TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 1999

Coaches get pay back

By Arnold V. Cruz

On-Line Forty-Niner

The National Collegiate Athletic Association on Wednesday ordered all Division I schools - small and large - to pay a combined total of $54.5 million dollars to all coaches who fell under the "restricted earnings" title during their tenure.

"We [Cal State Long Beach] were ordered to pay about $56,000," said Ted Kadowaki, CSULB associate athletic director and chief financial officer of athletics. The exact pay out figure has not been determined for CSULB.

Larger schools with bigger athletic department budgets - USC and UCLA - are expected to pay for a large portion of the pay out.

USC and UCLA both have athletic budgets that exceed $20 million. Both schools were ordered to pay $195,855 each.

CSULB's athletic department budget is $6.3 million.

It is not known how the pay out will affect the athletic department, or how the payment will be made.

"The exact details have yet to be released on how we have to pay," Kadowaki said. "There have been talks of a financing plan that will spread out the payment."

If the pay out is spread out through a financing plan, the impact to the athletic department could be minimal.

"Obviously, if we have to pay in one lump sum it [the pay out] will have a negative impact on the athletic department," Kadowaki said. "But if we can pay through a financing plan we shouldn't have much of a problem."

CSULB Athletic Director Bill Shumard said former CSULB assistant coaches in all four sports will receive compensation.

A class-action lawsuit had been filed by the coaches who fell under the salary cap, and a federal judge ruled that it was unlawful to have coaches with "restricted earnings."

Hoping to curb spending in the athletic programs of Division I schools, a commission of university presidents implemented the policy, university officials said.

In the early 1990s, the NCAA implemented a rule that the third assistant coaches of football, basketball, baseball and volleyball programs of Division I schools were given a "restricted earnings" title. Only Division I schools had such a salary restriction for coaches.

"The third assistant coach would usually earn about $12,000 to $15,000 a year," said Shumard. "But they [coaches] could earn more in the summer by holding [instructional] camps."