NEW ORLEANS — Mike Krzyzewski had questions. Actually several of them. The opportunity arose during a side issue with Duke’s media availability here for the Final Four.
Somehow, the conversation shifted from the great coach’s chase for a sixth national championship to the upcoming press conference with NCAA President Mark Emmert.
“I have many questions [of Emmert]’ said Coach K. ‘I think the very first thing is where are we going? And who will call the shots? Not that I say so [Emmert] should not be. But what do we do?”
These questions have been asked for years – actually decades. Now there is a soft deadline of August 1 for their answers. That’s the deadline for the NCAA Transformation Committee, which is trying to clean up the mess the federation is in. This committee is expected to come up with a set of recommendations to reshape the NCAA constitution that could change the face of collegiate athletics forever.
Speaking after Krzyzewski at his annual Final Four availability Thursday, Emmert made it sound like the NCAA has accepted their diminished role. There was the same old plea to Congress for help with NIL that may never happen. The NCAA’s credibility on this issue has already been marred by two major antitrust losses in federal court (the O’Bannon and Alston cases) and by name, image and likeness.
Then Emmert dropped a small bomb.
“My guess is that we have a relatively short window of opportunity — a year or two to make those decisions because of the momentum that’s going on right now,” he said.
“The legal landscape as it exists today is simply not going to support and uphold the way college sports are conducted today,” Emmert added.
A year or two or what? Add that to the list of Krzyzewski’s questions. It’s quite disingenuous to blame “the law” for collegiate athletics’ current predicament. The NCAA helped shape this legal landscape. Now the federation is increasingly helpless to stop this collegiate athletics from becoming a top-level semi-pro corporation.
A year or two or what? No more NCAA? There are already signs that Congress could step in and guide the company. A bipartisan bill that would speed up the enforcement process is expected to be tabled this week. https://www.si.com/college/2022/03/29/ncaa-infractions-cases-congress-bipartisan-bill
In the meantime, NIL… has worked? It certainly wasn’t the ruin of collegiate athletics. For decades, the NCAA’s legal defense when it came to player compensation was the same. If players got paid, TV ratings would go down, viewership would go down, interest would go down. This defense no longer holds up. Not in court, not in court of public opinion. In fact, Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president of basketball, rattled off a series of attendance figures from both the men’s and women’s tournaments on Thursday.
I asked Emmert directly: What evidence did he have that interest, ratings, and participation had declined since zero pay was introduced on July 1st?
“Obviously, the social and political landscape has changed significantly in many ways over the last 12 to 24 months,” Emmert said. “We will be ready, willing and able to change in dramatic ways.”
That’s dodged the question. The truth is that the NCAA received terrible legal advice that brought Alston to the Supreme Court. It chose to go to war to grant more educational benefits. Emmert said “conference attorneys, NCAA attorneys and our outside attorneys” made the decision. The NCAA Board of Governors approved it.
This decision of the Supreme Court of 9./0. June effectively prompted the association to reconsider its charter. Now that transformation committee has until August to “fix” the NCAA.
Greg Sankey (SEC Commissioner) and Julie Cromer (Ohio AD) met with the media on the side after Emmert’s comments. Their pairing signifies the monumental task ahead. Sankey heads the country’s most powerful conference. Cromer’s department spends $26 million. In Alabama, that number is $170 million.
There is no certainty that the committee’s two biggest tasks will be completed by the deadline. That means reducing enforcement and deciding the membership dilemma. That is, who exactly should be in Division I.
“It doesn’t mean that everyone will like the process. That doesn’t mean he’ll be perfect,” Sankey said of the committee’s ongoing work.
But will it be on time and what is Emmert talking about with a vague one to two year timeline for the whole company? Coach K, among others, wants to know that.
“He’s not the only person who’s disillusioned with the current system,” Cromer said.
And now the clock is ticking. Sankey said the committee asked the board of governors in advance: Are you serious about this task? Do you want this all done by August?
“The board said be quick but be thorough. I think there’s a degree of flexibility, but I don’t think any of us see this role as co-chair as a retirement opportunity,” Sankey said.
This statement suggests that the 21-member committee could disband after August 1st. Other committees could take over — the NCAA feeds on them — but that doesn’t solve the problem of saving the NCAA within the next two years.
“We have legal findings that say not changing is not an option. How that manifests remains to be seen…” said Sankey. “Became [membership] really good at making rules, not really good at deleting rules.”