Court Voids Nevada Law : Jurisprudence: Statute requiring the NCAA to adhere to due process in enforcement proceedings is ruled unconstitutional.

The NCAA scored a major victory Friday in its latest court battle with former Nevada Las Vegas basketball Coach Jerry Tarkanian when a federal judge struck down a Nevada law regulating NCAA enforcement procedure.

U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben ruled that the law requiring NCAA enforcement proceedings involving institutions in the state to conform to standards of legal due process is unconstitutional.

The decision could allow the NCAA to move forward with the highly publicized infractions case dealing with UNLV’s recruitment of former New York high school star Lloyd Daniels.

The case, now nearly five years old, was removed from the NCAA Committee on Infractions’ agenda last fall because of the Nevada statute, which was enacted in April of 1991.

The NCAA sued Tarkanian and others in U.S. district court in Reno in November to try to overturn the law.

In a 27-page ruling, McKibben upheld the NCAA’s contention that the law violates the organization’s interstate commerce and contractual rights under the U.S. Constitution.

“While the concerns the Nevada law is designed to address are legitimate, and while similar concerns have been expressed by the legislatures of other states, any narrow interests the state of Nevada may have in imposing the requirements of (the statute) for the protection of institutions and individuals residing in Nevada is outweighed by the general harm to the uniform enforcement of regulations by the NCAA and its member institutions throughout the country,” McKibben wrote.

The ruling comes on the heels of a tumultuous period at UNLV in which Tarkanian, claiming that school officials waged a campaign to damage his program, attempted to withdraw the resignation he submitted last June. After he was replaced by former Villanova Coach Rollie Massimino in April, Tarkanian was hired as coach of the NBA San Antonio Spurs.

Tarkanian’s attorney, Chuck Thompson, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the ruling would be appealed.

Other defendants include Tim Grgurich and Ron Ganulin, both former assistant basketball coaches at UNLV, and Shelley Fischer, a former academic adviser for the UNLV basketball program.

Although the ruling technically allows the NCAA to proceed with its infractions case against UNLV unconstrained by the Nevada statute, the NCAA probably will not move until all legal matters have been dealt with, David Berst, the NCAA’s assistant executive director for enforcement, said Friday.

“Obviously, we are pleased we won the first round of the matter,” he said. “But it is still the bailiwick of various attorneys who have to sort through the matter and see what actions are appropriate.

“The wording of the opinion allows us to go forward (with the infractions case). But there are options for appeal. We have to sort through those options. I don’t think our office would try to take advantage (of the situation) by making a quick move (to close out the case). We have to recognize that there are still legal issues to be resolved.”

NCAA Executive Director Dick Schultz has said he expects the NCAA’s challenge to the Nevada law to wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

That would be a familiar scenario for both the NCAA and Tarkanian, who took legal action when the NCAA sought to suspend him for his involvement in rules violations in 1977.

That action, centering on whether the NCAA should be considered a government body whose decisions must meet constitutional standards of due process, went before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1988. The court ruled in the NCAA’s favor, 5-4.

In its current infractions case against Tarkanian’s program, the NCAA alleges UNLV coaches and representatives violated rules in nearly 40 areas. Many of the alleged violations stem from the school’s dealings with Daniels, who was barred from playing for the Rebels after his arrest on drug charges in Las Vegas in February of 1987.

UNLV filed its response to the charges with the NCAA last spring, and the Committee on Infractions placed the case on its agenda for a meeting last September. However, a pre-hearing conference was called off when lawyers for Tarkanian and others asked that the NCAA operate under provisions of the Nevada statute.