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The Battalion
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DALLAS (AP) — The Southwest Confer-
I ence Council voted Thursday to keep Ar-
1 kansas in the league for the 1991 football
I season with all rights and privileges, indud-
I ing competing for the championship.
“Arkansas will be treated in 1991 just like
I it’s a normal season,” said Dr. James Vick of
I the University of Texas and president of
I the conference council.
Vick said the vote was unanimous to keep
I the Razor backs in the league. Arkansas had
I originally planned to play football as an in-
[ dependent next year before joining the
I Southeastern Conference in 1992.
The Razorbacks, charter members of the
I 76-year-old SWC, voted Aug. 1 to bolt to
I the SEC by 1992 in all sports except foot-
1 ball.
Arkansas Athletic Director Frank
S Broyles said on Wednesday: ‘‘We’re happy
I to do whatever (the SWC) wants to do in the
I 1991 season.”
Arkansas had a change of heart for 1991
I when it discovered the difficulty of trying to
I schedule games for the eight SWC slots
I they were losing.
SWC Commissioner Fred Jacoby said, “It
I is the professional and the right thing to do
I on the part erf the conference.”
Jacoby said he felt the SWC presidents
I would approve the move when they meet
I here Oct. 7. That vote is considered a for-
I nudity.
The action also provides relief for the
I Cotton Bowl, which is involved in dis-
I cussions with CBS over its contract. The
I Cotton Bowl, which has the SWC champion
I as its host team, will now get another year of
I grace because the Hogs will be available to
JI play in bowl game should they win the SWC
I title in 1991.
The SWC also announced other sweep
ing changes in Thursday’s meeting of fac
ulty representatives and athletic directors.
Those included:
• Changing home gate receipts from a
I 50-50 split so that the home team would re-
| tain all gate receipts in football and basket-
| ball beginning in 1992. Schools would be al-
I lowed, however, to work out minimum
I guarantee packages with one another.
• Changing fees for teams participating
I in bowls. Teams will now get tea keep
I $500,000 off the top before the SWC splits
I the remainder. The current figure is
I $300,000. The move will take effect after
I this year’s bowl games.
j • Allowing SWC teams to keep 80 per-
B cent,of their television receipts for non-con-
■ fereoce national TV games with the re-
I mainder going to conference. T he
current iormhla is a 50-50 split.
• Changing the split on regionally and
nationally televised games between confer-
I ence teams from 40 percent to 50 percent.
I The other half will go to the conference,
j • Rewarding a team with a second home
I televised game under the SWC Raycom
I package with an additional $25,000.
[ • Rewarding schools who move games
I from Saturday to he on television with an
| extra $50,000 worth of television revenues.
Jacoby said, “There was a spirit erf cor-
I diality at these meetings which allowed us to
I get a lot done.”
Vick said, “It was a very positive atmo-
I sphere. I feel a lot of satisfaction with what
I went on. It’s good to have some issues clar-
I ified. But there’s still other questions not re-
I solved.”
The SWC took no immediate action on
I alliances with other conferences or the
I movement of Southern Methodist home
I games from Ownby Stadium to a larger sta-
I dium.
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Ag softball
team heads
for tourney
From Staff and Wire Reports
Texas A&M’s Lady Aggie softball
team heads into the World Series of the
fall season this weekend in the Third
Annual Coors Light National Invitatio
nal Championship.
The tournament, held on the campus
of Western Illinois University, starts to
day and runs through Sunday evening.
Each team plays at least three games in
pool play.
A&M opens the tourney against
Creighton this morning and will play Il
linois State this evening at 5:30. The Ag
gies complete pool play Saturday morn
ing with Iowa State.
Of the 16 teams involved, half were
ranked in the NCAA Division I polls last
season. Five of the teams, including
A&M, competed in the NCAA playoffs.
“We’re looking forward to this tour
nament,” Lady Aggie head coach Bob
Brock said. “It should he a great test for
us.
“This should give us a good indication
of what we might go with in the spring.”
A&M will be without the services of
Sharia Cannon, who broke a toe in last
weekend’s tournament at Central Park.
Shannon Munger will be unable to play
defense because of a sore elbow, but may
be used in hitting situations.
Defending champion Oklahoma
State, A&M, Arizona State and Kent
State are the top seeds in the tourney.
The rest of the tournament field in
cludes Western Illinois, Akron, Colo
rado State, Eastern Michigan, Indiana
State, Missouri, Southern Illinois, Uni
versity of Texas-Arlington and Wiscon
sin-Green Bay.
Sports Editor Nadja Sabawala 845-2688
NCAA chomps Gators with bowl ban
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — The Uni
versity of Florida was placed on NCAA pro
bation for the second time in six years on
Thursday, and school officials were upset
that the punishment included a postseason
ban for this year’s football team.
The NCAA chose to impose less than the
minimum prescribed penalties in a case of
major violations.
The bowl ban for this season was the only
punishment of the football program, and
there was no ban on television appearances
for either sport.
The basketball program’s scholarships
will be restricted, and it must repay at least
$287,000 in revenue from the 1988 NCAA
tournament because guard Vernon Max
well played while he was ineligible.
The Gators will be permitted 13 schol
arships in 1991-92, two fewer than the max
imum, and 14 scholarships in 1992-93.
First-year football coach Steve Spurrier
said the bowl ban was a more severe penalty
than Florida deserved.
“This has been a clean-run program in
the last four or five years,” Spurrier said.
“There’s been no cash payments, no buying
tickets of players, no falsifying of tran
scripts.”
As part of the ruling, the NCAA cited
former basketball coach Norm Sloan and
former football coach Galen Hall, both
fired last October, for unethical conduct.
If either takes a new coaching job in the
next five years, his hiring must be approved
by the NCAA Committee on Infractions.
