Under longstanding rules to promote amateurism in sports, the NCAA has banned athletes who have played for professional teams or received cash prizes for competitions. Except in tennis, according to an article in today’s New York Times. Despite coaches’ complaints, the NCAA has allowed dozens of foreign tennis players to compete, even though they are little more than failed professionals. Foreign players, many of them ex-pros, were more than half the field in last year’s NCAA tournament.
The problem may be largely one of focus. At a time when the NCAA is under fire for the increasing commercialism and preprofessionalism of revenue sports like men’s basketball, rules violations in those sports preoccupy its enforcement efforts (The Chronicle, November 16, 2001). The result, however, may be that, as the Times put it, “a win-at-all-costs mentality” will seep into low-revenue sports like tennis—a further instance of the demise of the amateur ideal (The Chronicle, October 29, 1999).
