a
SPORTS
Page 16 Friday, July 6, 1984
Canham pushes for
By PAUL HELGREN matter how much advertising revenue
In the wake of the confusion that has the game generated. Also the NCAA
followed the Supreme Court decision would relinquish its practice of
that ended the NCAA's monopoly on requiring approval for alternative star-
football telecasts, the NCAA's televison ting times for televised games. These
committee is preparing an alternative were two of the major reasons the cour-
proposal that - if accepted - would ts ruled against the NCAA.
keep the 1984 television contracts more The NCAA wishes to retain the power
or less intact. to:
The Supreme Court last week upheld " Limit the number of television ap-
SAID MICHIGAN f
Schembechler, "Your
are not interested in
dividual schools. I th
would rather work ou
NCAA or CFA.
"The best deal woul
schools together in o
second-best deal wou
NCAA and CFA pac
might be some confusi
Canham admitted
package would bring
because it is made up
stitutions that co
national television au
SCHEMBECHLER
that a CFA-domir
package would spell
small college progran
"My biggest conce
Division-I schools
The Michigan Daily
NCAA"unity
football coach Bo national television scene - which they
major networks . will. What will happen to the revenues
dealing with in- earmarked for the smaller'schools that
ink the networks were very important to keep their
it a deal with the programs alive? What kind of assistan-
ce can we offer them?"
d be all the NCAA Schembechler said NCAA
ne package. The disciplinary functions might also be in
Idbe Butmther danger. "Television appearances were
ckage. But there n .ds inhsettriae e
onwith that." used to discipline those that violated the
CFA-dominated rules. We're gonna have to take a hard
in CFA-drevenaued look at that. Does this mean that the
in more revenues NCAA has less power in terms of
of only larger in- disciplining those that violate the
mmand lar ge rules?"
diences.
A more lasting problem, according to
expressed fear Canham, may be the divisiveness
nated televison created by the NCAA-CFA battles.
doom for many "The biggest side-effect is they (the
ns. court battles) have divided the NCAA,"
rn is what if the said Canham. "It could have some bad
dominate the long-term effects."
I
I
'The way it stands now
the NCAA is out of
business.'
- Michigan Athletic.
Director Don Canham
a
Ruling probably won't
affect 'M' foot ball
a ruling by U.S. District Judge Juan
Burciaga that said the NCAA monopoly
on college football telecasts violated
federal anti-trust laws, and that in-
dividual schools should be allowed to
negotiate their own TV deals.
MICHIGAN Athletic Director Don
Canham, who is on the NCAA's
television committee, said yesterday
that he hopes an alternative proposal
would be accepted by Burciaga and
bring some stability to. the current
chaotic state of affairs. The committee
meets Monday in Chicago, followed by
a proposal to all member schools on
Tuesday.
"In the short run, the first thing is
we're gonna try to get everyone in the
country to voluntarily stay with the
NCAA program this year," said
Canham of next week's meeting,
"because the contracts have been made
and the advertising has already been
sold. I think we have a reasonably good
chance to get the vast majority of
schools to do that and avoid chaos."
The next step would be to salvage
some of the NCAA's power by convin-
cing Burciaga to accept the new plan.
THE PROPOSAL would eliminate
the NCAA's practice of "price fixing,"
that is giving schools the same amount
of money for a regular-season game no
pearances of individual schools.
" Make its members share broadcast
revenue.
" Enforce blackout restrictions.
" Ban Friday night telecasts to avoid
clashing with local high school games.
* Use broadcast sanctions as a penalty
against rules violators.
By correcting certain problems the
committee hopes Judge Burciaga will
be satisfied that the NCAA no longer
violates anti-trust laws. However, even
if Burciaga rules in favor of the NCAA
this time, it is clear the age-old
collegiate institution will never be the
same.
JOINING THE NCAA televison
package would be voluntary. The
College Football Association, which in-
cludes many football powers, could
negotiate its own deal or cooperate with
an NCAA deal.
"The way it stands now," Canham
said, "the NCAA is out of business. The
new plan (would) lift the injunction
against the NCAA." Canham, who also
sits on the board of the CFA, added that
some CFA schools are cooperating with
the NCAA plan.
Canham predicted that most
Division-I schools would strike deals
with the networks as part of either of
these two organizations.
What effect will the Supreme
Court's decision have on Michigan
football? Probably very little, ac-
cording to Athletic Director Don
Canham.
Although individual schools are
now free to negotiate their own
television deals, Michigan will keep
its number of live broadcasts to
"three or four," or approximately
the same number as previous
seasons.
"WE TAKE IN a million dollars of
revenue at the gate every home
game," said Canham. "We can't
jeopardize that. If the weather's bad
people might stay home 'cause they
know the game will be on TV."
Because most Michigan football
tickets are sold well in advance,
overexposure on television would
not harm 1984 sales. But Canham said
he is guarding against a drop in
future sales.
"We've seen that (overexposure)
with NCAA basketball, where no one
has any control," said the 16-year
Michigan AD.
THE DECISION to limit TV ap-
pearances means Michigan broad-
cast revenue will be about the same
as last year or perhaps modestly
higher. The athletic department had
a budget of $11 million last year.
Head football coach Bo Schem-
bechler agreed that the court rulings
will have little affect on Michigan,
but added that smaller schools could
be injured by a loss of TV money.
"Selfishly there's no way
Michigan'sygonna be hurt," said
Schembechler. "But realistically
there are some other schools that
this will hurt."
Under Canham's direction
Michigan has remained loyal to the
NCAA throughout the last two years
of court battles. Canham, who sits on
committees for both the NCAA and
rival College Football Association,
hopes that some kind of collective
agreement can be reached between
the networks and the NCAA schools.
He said that Michigan will not seek
out any local or regional contracts
not associated with an NCAA deal.
- PAUL HELGREN
I
4
NCAA
reveals
latest TV
proposal
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - The NCAA has proposed a
football television plan that would give major networks
exclusive rights for games during a 31/-hour period on
Saturdays, but would allow Division 1-A schools to sell games
to any regional and local broadcaster at any time outside the
designated period.
The plan, which would be in effect for the 1984 football
season only, will be voted on Tuesday at a meeting of schools
in Chicago. It was mailed to Division a-A schools Tuesday
and released by the NCAA yesterday.
THE PLAN, called the NCAA Football Television Series,
was developed by the Football Television Committee in
Chicago last weekend following the U.S. Supreme Court
ruling June 27 that stripped exclusive control of television
contracts from the NCAA.
If the plan is approved, the NCAA committee would
designate by Aug. 1 a 31/-hour "sliding time period" for each
Saturday of the football season. The period would begin at
either noon EDT or 3:30 p.m. EDT.
The NCAA would restrict broadcast in the designated time
period to "qualified organizations," which would bid for
rights to televise games with individual institutions.
RESTRICTIONS laid down in the plan effectively limit
"qualified organizations" to ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN and
WTBS, Ted Turner's station in Atlanta, an NCAA spokesman
said. USA Network may also qualify, he said.
It would be possible for all five or six eligible networks to
carry games at the same time, the spokesman said.
"The sliding time period encourages direct competition for
games by any network," the NCAA said in a memo accom-
panying the plan. "The network would have the opportunity
to submit a bid to the participating institution for any game
that is scheduled and, if the offer is accepted, that game
would be telecast without direct conflicts from agencies that
do not meet the definition of a national network."
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