Comeuppance

Big-time college football and basketball coaches are feeling the
sting of the NCAA's reform movement. At last week's NCAA convention
in Dallas, delegates voted down proposals to restore a full-time
assistant basketball coach's job eliminated a year ago and to delay a
cut in basketball scholarships from 14 to 13. The big-sport coaches
who were rebuffed on those votes are also at odds with gender-equity
advocates who want to see scholarships and money diverted to women's
sports. But as SI's William F. Reed reports from Big D, ''These guys
have only themselves to blame. If it weren't for the excesses of the
Barry Switzers and Jerry Tarkanians, maybe things wouldn't have
reached the point where a 1989 Harris poll found that 78 percent of
the public considered college sports out of control. Now that the
reformers have the upper hand, it's almost as if they're punishing
the football-basketball crowd for its sins.''