On the Roster: Coming Events in Black College Sports

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The college sports scene for this academic year promises the usual mixed bag of on-the-field triumphs and woes. But those high-profile events are likely to be accompanied by some unique off-the-field celebrations and disappointments. Here's a look ahead at developments likely to occur during the course of the school year.

FULL-COURT PRESS

The legislative courts have ruled that the National Collegiate Athletic Association can keep its freshman eligibility requirements intact, in spite of litigation asserting that the rules discriminate against Black student-athletes.

In January, a team of Washington, D.C.-based lawyers were hopeful they could convince a three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the NCAA requirements should be altered. The panel ruled otherwise.

Even so, Adele Kimmel, an attorney with the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, has renewed hope that the NCAA eventually will be forced to alter its bylaws. Kimmel is one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs in a lawsuit, Cureton vs. NCAA, challenging those eligibility roles.

"The only way to get the NCAA to react is to get a fire lit underneath it," Kimmel says. "And that fire is a lawsuit. Without pressure from a suit, the status quo will continue, so we're going to keep pressing the issue."

At issue are the academic eligibility requirements for incoming freshman athletes at Division I schools. The requirements stipulate that students must successfully complete 13 core courses in high school, keep a prescribed minimum grade-point …