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NCAA mak Heavy-hitting changes in NCAA rules and formats this past week at the NCAA convention in Nashville have made it no secret that college athletics will take a backseat to academics in the future. Strong reforms from the NCAA Presidents Commission seem to have declared a mission to save the "student" in the word student athlete. Among the reforms that were passed in Nashville: nraPh/^a timoo . .M.AVWV puvuw LI1III/3 yvvxv limited to only four hours a day, 20 hours a week. -By August 1996, all athletic dorms must be eliminated. ?In the fourth year of schooling, athletes must have completed 50 percent of their degree requirements to be eligible to play. -As of August 1993, Division I athletic scholarships will be cut by 10 percent. It seems the NCAA has curbed, to some degree, the star status of being an athlete by reducing him to a normal college student. No more will luxury dorms be awaiting athletes who are in the midst of a failing semester. The times are gone when athletes spend more time in the gym than in the classroom. Cost-cutting measures have finally made their way into the sporting life. I applaud these long-awaited reforms de-emphasizing the importance of athletics. In recent years, shocking scandals and illegal activities have sent college sports into turmoil. These atrocities have turned it into the soap opera of the daily sports page. College athletics used to have innocent goals: revive school spirit, keep members of the student body active and raise mo 1992 F tb II / ??? 1111111111 /V/ B??1? BBS, s A AU ? * ' < s HOME AWAY Arkansas Alabama East Carolina Ciemson Georgia Florida Mississippi State Kentucky Tennessee Vanderbilt West Virginia ; : . .1. -Ci: Ride with a sober driver. JUST DO / / 1 J / fit es hard-hittii ney for the university. Nowadays, the importance of athletics has forced the athlete and the administration into a tailwind of pressure. The athlete wants to attend a college with exposure so that he will perform at his peak level in order to attract the profes- L sional ranks and earn some megabucks. t The administration, by the same i token, wants the eager athlete, c promising him that College U. will suit him best. They lure the aspir- ? ing professional with bait by offer- t ing quality dorms, a program that i will improve because of his impact t arrival ana great exposure for tne c pros. Hopefully, by doing this, the administration will have brought in a t quality prospect, produce a na- i tional champion or at best a win- ( ning team, and rake in television t revenue and a reputation. ? But alas, while trying to earn the c bowl bid or the NCAA tourney birth, many times the sports administration fails to keep the gradua- n tion rate above the Mendoza line. Often, the unheralded athletes who quietly miss making the pros are left out in the cold realities of life ^ without a degree on their . shoulders. Don't get me wrong. Athletic ? revenues provide a major boost to ( the universities and, yes, many stu- P dent athletes fulfill their intentions u to earn a quality education with impressive grades. But, athletics t) must be able to find its niche behind the goals of education. j As of this past week's conventir\n ffio - P iUJL ui laomg U1C f importance of academics have r] made lasting imprints on college a *? * ..<?- & * c "v1 with cpu our opportunities ahe endless & 0 "T fik For more information, please cor the CPU Office, on the 2nd floor Russell House, room 209 or c CPU activities are paid for, in H by Student Activities Fees. Calling all Electric Sliders, Hamm Leave your dancing shoei Come spend an evenin Grammy-winning Blues 'OVjN lOACDa. SUNDAy, jANUARy 20, 8:00 p.m. Russell loo use T\^ec\z\ xd1ss10n: $2 UIlTh CISC $6 q n ral you by the Contemporary Sounds Con ig changes Patrick Villegas Pep Talk ithletic departments. Universit presidents have taken comolet control and are not about to stop. The days of sheltering colleg ithletes in secluded dorms, lettin, hem slide by in school, and over ising their athletic talent instead o heir academic talent seem to b >ver. Many coaches have expresses heir displeasure that the cutdown n scholarships and interminglinj >f athletes in the student popula ion will bring in less quality play ;rs and disturb the players' con -entration during the big games. I find it hard to believe tha omments like these are evei riade. Understandably, college ports is a solid money maker, ant itaybe the coaches feel the quality f play will decrease, thus lower lg attendance level. But little dc rey realize that their athletes are ttending college, an institution foi naming and discovering new asects of life, not just doing pushps and wind sprints day after day. Perhaps, by the end of the cen ury, graduation rates wilj finally revail as the showcase of univer lties, and athletics will find itf lace solely as great weekend enirtainment, instead as an ugly scai uining the minds of talented thletes. Nobody reads < \dvertise in The Gamecock and gc \ CAROLINA F \ (^> ^ \ ne by ' \ ai 777-7130- \ pat*. \ ^e/ ? J ,, / V )0N?