Pool contest link found on NCAA site

Friday, March 31, 2000 | 10:57 a.m.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES -- The NCAA, which has threatened to withhold press credentials from newspapers that accept ads from gambling touts, had a Web link to a basketball pool-type contest offering more than $45,000 in prizes, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The link on the NCAA's Final Four site, http://www.finalfour.net, was contained in a Maxim magazine ad directing Web surfers to a contest called Maxim Madness, the newspaper said.

The NCAA said it didn't know the link was being placed there, adding that officials had it pulled as soon as they found out.

"This was a flat-out error," NCAA spokesman Wally Renfro told the newspaper. "We didn't know it was going to be there and we absolutely do not condone it."

Renfro said the NCAA's corporate partner, Total Sports, is responsible for the Final Four website and made a separate arrangement with Maxim.

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