Q&A: Bill Friday talks NCAA reform

A sage of North Carolina higher education, Bill Friday was president of the UNC system from 1956 to 1986 and a founding co-chairman of the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics.

Today, as the University still awaits the NCAA’s verdict on its football program, Friday will share his expertise by joining Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Taylor Branch and Duke University professor and author Charles Clotfelter in a panel discussion about reforming college sports.

Daily Tar Heel: Why is college athletics an important issue to be discussed now?

Bill Friday: There are just so many institutions that are under NCAA scrutiny right now in the ACC. For example, Miami … Georgia Tech, Chapel Hill and more. So it has an immediacy locally.

But it’s a nationwide problem. Mr. Branch’s article in (The Atlantic magazine) made it very clear how far and wide this issue is. It’s time to take hold of the problem and solve it. Mr. Clotfelter … concludes that it isn’t going to happen unless the universities themselves do it. And I agree with that.

DTH: What role can UNC, as a large public university, play in enacting change within the NCAA?

BF: Large universities, by and large, are the ones playing big-time sports. It’s the big public universities that have the huge athletic budgets. So it’s their burden to get this situation cleaned up and to be doing it now.

DTH: What do you expect the NCAA to rule on UNC’s infractions?

BF: I have no idea, but I’ve noticed the recent actions of the NCAA board itself: They have set forth some new punishments that are very severe. And they are punishments handed down for academic fraud, issues like that that go to the heart of the institution.

And that’s really the reason why we should all be very concerned. The NCAA itself is getting … a lot tougher. They’re talking about major fines. They’re talking about probation that runs for a number of years. They’re talking about suspension of personnel. And they should’ve been talking about these things years ago.

DTH: Are you in support of those harsher punishments?

BF: It’s not a matter of whether or not I support it at all, because it’s all in the NCAA’s hands. But what I will say is I am very glad to see them doing what they’re doing because if it doesn’t happen, the whole thing is going to collapse.

DTH: What do you hope the NCAA will decide?

BF: I would hope that the time has come for the institutions themselves to do what the NCAA’s actions recently indicated they can do; that is, make the allegations … (and) punishments more clear, be decisive in making their hearings and get the job done — not drag it out a year and a half the way they have for us.

DTH: How do you expect the NCAA to act in the future?

BF: The NCAA is going to be a lot more severe in judgment for serious violations. As of now, (there are) 122 institutions in the 1A category, and 58 of them up to now have been found guilty of major infractions. So the work is there to be done.

DTH: How can UNC balance its desire to become more competitive in athletics while also maintaining its academic prestige?

BF: I knew of the work of (former) Athletic Director (Dick) Baddour. I worked very closely with him over the years and he’s built a very good foundation here. It was very, very disheartening, you know, when we got charged with these violations. But we’ve got to do like a very good institution does. If we are indeed found guilty, we will take our medicine and we will carry out the punishment and we will … never again commit actions like those.

DTH: What are your expectations for the future of college athletics?

BF: There’s only one way we can go and that’s to improve what we’re doing. And I expect universities to do that. They’re very responsible all over the country. And the men who head them and the women who head them are decent, honorable people and they’ll see to it that this is what gets done.

I am optimistic because I’ve seen it happen before.

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