Mandatory “manners” seminars are being featured to deal with sports miscreants.

Many will say a national meeting on athletic coaching ethics is a capital idea while others are likely to be thinking “it’s about time.”

The National Association of Basketball Coaches held a mandatory meeting this week in Chicago to discuss unethical and immoral conduct and its impact on the profession. The meeting comes on the heels of coaching scandals that have shaken the sport badly in the past eight to 10 months.

Schools such as St. Bonaventure, Baylor, Georgia, Iowa State and Missouri have been caught up in incidents ranging from embarrassing to shocking. It is about time some formal guidelines were offered and coaches talked openly about the misbehavior in their ranks. Considering how often they talk about their positive leadership of young men and women, there clearly are those who have no good notion of how to do it well.

At the Chicago meeting coaches received a sample code of ethics drawn up by the NABC board of directors. They are to study the issues and then take the “code” to their campuses and apply it to given situations. In three weeks they are to reassemble for discussions and input.

All coaches are required to attend. The NABC has threatened to take away tickets for the celebrated Final Four tournament next spring for the truants.

Good idea. The morality and ethics of too many coaches and their staffs are not flattering. And basketball is not the only sport needing a spiritual rejuvenation.

“We’re not going to solve a lot issues, but it will show people we’re concerned about what is going on,” says Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim. Former Kansas coach Roy Williams also is one of the proponents of the NABC meeting and his 15 years of operating a clean program at Kansas justify his stand.

Guidelines and suggestions are fine, but unless some sharp teeth and punishment or fines are attached to the plan, little other than talk is likely to come from the effort.

At Baylor, coach Dave Bliss resigned under a cloud of alarming accusations, including trying to get players to lie about the drug status of a slain squad member. At Iowa State, Larry Eustachy, an admitted alcoholic, was fired because of bad behavior involving partying with young students. At Missouri, the Ricky Clemons case continues to make waves, scholastically and socially, and coach Quin Snyder is under a cloud because of a current NCAA investigation about payments and gifts.

It is also interesting that the National Basketball Assn. now conducts a unique mandatory morality seminar of its own. All rookies must attend a full week of counseling and advice about how to handle the big money they will come into and how to deal with life in the fast lane of the NBA. Top-level people, many of them former stars such as Bill Russell, are brought in to try to drive home important points about handling fame and money.

It might be a good idea to have some college coaches attend these sessions, too, considering the academic, athletic and social travesties that have been occurring all too frequently and in increasing numbers.

The athletic picture at all levels and for all sports is due for a good overhaul from the standpoint of morals and ethics.