NCAA President Mark Emmert has no answers
December 7th 2011 20:33
I recently read a very brief interview ESPN the Magazine's Seth Wickersham did with NCAA President Mark Emmert. The Washington native was previously the President of the University of Washington, his alma mater, and was also the second highest compensated president trailing only Ohio State's Gordon Gee.
After making the rounds and working his way up through various administrations at different institutions, Emmert served Washington for seven years before being elected as NCAA President in 2010. And Emmert has promised an eradication of the corruption and scandals taking over the newsreels as opposed to the results of the games played. But as I read this brief interview, I found myself wondering how Emmert could seriously believe some of the answers he gave Wickersham.
He first went from saying he plans to make significant changes in the rulebook in accordance with "the things our mothers taught us. Don't lie. Don't cheat. Don't steal." Ok that's all fine and good but read on because here comes a cacophony of irony and hypocrisy, which is exactly what major collegiate sports have always been with regards to the definition of "student-athletes."
Wickersham asked a question pertaining to allowing student-athletes to have endorsements to make money on the side that was not connected directly to the university. Well, Emmert wasn't too fond of that answer. Emmert contended compliance issues would burst out onto the scene like a volcano. He painted the picture of two universities wanting a player and being able to throw the money through their advertising connections in a pay-for-play model that simply disguises the money. Wasn't last year's Heisman trophy winner Cam Newton involved in an undisguised pay-for-play model run by his father? Yet nothing was found in an "investigation." But a guy like Rhett Bomar worked for a car dealership in Oklahoma and got in trouble so had to leave the school after being a highly touted recruit at the QB position.
But there's more. As the interview concluded, Wickersham delved into the rule Emmert changed with regards to conferences being able to offer scholarship athletes a $2,000 stipend. Wickersham wanted to know how certain conferences unable to afford that kind of money were able to compete. So think of the MAC and Sun Belt Conferences trying to recruit with an even less of a playing field due to no stipend as opposed to the SEC, Pac 12, and Big East. All of the bigger conferences are able to offer all of the amenities and then some to high school players. You want to see why the Big East just saw an influx of teams to boost its standing in college football especially? Check out the potential huge returns schools will make from the Big East's potential TV contract.
Emmert retorted with kids are rarely looking at the money because they would rather go to the dominant athletic institution and said he did not see smaller and mid-sized conferences being affected further by the rule change. "I don't think any of the Butler kids were recruited, by Kansas" were his precise words. Perhaps they weren't, but didn't Butler's team play Duke not to long ago in the 2010 NCAA Tournament championship game? Oh yea that's right they did. I guess all those Butler players sucked and just backed into getting to the final round of the tournament. That's odd because the Utah Jazz thought highly enough of Butler's own Gordon Hayward to make him the ninth overall pick in the 2010 NBA draft.
It was one of the most confusing and mind boggling interviews from a person leading college athletics, but I guess that's supposed to be expected. Even the person leading collegiate athletics today seems to have his own priorities and definitions when it comes to fairness and truth. Don't lie. Don't cheat. Don't steal Mark Emmert. That seems to be everything the NCAA stands for though.
After making the rounds and working his way up through various administrations at different institutions, Emmert served Washington for seven years before being elected as NCAA President in 2010. And Emmert has promised an eradication of the corruption and scandals taking over the newsreels as opposed to the results of the games played. But as I read this brief interview, I found myself wondering how Emmert could seriously believe some of the answers he gave Wickersham.
He first went from saying he plans to make significant changes in the rulebook in accordance with "the things our mothers taught us. Don't lie. Don't cheat. Don't steal." Ok that's all fine and good but read on because here comes a cacophony of irony and hypocrisy, which is exactly what major collegiate sports have always been with regards to the definition of "student-athletes."
Wickersham asked a question pertaining to allowing student-athletes to have endorsements to make money on the side that was not connected directly to the university. Well, Emmert wasn't too fond of that answer. Emmert contended compliance issues would burst out onto the scene like a volcano. He painted the picture of two universities wanting a player and being able to throw the money through their advertising connections in a pay-for-play model that simply disguises the money. Wasn't last year's Heisman trophy winner Cam Newton involved in an undisguised pay-for-play model run by his father? Yet nothing was found in an "investigation." But a guy like Rhett Bomar worked for a car dealership in Oklahoma and got in trouble so had to leave the school after being a highly touted recruit at the QB position.
But there's more. As the interview concluded, Wickersham delved into the rule Emmert changed with regards to conferences being able to offer scholarship athletes a $2,000 stipend. Wickersham wanted to know how certain conferences unable to afford that kind of money were able to compete. So think of the MAC and Sun Belt Conferences trying to recruit with an even less of a playing field due to no stipend as opposed to the SEC, Pac 12, and Big East. All of the bigger conferences are able to offer all of the amenities and then some to high school players. You want to see why the Big East just saw an influx of teams to boost its standing in college football especially? Check out the potential huge returns schools will make from the Big East's potential TV contract.
Emmert retorted with kids are rarely looking at the money because they would rather go to the dominant athletic institution and said he did not see smaller and mid-sized conferences being affected further by the rule change. "I don't think any of the Butler kids were recruited, by Kansas" were his precise words. Perhaps they weren't, but didn't Butler's team play Duke not to long ago in the 2010 NCAA Tournament championship game? Oh yea that's right they did. I guess all those Butler players sucked and just backed into getting to the final round of the tournament. That's odd because the Utah Jazz thought highly enough of Butler's own Gordon Hayward to make him the ninth overall pick in the 2010 NBA draft.
It was one of the most confusing and mind boggling interviews from a person leading college athletics, but I guess that's supposed to be expected. Even the person leading collegiate athletics today seems to have his own priorities and definitions when it comes to fairness and truth. Don't lie. Don't cheat. Don't steal Mark Emmert. That seems to be everything the NCAA stands for though.
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