NCAA seeks to rule on Williams quickly, preserve power

With its authority at stake, the NCAA is trying to head off the due-process hearing Thursday between Texas and freshman forward Mike Williams.

Before Williams meets Thursday at 8 a.m. with UT officials, the NCAA has requested a fourth and final interview with his parents, Williams' attorney told SportsLine.com on Wednesday.

"They'll talk (Thursday) at 6 a.m. if we'll do it," attorney Donald Jackson said. "We're not doing it. We want our hearing (with school officials) instead."

The outcome of Williams' due-process hearing could be a watershed moment in college athletics. If Texas certifies Williams' eligibility without permission from the NCAA, other schools in similar cases could follow.

"This would open the floodgates all over the country," Jackson said.

Williams, a 6-foot-7 McDonald's All-American who Texas coaches believed in October would compete for a starting position, has been withheld from the No. 18 Longhorns' first five games (and both exhibitions) while the NCAA looked into his relationship to club coach Mark Komara of Huntsville, Ala.

According to the NCAA, Komara purchased plane tickets for Williams' parents, Michael and Alice Gladney, to watch their son play in club events as a high school sophomore. That would be an impermissible benefit under NCAA rules, but Jackson said his clients reimbursed Komara.

However, Jackson said, the Gladneys can't prove it because they don't have a checking account or credit card; they paid Komara in cash.

As Williams' "de facto suspension" -- as his attorney calls it -- extended into the season's second week, Jackson pursued a due process hearing with school officials.

Such a hearing would put the onus on Texas, not the NCAA, to determine Williams' eligibility because the Texas constitution protects its citizens' "property rights" -- and Williams' basketball skill could be considered a property right.

According to that line of thinking, the NCAA has deprived Williams of his property right without due process. There is precedent in the Texas state court system for the school to rule for Williams -- a 2003 case in which the Texas Court of Appeals ruled a Longhorns swimmer "was entitled to a university-provided hearing before a decision is made about her eligibility."

Although an NCAA appeal is pending, swimmer Joscelin Yeo ultimately won her eligibility, albeit reluctantly from the university. But her case drew little attention because college swimming is not heavily covered by the media.

College basketball is another matter, which explains why the NCAA is racing to beat Mike Williams' due-process hearing at Texas.