UW Head Football Coach Barry Alvarez sat helplessly as he discussed the legal troubles his players have faced this year.
Alvarez said he continually educates his team, who he calls his family, about the consequences of their actions off the field. Nonetheless, the arrest last week of wide receiver Byron Brown marked another in a series of incidents this year involving football players and the law.
Alvarez said he takes such incidents seriously and addresses each one on \a case by case basis,"" weighing factors such as severity and the number of incidents a given player has been involved in when determining consequences.
But when asked what could be done to curb what many say seems like the beginning of a trend, Alvarez had little reply.
""I don't know what else we can do right now,"" he said. ""I can't give you answers. I don't think anybody can.""
However, while Alvarez may not have an answer, the future athletic director said he does have a place to begin addressing these problems. Under the recommendation of UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley, Alvarez is in the preliminary stages of formulating a comprehensive plan to address issues of academic and non-academic misconduct among athletes. The plan would create a uniform policy for regulating conduct and outline disciplinary action for all athletes.
""One of the problems which I discussed with Coach Alvarez is that there's been some inconsistency in the past in different sports,"" Wiley said. ""Everyone should know exactly what to expect and it should be clear.""
Alvarez, who is currently studying similar plans at other universities, said he is in the preliminary stage and declined to speculate what the plan's contents might be or when the plan would be implemented. Alvarez says the comprehensive plan is a start to addressing the problems that exist, but did not suggest any other ideas for preventing incidents in the future.
While UW-Madison officials say these incidents do concern them, they are quick to point out that the high profile nature of the school's athletes makes them easy targets for media attention, and may give a false impression about the prevalence of their legal troubles in relation to those of average students.
""I think with either non-academic or academic misconduct you really have to... look at statistics and find out whether there's a larger percentage of student athletes being alleged to have done these things than the percentage within the whole student body and that is not easy to tell,"" said Bernice Durand, chair of the Athletic Board.
Wiley expressed similar sentiments, stressing the fact that allegations are often reported with little follow up as cases develop.
Ultimately, however, when incidents do occur Alvarez said everything comes down to the team.
""If there is a situation, we try to be a family,"" he said. ""At times I'm disappointed and I take them seriously, but it's part of our family and if someone is involved in an incident, all coaches, that's one thing all coaches dread-all
parents dread.\
