NCAA PROPOSES SOME JC TRANSFERS SIT OUT A SEASON.

Byline: Kathy Orton Special to the Daily News

Jerome Payton graduated from Palmdale High School a non-qualifier. Unable to receive a qualifying score on the Scholastic Assessment Test, Payton, a talented shortstop, could not accept scholarship offers from four-year schools to play baseball and enrolled at Antelope Valley College instead.

Now Payton has developed into a Division I basketball prospect at off-guard. The two years spent at a community college enabled him to refine his basketball skills and finish much of the general coursework needed for his communications degree.

Payton is just one example of what is good about community colleges, say two-year and four-year school coaches.

The NCAA Council, specifically the Academic Requirements and Two-Year College Relations committees, feel that Payton is the exception rather than the rule. The council says that too many junior colleges are being used as farm systems for Division I football and men's basketball programs, a quick-fix stop to make athletes eligible to play Division I sports.

During the 90th annual NCAA convention which opens in Dallas today, Division I college representatives are expected to vote on a proposal that would require two-year college transfer students in football and men's basketball to sit out or redshirt one season before being eligible for competition.

"I don't like it," Payton said. "That's crazy. I wouldn't want to sit out a year."

Many coaches agree with Payton, saying this is just another example of the NCAA trying to fix a problem the wrong way.

"I understand what the intent is," said George Raveling, former USC men's basketball coach and current National Association of Basketball Coaches president. "But you shouldn't paint everybody with the same brush."

The NCAA singled out football and men's basketball for having more recruiting and academic abuses relating to two-year transfer students. In addition, the NCAA stated that transfer students in those sports graduate at rates significantly below those of other transfer student-athletes. A mandatory redshirt year would benefit these students by providing an easier academic transition and requiring them to demonstrate satisfactory academic progress, according to the NCAA's rationale for proposal No. 23.

"It's double jeopardy," Raveling said. "It's a punitive measure. If a junior college athlete comes in with the necessary core courses and has met all the requirements, he shouldn't be penalized. For the life of me, I can't understand (this proposal). It undermines the education process."