Division I basketball and football players from schools closed by Hurricane Katrina will still have to sit out for a year if they transfer to one of the many colleges that have offered admission, NCAA president Myles Brand said Tuesday.
The NCAA said last month that it would bend some rules to help students and schools deal with the hurricane, including letting students compete without attending classes.
But during an appearance at the University of Rhode Island, Brand said the only rule the NCAA would not bend was the one that requires Division I basketball, football and hockey players to sit one year if they transfer to another Division I school. In other sports, Division I athletes can transfer and play immediately at another Division I school if they receive a release from the original university.
Brand said the decision was made because the members of some teams, including at least one from Tulane, planned to transfer together to one school. That could lead to the new school taking the entire team as its own, Brand said.
"Let me call that athletic looting, to be provocative, and we won't stand for that," he said.
Some coaches at hurricane-affected schools in and around New Orleans had complained to the NCAA that coaches at other schools had tried to raid their teams and recruit their players, NCAA spokesman Wally Renfro said.
Renfro said the NCAA expects many hurricane-affected schools to continue to compete this year — even if they don't have classes.
Other schools affected by the hurricane include LSU and New Orleans.
The NCAA has eased some other rules, including those prohibiting athletes from taking financial assistance from outside sources, and those that require students to be enrolled full-time at their college and university.
In other Katrina developments:
Experts will have to clean and decontaminate the Louisiana Superdome before the stadium's future can be determined.
Superdome officials took their first look at the Superdome, which was wrecked while housing thousands of people seeking refuge from Hurricane Katrina, on Friday. Those officials said Tuesday that mounds of trash have been removed from the Superdome's concourses and the interior is still dark, waterlogged and vile smelling. The New Orleans Arena next door is in better shape, they said.
"The first job is to get both buildings cleaned and decontaminated," said Glenn Menard, who manages both buildings. "Once we have that done we'll have the experts go in and tell us what can be done and what can't be done."
Chicago White Sox Charities and the team's fans donated $100,000 to the American Red Cross to assist the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
The Audience Auction, Sox Split raffle and donations from fans, employees and staff brought in more than $40,000 during the recent homestand against Kansas City and the Los Angeles Angels. Chicago White Sox Charities donated almost $60,000.
"None of us will ever understand the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, which has affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans," White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said. "Our heart goes out to every person touched by this tragedy, and we feel humbled to be able to offer our support."
The donation is part of efforts by Major League Baseball and its clubs to raise $3 million for hurricane relief.
Derek Fisher, Tamika Catchings and Shareef Abdur-Rahim will join more than a dozen NBA and WNBA players in a caravan of 20 tractor trailers that will depart Jackson, Miss., and deliver supplies to Hattiesburg, Biloxi and Gulfport. The men's and women's National Basketball Players' Associations are organizing the event, called "Operation Rebound."
The University of South Carolina will collect money for relief efforts at Saturday's football game with Alabama. Cash donations will be accepted at the gates of Williams-Brice Stadium before kickoff. Half of the money will go to the American Red Cross' local efforts, the rest to South Carolina Cares, which helps those who have relocated.