Hall is now an unpaid graduate assistant
at Penn State, while Sloan is coaching a pro
fessional team in Greece.
Chuck Smrt, director of enforcement for
the NCAA, said the case was unique be
cause the school took significant corrective
steps after the investigation was disclosed.
For that reason, Smrt said, the five-mem
ber Committee on Infractions did not im
pose the minimum proscribed penalties.
The minimum penalties could have also
included restrictions on postseason basket
ball, recruiting in both sports and television
appearances.
Florida even faced the remote possibility
of having its football and basketball pro
grams shut down by the death penalty.
But even though the school escaped se
vere sanctions, university president John
Lombardi took exception to the postseason
ban on this year’s football team, which is 2-0
and ranked No. 19.
“We are not entirely comfortable with a
set of penalties that appear to us to ... penal
ize the innocent for the sins of a prior gen
eration,” Lombardi said.
“This is particularly difficult when you
recognize that these players and these
coaches are now in the middle of their sea
son, and these penalties at this time in their
season appear to us to be a particularly dif
ficult blow to accept.”
The school has 15 days to appeal the
sanctions or ask that the ban against the
football team be delayed.
"
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Eagles soaring sky-high
A&M readies for UNT by keeping concentration
No. 12 Aggies
set for Saturday
By CLAY RASMUSSEN
Of The Battalion Staff
Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack
Texas A&M wide receiver Shane Garrett celebrates after catching a 68-yard touchdown pass from Lance Pavlas in
the 63-14 win over USL last week. The Aggies, ranked No. 12 nationally, host North Texas Saturday.
North Texas head football coach
Corky Nelson wants his team to lly like
eagles. R.C. Slocum would rather his
team just produce another dead duck
on Kyle Field.
The No. 12 Aggies attempt to go 3-0
for die first time since 1984 when they
host the Eagles this Saturday. Kickoff
is scheduled for 6 p.m.
After massacring Southwestern
Louisiana 63-14 last Saturday, Slo
cum’s Aggies still are preaching pa
tience. Call it T he Slocum Doctrine:
One Game at a T ime.
“You never know from week to
week how it’s going to turn out,” Slo
cum said. “1 expected USL to come in
here and play a great game and it
turned out like it did. I expect North
Texas to come in and play a great
game, so all I can do is try and get us
prepared to play them.
“What you’d like to do as a coach is
educate your team to the realities of
football as you go and the fact that
week-to-week you can’t go into a game
thinking this team is good and this
team is bad.”
Slocum has developed a strong re
spect for Nelson and his UN T pro
gram. The Eagles are 2-0 and ranked
No. 7 nationally in Division I-AA.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for Coach
Nelson and the job he’s done over
there all these years,” Slocum said.
See Aggies/Page 10
1 ii
' ' ' v ■ V" "
NEVER
Simmons waits as
backup now, but
looks to tomorrow
By RICHARD TIJERINA
Of The Battalion Staff
T here were times as a
freshman when Randy
Simmons thought about giving
up.
The Texas A&M backup running
back, plagued with the burden of
injuries and fallen dreams, seriously
considered transferring to another
Southwest Conference school in 1987.
Former head football coach Jackie
Sherrill convinced him not to go. Now
Simmons is glad he didn’t.
“Coach Sherrill talked me out of it,”
Simmons said. “He told me that my best
chances were here, that if I transferred
I’d lose a year and it would be another
setback. I stuck it out here, and I’m glad
I did. I don’t regret it one bit.”
Three years ago, Simmons of
McKinney, Darren Lewis of Dallas
Carter were at the top of most national
recruiting wish lists.
But a funny thing happened to the
two high school phenoms. Lewis is now
the main man for A&M and a Heisman
Trophy candidate. Simmons sits on the
bench, and had to wait 38 games before
See Simmons/Page 11
Battalion file photo by F. Joe
A&M running back Randy Simmons runs for some of his 74 yards against
SMU last year. Listed at No. 3 on the depth chart, Simmons now is hoping his
chance to start will come after he has battled adversity on and off the field.
Permian ruled
ineligible to
defend 5A crown
AUST IN (AP) — Odessa Permian, the
defending Class 5A football champion, was
ruled, ineligible for the 1990 playoffs
Thursday for violating off-season practice
rules.
A rival coach brought the violations to
the attention of the University Interscholas
tic League, which governs high school
sports in Texas. The coach said he wit
nessed controlled summer practices of Per
mian players with coaches present.
The Panthers, also known as “Mojo,” are
among the most stories high school teams in
the country. They finished the 1989 season
with a 28-14 victory over Houston Aldine in
the state championship game and the top
high school ranking in the country. They
won three state championships in the ’80s
and were runners-up twice in Texas’ high
est classification.
The University Interscholastic League’s
eight-member state executive committee on
Thursday upheld an earlier district com
mittee ruling that Odessa Permian had vio
lated rules governing off-season training.
The vote was unanimous.
The UIL said the school broke practice
rules twice in five months. Permian coach
Tam Hollingshead was slapped with a pri
vate reprimand in April for exceeding
practice time limits.
Hollingshead, in his first year as coach of
the Panthers after seven years as an assis
tant, was suspended from coaching for the
next two games, and nine assistants were
placed on one-year probation.
“We are surprised,” Hollingshead said.
“At this point, we do not know what avenue
we will take. The team will be very upset
when they hear the news. They’ll have to
handle it. They’re going to have to put up a
fight.
“We are aboveboard and first-class,”
Hollingshead added. “We still believe that
we haven’t done anything wrong. We con
tend in the present and in the past we were
not in violation of any UIL rules.”
The decision also rendered Odessa Per
mian’s players ineligible for All-District
football honors.