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Dietz Prepared to Fight NCAA Jim Dietz has devoted a lifetime to improving the game of baseball. But the next big battle of the veteran coach's career will come not on a diamond but in a court. Dietz, head coach at San Diego State and currently the manager of the Alaska Goldpanners, said Thursday he plans to challenge the National Collegiate Athletic Association's authority to pass regulations governing off-season activities. The 52-year-old Dietz said he has contacted lawyers about filing a declaratory judgment suit against the NCAA in Fairbanks later this summer. "What I want to see is if the NCAA has enough power to go outside the traditional periods of time... and have the right to tell a player or coach what they can and can't do during the off-season," Dietz said in his office Thursday following the Goldpanners' 12-9 victory over the Tahoe Stars. Following a report this winter by the privately funded Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, which recommended to reform the role of athletics in a college setting, the NCAA enacted a series of rules restricting the amount of time an athlete can spend practicing for or participating in their chosen sport. In baseball, no more than four players from any given Division I institution may participate on the same summer league team unless it is one of nine leagues recognized and sanctioned by the NCAA. A coach may not have any connection with a summer league team if he has a player participating. Neither the Alaska nor the Alaska Central baseball leagues are NCAA approved. "Why should the NCAA tell me I have to give this up," asked Dietz, who has coached off and on in the league since 1969 and has led the Panners to national titles seven times. "They (the Knight Commission) say there are so many abuses and there may be in football and basketball, but not in this sport. "These kids want to play. Nobody is forcing them to do this. The NCAA thinks we're twisting tails. That's not the case at all." The change in NCAA rules has played a role in folding several smaller summer leagues around the country and will likely force other leagues into becoming more adult oriented if they are to survive. "I think you should have exceptions to the rule," Dietz said. "Something where common sense plays a role." Dietz said there are 180 kids on a waiting list to get in the sanctioned league in San Diego. He said he also gets calls from all over the country from kids wanting to play in Alaska. "The guys who come here love baseball and they want to improve their game," he said. "What's wrong with letting them play?" "If a kids wants to develop and he doesn't do it with his coach, how is he going to do it?" Scheduled to begin August 1, the new NCAA rule will not effect any of this year's summer leagues, provided they begin before the first day of fall classes. "I don't feel like I'm violating a rule," said Dietz, who has seven San Diego State players on his Goldpanners roster, including his son, Steve. "I'm doing a service. I feel like we're getting a slap in the face for all the years we've put into summer programs." On Wednesday, UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian spoke to a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on commerce, consumer protection and competitiveness and asked congress to force the NCAA to provide coaches and athletes with some type of due process. "I agree with what Tarkanian and some those guys are saying," Dietz said. "I believe in the concept of the NCAA and I support what they do in regards to collegiate athletics, but I believe they are stretching themselves into areas they don't belong. "That's what I'll be asking the judge, 'Can they do this?' If they can and it's within their power and scope, fine, we'll shut it down." June 21, 1991, Daily News-Miner
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