By Dennis Dodd
SportsLine Senior Writer

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- The NCAA was busy scrambling Tuesday morning, trying to react to a judge's order that struck down its fundamental initial-eligibility requirements.

"What you have clearly, right now, is no rule," said Wally Renfro, a public affairs spokesman for the NCAA. "That means you have no consistent, uniform, across-the-board rule. That means you have over 500 rules."

A FEDERAL JUDGE IN PHILADELPHIA ruled Monday the NCAA cannot use a minimum test score to determine initial eligibility because it is unfair to blacks. The ruling came out of a lawsuit filed by four black athletes who were denied initial eligibility.

"It means that there is no standard to guide the schools," NCAA general counsel Elsa Cole told The Associated Press. "Each school will have to decide itself whether a student can play the first play."

And that could mean chaos in the short term.

"Proposition 16" was adopted in 1996 over protests from minority groups. Their protests centered on a minimum required score of 820 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test. The initial-eligibility legislation took effect in 1986 and was adjusted over the years. The legislation was adopted by "an overwhelming" vote of the NCAA membership.

The NCAA plans to ask for a stay of the order.

"We may be very well having some kind of announcement, but I'm reluctant to go any further right now," Renfro said. "I'm reluctant for us to comment quite yet. By the end of the day, we will be prepared to make an announcement and to answer questions."

Minority groups continually have pushed for the elimination of the test score, calling it racially biased. Former Georgetown coach John Thompson boycotted two games in 1989 because of it. The Black Coaches Association threatened a walkout of its basketball coaches.

"It's one of those things where we knew something was wrong," said Rudy Washington, former head of the BCA. Washington is commissioner of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. "And we tried to get people to listen to us, and they wouldn't."

WASHINGTON WORKED WITH THE TRIAL Lawyers for Public Justice, a public-interest law firm in Washington, D.C., finding plaintiffs for such a case. The suit was filed Jan. 8, 1997. Four black athletes eventually were awarded a fourth year of eligibility.

Washington stressed, though, that a new set of standards must be adopted soon.

"I think we've got to come up with something," Washington said. "Now, we have no standards. We definitely need some standards. I hope there's not this proliferation of piss-poor students. It's chaotic. You've got these guys sitting at home that missed the test score, saying, 'Shoot, I don't have to take the tests.' "