>/ A1&91 / Fo *e lb. / !2^/ ^ ?These activities Ex-football st "i By The Associated Press Former Heisman Trophy winner George Rogers, charged with cocaine and marijuana possession, will enter a pre-trial intervention program and avoid a J criminal record. Two days before leaving ofy fice this past week, former Solie citor James Anders agreed to put Rogers in the program. Roe gers will have his record erased ? and he will avoid jail by performing community service, f Rogers, who won the Heis* man in 1980 while playing for South Carolina, was charged in ^ April with possession of COrninf1 anH mariinana intont s to distribute. ^ Anders refused in September to put Rogers in the pre-trial program because Rogers had previously admitted being involved with drugs. Anders said t he changed his mind this past i Monday after Richland County ; Sheriff Allen Sloan had recom1 mended allowing Rogers to enf ter the program. "My decision was based sol) ely on the sheriff's recommendation," Anders said, r Braves coming to From staff reports The fourth annual Atlanta ' Braves Caravan will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday night, Janu ui j uui a i otawtii 5 jx^aui U1 <1111 on the South Carolina State Fairgrounds. Tickets are $4 each and 1 are available at Columbia area baseball card shops. The banquet will feature former Gamecock ads! But you just did. >t results! Call 777-4249 for details. MP 'ROGRAM UNION s r AJ R N % O t/ ? % E o# N H ^ ? -wi U J/K0 S E Vednesday, January 23, 1991 Russell House room 327 7:30 p.m. formational meeting about CPU our nine committees. Join us! Food will be served. r more information call 777-7130 paid for, in part, by Student Activities Fe ar Rogers avo Sloan had also initially reip.rtP/i Rnaprc' annliration for j ?~o -rr ? the program. Sloan said Rogers deserved another chance because he had undergone drug rehabilitation two months ago. Also, Rogers has avoided trouble since his arrest. Rogers has previous drug arrests. "There was no favoritism. He is doing everything he can do to turn his life around, and that is what the program is for," Sloan said. Rogers will be working with youths in a late-night basketball league, Sloan said. Rogers could have faced up ' to 15 years in prison if he had been convicted on the charges. The former football star played professional football from 1981 to 1988 ? first for the New Orleans Saints and later for the Washington Redskins. Rogers' drug problem first surfaced nine years ago when he admitted that he had used' cocaine "recreationally" in 1981, his rookie season with the Saints. He spent three days in a Columbia Brave pitching great Phil Niekro as well as active Brave stars Greg Olson and John Smoltz. Prior to the banquet, Niekro, Olson and Smoltz will be visiting patients at the Baptist Medical Center in Columbia. All proceeds from the banquet will benefit the Baptist Medical Center Foundation. . ...w Gain valuable ex- | perience working for Jk The Gamecock! All majors welcome. Call ^ 777-7726 or come by |S Russell House room pjj 321 PUUWALAf JM 5 A / Cetebrahng )he >?/s ?nd miseries / be,n9 young .ond Block h 9 / Africa, T,rfoSo?n Fo*?f'Ce ? on Thursday" I at8:o6p^ua,>2'< I ADMISSION _ us, I Tkh? ? -aiiaUeT^l The CAROLINA PROGR Golden Spur Programs, Cont< And Ideas and Issues Corr Bariy Dr 4b 4?><a> ? and The A Multi-media F ride January 2 * ^ A ^ o:ou p in th GOLDEI 1 Admission is FREE to all I $3.00 for the G I 2nd Floor. Russell Hoi :es. ids sentencing drug-abuse clinic. By 1986, Rogers appeared to be over the problem. He earned his bachelor's degree from South Carolina in May 1989. Narcotics investigators arrested Rogers during a drug raid April 7 in a suburban Columbia apartment. Investigators have said Rogers admitted in a taped statement given after his arrest he smoked marijuana and snorted cocaine in the apartment. They said they found marijuana in Rogers' car and both marijuana and cocaine in the apartment. A mural of Rogers' likeness is painted on the side of the Booker T. Washington Center near the USC campus. Rogers also has a street that runs near Williams-Brice Stadium named after him. After the arrest, the USC suspended Rogers from his $25,000-a-year job as a fundraiser for USC's College of Applied Professional Sciences. A university spokeswoman said Sunday she knew of no change in Rogers' job status. You won't notice any difference, but your country will. The five minutes you spend registering with Selective Service at the post office won't change you. But it will make a difference to your country. So when you turn 18, register with Selective Service. It's quick. It's easy. And it's the law. OArtjWfiTEF Presents I ^T?wy Novated Broadway Musical I I \ ^ I Ff I * jf / J N A I - / & IB) | AM UNION,' smporary Sounds, imittees Present ake i Ugly ' J Presentation jy I !5,1991 I i SPUR I J.S.C. Students with I.D. General Public jse. Next to Pizza Hut