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Penn State athletes cope with NCAA scholarship squeeze

By RYAN HOCKENSMITH
Collegian Staff Writer

Every day, the Rec Hall wrestling room doors open.

And every day for the last four years, Dana Weber has filed in for two more hours of practice.

But at night, after practice is done, Weber walks home knowing his efforts are financially fruitless.

Weber, a four-year member of the No. 10 Nittany Lion wrestling squad, has never received any money toward his education from Penn State, despite the fact that he is an important part of the school's wrestling program.

The fifth-year senior epitomizes the everyday struggles of thousands of NCAA athletes -- the battle for a limited number of scholarship allotments.

" 'Unfair' is definitely a good word to describe scholarships and the way they're handed out," Weber said. "I think we deserve more for wrestling."

Wrestling has 9.9 scholarships to dish out and 10 starting spots to fill. This sport is one of many NCAA-sanctioned varsity sports that receive fewer scholarships than needed to accommodate a full team.

That is a stark contrast to some other NCAA sports such as football and men's and women's basketball. Varsity football programs, which require a bare minimum of 22 players to complete full offensive and defensive units, receive 85 grants to hand out to athletes. Men's basketball receives 13 full grants and women's basketball is allotted 15 scholarships to dole out for a sport that requires five starters.

The three aforementioned sports, along with women's volleyball, women's tennis and women's gymnastics, are labeled head-count sports, which means partial scholarships are not given. Athletes either receive a full grant for athletic participation or nothing at all.

But according to John Bove, Penn State's NCAA compliance director, equivalency sports such as wrestling are given the equivalent of 9.9 scholarships to divvy out to wrestlers. Bove said equivalency sports grants can be broken up by coaches however they see fit. He said coaches in both head-count sports and equivalency sports are given full authority to decide which athletes receive scholarships.

Many sports besides wrestling face difficult grant-giving decisions.

Among them are men's volleyball, men's track, men's tennis and numerous others. Several sports like men's lacrosse and baseball receive more grants than needed to fill out an entire starting team. But both of those are allotted slightly more scholarships than necessary to complete a starting lineup.

Despite the startling scholarship differences between football and smaller sports, Weber supports the number of scholarships available to gridiron athletes.

"The system's unfair," he said. "But you can't take anything away from football. They deserve the number they're getting."

Weber said the amount of revenue generated by the sport was evidence why football programs should receive 85 scholarships per year.

Travis Forney, a two-year starter for the Penn State football team, offers an interesting contrast to Weber's views.

The junior kicker, despite two years as a starter and another year of eligibility remaining, did not receive his first scholarship grant until this semester.

That money became available when a fifth-year senior left the program, Forney said.

Although he is a member of the football team, Forney said the scholarship numbers don't seem just to him.

"Eighty-five scholarships for 22 players doesn't sound good," he said, referring to the vast inequality between football and other sports. "It does seem a little unfair for some of the smaller sports.

"It's one of those things where athletes on other teams deserve (scholarships), but they're just not available."

Bove defended football, saying that football teams need at least 85 grants because of the nature of the sport. Football is unique because of its need for backups at all positions and additional players to practice against.

"The way I look at it, there's 44 players that start," Bove said. "The other 45 or so players are their backups."

But Bove also added that some scholarship allotments, using wrestling as an example, should be increased.

"Should there be more grants in wrestling?" Bove asked. "I think so -- 9.9 scholarships in wrestling makes no sense to me."

Bove pointed out that because of the sport's weight restrictions, wrestling in particular needs more grants to allow for some depth on teams. "You can't replace that heavyweight with a 141 pounder," he said.

Title IX

A major factor in the scholarship debate is Title IX, a federal law banning sex discrimination in both academics and athletics at universities.

The 1972 law has drastically changed the face of NCAA sports. The legislation brought to the forefront past discriminations that had seriously hampered women's athletics in the NCAA.

Scholarship guidelines were set up to help even out the proportion of men's athletic grants to women's athletic grants.

Ellen Perry, a Penn State assistant athletic director, said the law has been successful at Penn State.

"Overall, (Title IX is) a very good thing," Perry said. "Unfortunately, it's a needed thing."

Perry said Penn State has made great strides toward equalizing men's and women's athletic opportunities, but other schools, including some in the Big Ten, need to improve.

"Penn State and Purdue have become leaders," Perry said. "But some other Big Ten schools' proportions aren't even close to enrollment figures."

