NCAA: Cheaters Beware!

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

February 10, 1999 / 9:04 PM EST / CBS Sportsline

A cynic might say there has never been a better time to cheat in college athletics.

The man responsible for stopping the transgressors might have a hard time disagreeing.

"We're going to go through some rough times," said David Price, the NCAA's new enforcement chief. "We're going to have some major inexperience issues. It's going to take some significant training."

The 56-year-old former Pac-10 associate commissioner who replaced David Berst on Aug. 31 counted the losses in his office -- two directors of enforcement, a director of student-athlete reinstatement, an administrator for secondary cases and eight of nine support staff. Some have chosen to stay in Kansas City when the NCAA begins its move to Indianapolis later this year. Some of those remaining are still relatively new and have to get up to speed -- quickly -- in how to police the NCAA's 900-plus members.

And they have a new boss.

If that has left the door ajar for cheaters, then they should also beware. Just like the man he replaced, Price is relentless in his pursuit of bad guys. But if Berst ruled with an iron fist, Price uses a velvet hammer. You've got to like a guy who once worked on a committee to simplify and shrink the voluminous NCAA Manual. In comparison, the Bible is a pamphlet.

Berst was good, darn good as the NCAA's group executive director for enforcement. But his reserved tone was sometimes interpreted as mysterious and aloof. Price welcomes you into his corner office overlooking suburban Kansas City with an Oklahoma drawl wearing a smile and no tie.

Fruits of his hobby -- amateur photography -- grace the walls. So does an original Peanuts comic strip drawn by Charles Schulz. The atmosphere is downright folksy. It's also obvious the new sheriff in town can laugh and can make you laugh.

"I'm a married bachelor for the first time in 31 years," said Price whose wife Sharen is remaining in Walnut Creek, Calif., until the Indianapolis move is finalized. "I say my refrigerator has gone from chock full to a quart of milk and a six-pack of beer."

Sometime soon you wouldn't mind sitting down and helping him drain the contents of that refrigerator-minus the dairy product, of course.

"He really has a fabulous sense of humor," Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen said. "He laughs a lot and there is nothing dour about David Price at all."

That might be more than a lot of NCAA members can handle. For most of his 10 years as enforcement chief, Berst was the NCAA to a large portion of the membership. Rightly or wrongly, he wore the black hat and became a lightning rod for complaints about the NCAA.

Face it, when Berst showed up on your front door it was not a good thing. He was out front on several high-profile enforcement cases that eventually brought down big-name programs like Oklahoma, Washington and SMU.

He will be forevr known for collapsing in front of a press conference while announcing the sanctions that led to SMU's death penalty in 1987. Truth be told, Berst was ill that day and the churning events of the day combined with a churning stomach and powerful television lights finished him off.

But that was during a different era when the major cases themselves were overwhelming. Barry Switzer still walked the earth as a coach. Cheating was more prevalent because some boosters, like those at SMU, believed a run at a national championship was worth getting caught.

The old sheriff (Berst) switched his black hat last year for a promotion to Division I chief of staff. He should be satisfied that the hedonism has been reigned in, in part because of a series of reforms over the past 10 years. In 1988, there were no such things as compliance officers hired by schools. Now almost every school has a staffer that oversees compliance with NCAA rules. In that time Overland Park, Kan. attorney Mike Glazier developed a cottage industry helping (for a hefty fee, of course) schools through their NCAA investigation.

Obedience has become cool.

"We still have cases but we don't seem to have the cases that have the far-flung blatant violations," Price said. "I'd like to think that reflects the more compliant atmosphere. Having been in a conference for some time I believe firmly that the atmosphere around college athletics has changed enormously in the last 10 years."

Changes have occurred on both ends. These days sugar daddy boosters who used to pass cash can give their ATM card to a hotshot recruit. Illicit cars that were blatantly bought for players are now usually registered in the names of relatives to avoid detection.

Berst's was a multi-layered job that only a few persons in the country could have flourished in. Price was the best candidate when NCAA president Cedric Dempsey went looking. One of the biggest reasons: The Pac-10 was the only conference that dared have an enforcement policy, mostly because of Price.

He was well-known and trusted by conference officials. Price had been with the Pac-10 since 1972, leaving only in 1979 for a two-year stay as Missouri Valley Conference commissioner. When he returned, the Pac-10 had been through a period of widespread academic scandals.

Cleaning up the mess wasn't easy. Most conferences still think that policing its own is 1) too expensive or; 2) too uncomfortable.

"That is awkward," Price said. "It's like friends and family punishing one of its own."

It was especially awkward in 1992 when Price helped in a conference and NCAA investigation of Washington. The Pac-10 council eventually voted to ban the Huskies from postseason play for two years. Veteran coach Don James quit over the penalties and has not talked to Price since that time.

"I was stunned and disappointed," Price said. "I just felt he left at a very awkwad time when they needed him. It was in August. ... We could be friends. I think his disappointment ran more to the penalties. I didn't have anything to do with the penalties."

Some think Washington is still trying to dig out of the effects of the probation that included the loss of scholarships.

These days Price's conscience is clear and his job, in a lot of ways, is easier. His territory includes the entire country, not just Pac-10 family. Maybe it will be easier to pull the trigger on faceless strangers than brethren.

"I felt like I was becoming a bit stagnant at the Pac-10," Price said. "This is the top job in the country in this field. If I were at the Pac-10 I always ended having to come to the NCAA in the end anyway. ... I unwittingly trained for the job for about 24 years."

Cheaters and cynics beware.