Columnist Jeff German: Is NCAA set to talk? You bet

Wednesday, July 27, 2005 | 10:47 a.m.

It's a little hot in the Southern Nevada desert this time of the year to think about "March Madness."

But in the spirit of that annual spring ritual, where anything can happen as college basketball teams compete for the national championship, the NCAA has surprised its biggest cynics in Las Vegas.

With little fanfare, a special NCAA task force last week recommended the organization re-establish lines of communication with Las Vegas sports books in its never-ending battle to curtail gambling on college campuses.

And NCAA officials on the front lines were quick to embrace the recommendation, sending more shock waves through the casino industry.

"We're trying to reach out to those relationships that have been strained in the past," says Rachel Newman-Baker, the NCAA's new director of agents, gambling and amateurism activities. "We want to be proactive and take a preventive approach."

It would be easy for casino industry leaders to gloat over the sudden change of heart of an arch-enemy.

This is an obvious admission on the part of the NCAA that it has been on the wrong path.

The turnaround comes as the NCAA's latest effort to get Congress to ban betting on college sports in Nevada has once again stalled on Capitol Hill -- beaten back by high-powered industry lobbyists and the state's newly influential congressional delegation, led by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.

But there's no gloating this week in the Nevada camp. Industry leaders are just happy the NCAA, with its new pragmatic president, Myles Brand, has come to its senses.

Frank Fahrenkopf, gaming's chief lobbyist in Washington, was so excited about the news that he put in a call to Newman-Baker to get a dialogue started. He's waiting for a call-back.

"We've always said that the sports books in Nevada and the NCAA have the same interest, and that is to have fair games," Fahrenkopf explains. "They're realizing that we're part of the solution, not the problem."

Fahrenkopf and others in Las Vegas have long maintained that the NCAA's anti-gambling campaign was misdirected.

The vast majority of betting on college games, they contend, is done with illegal bookies around the country, not with Las Vegas sports books.

It serves no purpose in the industry's mind to punish the legitimate sports books, which in the past have actually exposed betting schemes in college sports.

The most frequent example the industry cites is the March 1994 point-shaving scandal over the PAC-10 basketball matchup between Arizona State and Washington.

The Horseshoe race and sports book was the first to notice irregular betting patterns on the game, and it promptly notified the state Gaming Control Board. That led to an FBI investigation and point-shaving indictments against a couple of Arizona State players.

Newman-Baker says the NCAA still supports legislation that would ban betting in Nevada on college sports.

But she adds that the organization now understands that it needs to get a better handle on how the sports betting industry works.

Gaming Control Board Chairman Dennis Neilander is as encouraged as anyone by the NCAA's new attitude.

"They're recognizing that gaming is part of the cultural mainstream," he says. "It sounds pretty positive."

It sure beats the madness of the NCAA's previous opinion of Las Vegas.