On training tables and dorms

Yesterday we did this story on NCAA deregulation, and it seems two of the things that will be phased back in under this "de-reform" are athletics dorms and training tables.

It's a fascinating topic because for so long the NCAA tried to eliminate or dramatically reduce the trappings of big-time college sports, and now they're seemingly acknowledging the fact that this enterprise isn't a -- gasp! -- purely scholastic endeavor.

(Now if they decide to do away with the whole "student-athlete" thing, we'll know for sure that they're indeed inhabitants of planet Earth.)

To me the bottom line to all this is, hey, let the big dogs eat. If a school wants to spend gobs of money to make gobs of money, let them do it and don't pretend that the Wake Forest Joneses are on the same level as the Clemson Joneses.

The last six or seven years have introduced heaping doses of reality while pouring cold buckets of water over notions that this is about higher education. The addition of a 12th regular season game obliterated the argument that these kids' studies are paramount. The rampant commercialism, coupled with the pursuit of more revenue streams in the form of conference realignment, reinforce the fact that these are basically semi-pro sports. Give them credit for starting to acknowledge the truth.

One irony that wasn't addressed in yesterday's column is the fact that the dorm issue might have been the most divisive and damaging issue in the history of Clemson athletics.

When Danny Ford was run out of town in 1990, many people assumed it was solely related to an NCAA investigation and designed to lighten penalties that were imminent. But the real story might've been administrative anger over Ford's insistence that Clemson build a plush new dorm for football players instead of a new learning center for athletes.

At that time, such dorms were being phased out as a result of major NCAA reform intended to bring college athletics back in line with the so-called academic mission in the wake of scandals at SMU, Oklahoma, and many other places.

Training tables are also relics of another era. Once upon a time, football factories came up with the idea to feed their players in a group setting to maximize nutrition and build the team ethic. Then the NCAA stepped in and reduced their presence, limiting teams to one meal per day in that setting.

Here's what Terry Don Phillips told us recently when we asked him about this topic:

"I think the two worst things the NCAA ever did was take away the training table and athletic dorms. The reason I say that is, having come up in that type of environment, we had three meals a day. And it was basically all sports, even when I was in school. And then they got on this notion that you're going to integrate kids into the campus proper. So you took them out of the dorms and took away the training tables and that sort of thing.

"Basically what happened is: Kids are going to be with who they want to be with. So instead of having an athletic dorm where you had a really good environment and provided for good communication, esprit de corps and that kind of thing that you like, they go off campus and they live together off campus. You hadn't really integrated. Kids are going to do what they want to do. They're going to be with their friends. And if their friends are people they play with, just because you say they can't live in an athletic dorm, they're going to go out and get an apartment together. So what have you accomplished?"

LW