BCSP Notes . . .

WSSU, currently a member of Division II and the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA), will submit an application to the NCAA seeking the change in classification by December 1 as required by the athletic association's bylaws. This step will formally start a five-year process that culminates with WSSU teams and athletes gaining eligibility to compete for all Division I championships, except men's and women's basketball, during the 2009-10 seasons.

"Moving up to NCAA Division I advances our university's strategic plan and will offer our talented student-athletes even more challenging competition," said Harold L. Martin, Sr., WSSU's chancellor. "Specifically, competing on a bigger stage will elevate awareness of WSSU and our reputation for excellence regionally and nationally, while creating opportunities to generate even more revenue from our athletic programs."

The Mid Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) is considered a likely destination for WSSU once they have completed the upgrade process. The MEAC currently includes eight school that were formally members of the CIAA.

Latest FAMU debacle
A report to the NCAA admitting 196 violations involving ineligible student/athletes has landed Florida A&M University in its latest round of hot water and bad publicity.

The violations involve 117 athletes between 1998 and 2002 in 14 different sports. Most of the nearly 200 infractions involve students who were not properly certified for academic progress. While most of the violations found are considered secondary and will not likely result in either the dreaded "death penalty" or "lack of institutional control" edict from the NCAA, the revelation is already taking a toll.

The Mid Eastern Athletic Conference announced recently that it would strip FAMU of 11 conference championship won between 1998 and 2002 and of any games won during that period using the players and would seek reimbursement of any revenue received from winning the league's All-Sports Trophy.

Both all-sports trophies carry $25,000 cash awards. FAMU won women's all-sports titles in 1998, 1999 and 2000 and men's all-sports titles in '98, 2000 and 2002. That may amount to a total of $150,000.

This comes on the heels of an announcement that the athletic department at FAMU is $700,000 in the hole for the past year. Much of that may be attributed to the aborted attempt by the school last season to move its football program from NCAA Div. I-AA to I-A status.

Spears questioned, apparently cleared
Grambling State interim head football coach Melvin Spears has apparently escaped the George O'Leary/Charles Harris/Mike Bernard credentials flap.

Spears, appointed interim head coach at GSU after the departure of former coach Doug Williams in February, had a master's degree from Northern Arizona University that appears on his employment application questioned by GSU President, Horace Judson, who gave Spears a week to clear up the matter. The story broke on Thursday, June 8. By Friday however, officials at NAU confirmed that Spears had completed the course work for the master's degree but failed to submit needed paperwork to get his diploma.

Dr. William Wright, Chair of the Department of Research, Foundations and Leadership at NAU, told the Monroe (La.) News-Star on Friday night that he would personally walk through the paperwork to complete the process. When Spears was hired by Williams in 1997, he had just finished the required studies at NAU but was also dealing with the pain of losing his grandfather, who passed away.

O'Leary, Harris and Bernard were found to have falsified their resumes or applications about master's degrees and were subsequently terminated ­ O'Leary as the new football coach at Notre Dame, former MEAC Commissioner Harris as new athletic director at Dartmouth and Bernard as head basketball coach at Shaw.

© 2004 Azeez Communications, Inc.

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