Here's my October Basketball Times article.
If you are a frequent reader of my columns, you know that I often use this space to write about problems in big-time college sports. I point out an unfair rule or two, explain its unfair impact on players, spread some blame and offer a few solutions. But the NCAA remains elusive when it comes to criticism.
So a few members of the media and the academic world criticize the NCAA. It happens when you try to lord over the amateur world. Interestingly, the NCAA is remarkably thin-skinned when it is criticized. Especially if it Jay Bilas is talking or tweeting.
NCAA blogger-in-chief David Pickle once wrote, “Over the last six months, Bilas has written 13 posts focusing on the NCAA. The tone has ranged from a little negative to negative to hostile … (He) knows he can say whatever he wants, secure in the knowledge that he’s accountable for nothing.”
Interesting that an NCAA employee would play the accountability card, considering the NCAA really only has to please two constituencies: Congress and college presidents.
Congress can be plied with tickets. College presidents are slightly easier. Just keep the money flowing.
Shortly after the University of Miami scandal broke, NCAA president Mark Emmert rose to Miami president Donna Shalala’s defense: “She’s been a terrific leader in higher education, and I have great respect for her. I can only imagine how much she’s struggling with this, like I would have if this had happened on my watch.”
Wait, I thought college presidents were supposed to be in control of their athletic departments. And she’s already off the hook before the investigation begins in earnest? Meanwhile, several Miami players were suspended for dealing with a booster welcomed by the athletic department – and by Shalala.
When I saw the photo of Shalala cozying up with Ponzi schemer and Miami athletic supporter Nevin Shapiro, I remembered the enduring image of the 1991 photo of UNLV basketball players in a hot tub with Richie “The Fixer” Perry. That photo essentially ended Jerry Tarkanian’s reign at UNLV.
I promise you that Shalala will meet a better fate. Once you come to grips that the NCAA is hardly accountable to college presidents – and vice versa – it’s smooth sailing. Also, keep in mind, college athletes are not members of the NCAA, though athletes are NCAA’s stated primary mission. Ironic – and profitable.
The NCAA, if nothing else, is elusive. “We put our money where our mission is,” if you believe their words. It doesn’t matter what the usual suspects of NCAA “cynics” say.
But what happens when a new figure enters fray? And that person is Taylor Branch, who comes with impeccable credentials, including a Pulitzer Prize for his work chronicling the civil rights movement. As far as I know, Branch had never written a single word on college athletics. Then he pens “The Shame of College Sports,” a 15,000-word essay in The Atlantic, which Frank Deford called, "the most important article ever written about college sports."
Branch’s pièce de résistance is reminiscent of the Seinfeld series finale. For nine seasons, the main cast engaged in questionable behavior. But only a few people – like the irrepressible Newman (Newman!!! if your memory needs jogging) – knew that Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer were up to no good. In the finale, the main characters were arrested for failing to help a carjacking victim.
Then their entire lives end up on trial. It does not end well. Judge Arthur Vandelay, reading his verdict: “I don’t know how, or under what circumstances, the four of you found each other, but your callous indifference and utter disregard for everything that is good and decent has rocked the very foundation upon which our society is built.”
Taylor Branch judgment reads like Judge Vandelay's verdict. He weaves it all together, laying college sports bare. With little room to mount a plausible defense, especially now that the masses are well versed in the “shame of college sports,” it will be interesting to see how (or if) the NCAA responds. [Interestingly, the NCAA has gone radio silent since the article was published over 10 days ago.]
Branch’s main thesis: “The NCAA today is in many ways a classic cartel. Efforts to reform it have, while making changes around the edges, been largely fruitless ... Threats loom on multiple fronts: in Congress, the courts, breakaway athletic conferences, student rebellion and public disgust. Swaddled in gauzy clichés, the NCAA presides over a vast, teetering glory.”
Branch’s article recalls an unsettling exchange at a Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics hearing in 1991 between Sonny Vaccaro, the former shoe impresario (and longtime BT columnist), and a college president, who asks Vaccaro: “Why should a university be an advertising medium for your industry?”
Vaccaro response, “They shouldn’t, sir. You sold your souls, and you’re going to continue selling them. You can be very moral and righteous in asking me that question, sir, but there’s not one of you in this room that’s going to turn down any of our money.”
Vaccaro added: “You’re going to take it. I can only offer it.”
Sports Illustrated’s Andy Staples tweeted a great idea: “They should actually inscribe that on the wall at NCAA HQ.”
Let me add: The majority who work in college athletics are good people. That includes those who work at NCAA headquarters, although the PR and media departments seem populated with propagandists hell-bent on perpetuating the myths that ultimately get translated into rules and even laws.
Not much more needs to be said than what Branch has already written (although, we can hardly wait for an extended version, which will be published as an e-book). A lot needs to be done. Not by NCAA “leaders,” but by those in a position to protect the legal rights of these athletes.
Vandelay?