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." 0