.A.A. tried a different approach to the problem: it threw out most of the Sanity Code instead.
By a vote of 130 to 60 (three more than the necessary two-thirds), the N.C.A.A. decided that, as a general rule binding all schools and all conferences, the three-year-old official ban on paying college players was just plain unworkable. Under the old definition of sanity, it was all right to give a football player free tuition plus a paying job around school (to cover room & board), provided the pay was “commensurate” with the job. Under the new law, the pay doesn’t have to be commensurate with anything but the going market for hireling amateur athletes.
Still on the N.C.A.A. books: the old anti-recruiting provision that makes it officially illegal to pay a promising young fellow’s way to the campus for a heart-to-heart talk with the coach. Otherwise, sanity is now strictly up to individual schools and conferences.
In other actions last week the N.C.A.A: ¶ Dropped from the agenda all charges against last year’s code violators. ¶ Passed a resolution against the “live” (i.e., while the game is being played) telecasting of regular-season college football next fall, left it up to member schools to comply or not, as they thought best. ¶ Agreed that member schools should not play in post-season bowl games unless the price is right, i.e., teams must be guaranteed 75% of the gross receipts.
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