By DAVID CLIMER
The Tennessean

Ever look at the sidelines at a Southeastern Conference football game? Who are those guys? You can't see the players for the hangers-on.

We have come to accept the presence of a dozen assistant coaches in matching outfits and synchronized headsets. Medical staff and managers are required to attend. And SEC protocol also calls for at least two state troopers because, I guess, you never know when somebody might drive a car between the hash marks at 80 mph.

But depending on the school, the stadium and the importance of the game, sidelines are teeming with people who want to be part of the team. Some are friends of the university. Some are friends of the coach. Some are friends of the trainer. Some are friends of the water boy.

John Hodges has noticed the huddled masses. He, too, has wondered why so many people are permitted to rub elbows with players and coaches during a game. And he's encouraging population control on the sideline at one SEC school.

Hodges, a professor in the religious studies department at Tennessee, last weekend voiced his concern to the UT Athletics Board. Speaking as chair of the governance/compliance/equity committee, Hodges asked UT to thin the herd. He proposed that all these boosters and buddies not be allowed on the sideline during games.

Too, he proposed that the riff-raff - well-heeled as it may be - not be allowed in the team's locker-room before or after games unless invited there by the head coach for a specific reason.

Hodges indicated he was less concerned about all the sideline clutter than about minimizing the appearance or threat of impropriety. Indeed, permitting boosters who make financial contributions to the program in such close proximity to players should have raised eyebrows long before now. It is a dangerous liaison.

This common-sense approach came to mind Thursday when the NCAA released the findings of its 32-month investigation of the Arkansas athletic program. In putting Arkansas on three years' probation, the infractions committee said the main violation involved overpayments to athletes hired by the company of long-time Razorbacks booster Ted Harrod.

Every prominent college athletic program in the country has one or more boosters who fit the Ted Harrod profile - a rich, successful person who yearns to get as close to the action as possible, to be one of the guys, to be an insider.

Arkansas accommodated Harrod. In 1988, he was given two season sideline passes for football games. And having been welcomed into the sideline fraternity, Harrod and his son used the passes and wore the same outfits worn by coaches and other athletic department personnel during games.

It took several years and some pointed questions by NCAA investigators but Arkansas eventually disassociated itself from Harrod. His sideline passes were revoked. This, however, came after Harrod had contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Razorbacks program.

No one is suggesting that any of the violations involving Harrod stemmed directly from his presence on the sideline during football games. Just the same, the fact that a key figure in the Razorbacks' probation was a sideline regular should raise a flag not only at Arkansas but at every other SEC program.

Keeping boosters out of the company business is difficult enough without inviting trouble to your own sideline.