National Collegiate Athletic

New Nebraska law limits NCAA aid rulesNebraska Gov. Ben Nelson signed a bill yesterday to prohibit athletic governing bodies from imposing rules limiting financial aid to student athletes on Nebraska colleges or universities.The Legislature voted, 32-10, last week to send the bill to Nelson, dismissing fears that the National Collegiate Athletic Association would impose sanctions against Nebraska schools.The bill removes caps on how much aid student athletes can receive from other grants if they accept athletic scholarships.

Frostburg State coach Dennis Riccio, whose Bobcats posted their second straight 9-1 regular season when they lost to Waynesburg State, 28-18, Saturday, said he is disappointed his team didn't get into the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III playoffs, but is happy to get the chance to compete for the Eastern College Athletic Association Division III-South championship.Frostburg will play Ramapo (9-1) in the ECAC title game at Bobcat Stadium at noon Saturday. This will be Frostburg's first postseason football appearance.

COLLEGE PARK - Now that the Atlantic Coast Conference expansion discussion has achieved a hiatus, I would like to describe my thinking during these complex and significant discussions. Much of the speculation on presidential motives presented in the media did not represent my thinking or that of my ACC colleagues. The most important overarching question is this: "Is a nine-team ACC viable for the future, or should the ACC morph to a 12-team conference?" I believe the answer is that both are viable, though each would lead to a different level of competitive play for the ACC. As I see the steadily evolving national picture in collegiate athletics, if we were to stay as a nine-team ACC (which could easily drop to eight or even fewer teams)

THE PROBLEM of unfairness and unequal opportunity for potential participants in college athletics doesn't lie in the minimum eligibility standards set by the NCAA.It's not that easy.The problem lies in the failure of this nation's high schools to adequately educate students so they can meet the admission requirements at the colleges and universities where they want to compete. Oh, and hopefully get an education at the same time.It lies with the universities that would be more than happy to turn a blind eye, if they could, to a potential star's dismal academic record in order to get him in pads and cleats and on the field.

IN INTERCOLLEGIATE athletics, it has come to this: Can any school afford what is required to remain competitive?Athletics on American college and university campuses have grown through the years in the number of competitors participating and in the funding necessary to support them. Sports are probably worth the investment, provided each school sponsors a program that is compatible with its academic mission. Problems arise when a school's reach exceeds its grasp: when ambitions exceed what it costs to finance them.

I had a teacher in high school who had gone to Georgia Tech in the days when it was a perennial national football power. This state institution was also a respected engineering school, the type of place that seemed an odd match for high-powered athletics.But such marriages were those of convenience. That teacher told of taking a class with one of the football players. At exam time one fine spring day, the player positioned himself next to an open window and proceeded to hand his test paper out the window where some unseen person filled in the answers.

Readers of the sports page are treated every year to stories that might be filed under the heading Agonies of the SAT.Star athletes are described grappling with the Scholastic Aptitude Test, not as a commentary on public education or the athlete's lack of attention to the books, but as a social and athletic melodrama: The Superstar's dream blocked by The Test.The reader is kept current on the first, second and third attempts, the remedial and tutorial measures taken and the resulting success or failure.

Arthur Ashe, a pioneering black man in professional tennis and an eloquent activist in issues of race and sports, said yesterday that he has AIDS."I have AIDS," he said. "I am sorry that I have been forced to make this revelation now, at this time."In a news conference yesterday in New York City, Mr. Ashe, 48, said he and his doctors are "95 percent certain" that he contracted HIV during a blood transfusion after a second coronary bypass operation in 1983. He was not aware of his condition until a brain biopsy in September 1988 revealed that he had acquired immune deficiency syndrome, he said.

Towson State and Maryland will be among seven teams competing for the National Collegiate Athletic Association Southeast Regional gymnastics championship at the University of Georgia tomorrow.The third-seeded Tigers and the sixth-seeded Terrapins will join top-seeded Georgia, second-seeded Florida, West Virginia, George Washington and North Carolina in the meet.This marks Towson's fifth straight appearance at the regionals, and Maryland is back after missing last season.

The University of Florida decided yesterday against filing a formal appeal of National Collegiate Athletic Association sanctions announced last week, but school president John V. Lombardi proposed cutting eight scholarships in 1991 and four in 1992 in football rather than a ban on a bowl appearance this season.He said the school suggested the proposal because it feels the no-bowl sanction imposes a "special hardship" on the team's senior class. There was no comment from the NCAA.