Bove concurred with Perry regarding the success of universities adhering to Title IX.

"I think it's been very effective," Bove said. "It's heightened the awareness of the limitations that have been placed on women's sports over the years."

Nearly all women's varsity sports programs receive more than enough scholarships to complete full teams. Sports in which Penn State fields both men's and women's varsity teams are particularly contrasting.

For instance, the NCAA allows colleges to award 12 full scholarships for women's soccer programs. Men's programs, requiring the same number of players, receive 9.9 grants. Some other men's programs facing the same scenario include cross country/track, fencing, golf and swimming.

Men's lacrosse reverses that trend, with the NCAA allotting 12.6 grants to the team, while women receive slightly less with 12 scholarships.

Perry said confidence in Title IX and its intentions remain high at Penn State.

"The feeling here at Penn State is that (Title IX) is working," Perry said. "It's too bad we had to go this route, but it's working."

Others aren't as happy with the legislation.

"We've really gotten used to not getting enough (scholarships)," said Clint Musser, an All-American 157-pound Lion wrestler. "It's all because of Title IX."

Harry Groves, in his 31st season as the Penn State track and field coach, also opposes Title IX's goals and effectiveness.

"It's ridiculous because in order to try to create equity, they made a gross inequity," the veteran coach said. "The law just doesn't make sense. Whoever dreamed it up is a moron."

When asked what grade should be assigned to the effectiveness of Title IX thus far, Groves said, "Somewhere between whale shit and the bottom of the sea."

No easy fix

Both Bove and Perry, with more than 50 years of experience dealing with the NCAA between them, said increasing the number of scholarships available to smaller sports cannot and will not happen overnight. Solutions to the problem are apparent, they said, but none are easy fixes.

One idea has football being secluded from inclusion in the total number of grants allotted to male sports teams.

Under the current format, the 85 full football scholarships are included along with wrestling, volleyball, golf and other varsity programs in the number of grants allowed for men's athletic programs.

To take those 85 scholarships away from the overall men's total might enable grants to be added to other men's sports and still remain proportional to the women's grant totals.

Perry said allowing football to become its own scholarship entity has been considered by the NCAA in the past.

"There have been numerous tries to exempt football from counting as scholarships," Perry said. "But football is football -- there's really no way around counting those scholarships toward the overall men's count."

Musser, however, supported such an NCAA policy change.

"If football was on its own," Musser said, "we wouldn't have these problems.

"There's nothing even close to football, the sport, in women's athletics, and nothing even close to 85 scholarships available in any one sport for women."

Groves sided with Musser on excluding football grants from the overall men's scholarship count, but pointed out that there are not any women's scholarships for wrestling, either.

Another possibility would be to decrease the number of available grants to football programs.

If the quantity of football scholarships were to be dropped from 85 grants down to say 50, then those additional 35 scholarships could possibly be applied to other men's programs, according to Bove.

But Bove expressed disapproval for that idea.

"You need more than 45 or 50 scholarship players on a college football team," he said. "You need to practice, you'll have injuries, et cetera."

He added that people unfairly compare collegiate teams that usually maintain a roster of more than 100 players to those of professional teams, which can only suit up 45 players at a time. He said professional teams can add and trade for players at will, whereas collegiate programs do not have that luxury.

Groves disagreed that football should be considered an island of its own.

"You have injuries, illnesses and stuff in all sports," he said. "Football still has many more scholarships than they'll ever really need."

A third option, and possibly the most feasible, would be to simply add more overall scholarships where needed.

Perry said that plan is not as easy as it sounds.

"Adding more overall scholarships is the next big challenge for the NCAA," she said.

"But we need to sort out how we can balance the differences between men's and women's scholarships," she added.

Forney will return in Fall Semester 1999, for his final year of eligibility. At this point, he said he has no idea whether he'll receive a scholarship for next season.

Nonetheless, he remained down to earth regarding the scholarship issue.

"To be in a Div. I varsity sport, you should get a scholarship," he said. "Anybody who puts in the time and effort to play a sport should get one. "But not everybody can have one."

Until a viable solution is found, many athletes across the country will continue to pay their own way.

Jean Celestin, a walk-on member of the Penn State wrestling team, put the scholarship struggle into perspective.

"It would be nice for me and other walk-ons to all get scholarships," the sophomore said. "But this is amateur sports. Think about the word amateur. We do this for the love of our sport.