The NCAA is broken and everybody knows it. It’s been that way for a long time, but the NCAA has been able to fend off critics and lawsuits with great skill. Then came the O’Bannon lawsuit and conference realignment and now the NCAA sits on a precipice. One misstep in handling the power conferences or bungle the O’Bannon case and it could be game over.
If the past week is any indication, strap yourself in. Has there ever been a moment in the NCAA’s 100-plus year history that illustrates its dysfunction like the past week?
• NFL star Arian Foster admitted he took money when he was an athlete at Tennessee
• With support and guidance from the National College Players Association, 28 college football players wrote “#APU” (All Players United) on their gear during games. The response was mostly positive, although it did elicit a few noteworthy outbursts, including from Georgia Tech football coach Paul Johnson and Dan Dakich;
• The NCAA reduced the penalties it imposed on Penn State by giving back scholarships;
• Reaffirmed USC’s interminable sanctions;
• EA Sports and Collegiate Licensing Corp. agreed to pay current and former college football and basketball players $40 million to settle their portion of the O’Bannon case;
• The NCAA pledged to not settle the O’Bannon case and battle it all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary.
A bad week, for sure. But it is also business as usual for NCAA leaders tasked with maintaining the status quo. You don’t like NCAA rules that prohibit athletes from being paid, Big 10 commissioner Jim Delany tells athletes, leave. Or better yet, don’t not play college sports at all.
What about the $2,000 “stipend” that NCAA president Mark Emmert touted early on in his reign? We still don’t have it. Emmert told us in January there would be a new proposal by April. And still nothing.
Rather than concede that college athletics operates a purely commercial subsidiary, NCAA leaders try to flip the narrative: The NCAA and its members on behalf of its 400,000 student-athletes do great things. If we just keep our eye on the sum total, the problems of college athletics largely disappear. Low graduation rates among African American athletes become a blip. Concerns about being awash in money also go away as the money is shifted to nonrevenue sports and spent on sports palaces and coaches’ salaries.
During March Madness, the NCAA spins things like, “We put our money where our mission is.” The NCAA claims that more than 96% of this revenue is passed through to conferences and schools. Now, let’s look at the accounting sleight of hand. The money flows from the NCAA to its members which allegedly uphold the “mission” by paying coaches millions and building more facilities. Not that there is anything wrong with either. The problem is the NCAA sells amateurism by claiming some higher principle, which is clearly false advertising.
Then there is ESPN Radio’s Dan Dakich, who had this Draconian response to the APU protest.
It would be great if Georgia GaTech/ Nwestern pulled the schollys of those that protested w the "APU " signs /handed them student loan info
— Dan Dakich (@dandakich) September 23, 2013
Yes, the value of an athletic scholarship can be enormous, especially to those who truly pursue a meaningful education in exchange. Judging by low graduation rates among football and basketball players, that is not exactly what is taking place.
Thus, making “pay for play” the endgame is a brilliant, slightly-evil strategy, especially since it pits 98% of NCAA athletes against football and basketball players who seek better working conditions. If college athletes are paid, the theory goes, college sports will fall apart. Literally. It’s great rhetoric, but there is little evidence to support such claims. If you apply economic theory, if college athletes are compensated, there’s a high probability that the system will not be upended. Just the opposite: If they are compensated, the economic pie of college sports will grow and no one gets hurt.
“Pay for play” is an effective red herring for the NCAA. Instead of bearing the blame for the current state of college athletics, just blame greedy athletes who might ruin it with lawsuits and other protests. If athletes get $2,000-5,000 in stipends, maybe a cut of marketing revenue, better insurance, guaranteed scholarships, right to transfer, due process, the entire system collapses. Or does it? Remember, Title IX still has not destroyed college athletics. And neither has paying coaches million-dollar salaries and building massively expensive facilities.
As of 2012, the NCAA had $500 million in net assets, including a $260 million endowment fund. With this money, the NCAA is not about to roll over in the O’Bannon case. While EA Sports and Collegiate Licensing Corp. both folded, the NCAA is willing to risk its huge endowment to stand on its “lofty principles.”
NCAA chief legal officer Don Remy said, “We’re prepared to take this all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to. We are not prepared to compromise on the case.”
So we get a legal showdown over the legality of the NCAA’s business model. Maybe they win. Maybe they blow up the entire enterprise, which would be an even worse week for the NCAA.
Stay tuned.
