Basketball Coach Backs Freshman Ineligible Rule

A recent NCAA committee report urging that freshman be ineligible for varsity basketball was supported yesterday by Harvard's basketball coach. But he said that the University could not follow the guidelines unilaterally without losing many talented scholar-athletes to other schools.

Coach Frank McLaughlin said that restricting varsity basketball to upperclassmen would limit the pressure freshmen are exposed to in the first year and would reduce the number of first-year athletes who transfer or leave major colleges.

All major schools--not just Harvard or the Ivy League--would have to adopt the policy, or many potential recruits might attend other well-respected academic institutions, such as Duke and Stanford, where they could play for four years, McLaughlin added.

Freshmen were barred by the NCAA from competing in basketball and other major sports until 1972, and the Ivy League maintained that policy until 1979. McLaughlin said the Ivy League's decision to keep the rule an extra seven years contributed greatly to Duke's basketball success several years ago. Many scholar-athletes kept away from the Ivy League because they could play a full four years at another academically prestigious institution, he explained.

The report also recommended reinstituting the NCAA's previous policy of banning freshmen from varsity football. No Ivy League schools currently allow freshmen to play with the varsity football team, so Harvard would be unaffected by the second part of the proposal.

The report--released after an 18-month study by the panel, which included athletic directors, coaches and administrators--also recommended that all Division I schools coordinate a centralized system to monitor each athlete's academic standing and progress toward a degree.

Harvard presently has such a system run by the dean of the College's office. Patricia Miller associate director of Athletics, said yesterday. She added that each athlete's academic standing and progress is checked at least once each semester.

The committee's suggestions will go to the NCAA's chief governing board and be presented for an adoption vote at the full association's convention in December. A spokesman for the governing board, the NCAA Council refused comment on how the body might rule on any of the proposals.

The panel also offered an alternative to a proposal made this summer by an independent committee chaired by President Bok that a board of college presidents be established with the power to pass and veto NCAA legislation.

Instead, the NCAA report suggested that such a board be set up to propose legislation but that all final decisions continue to require NCAA confirmation.

McLaughlin said yesterday that a majority of basketball coaches favor the freshman in eligibility rule, but that athletic directors at larger schools were afraid that it would be too expensive Keeping first-year students off the varsity would necessitate forming special freshman teams with their own coaches and travel expenses. McLaughlin explained.