With the unprecedented punitive actions against Penn State University announced this morning, the NCAA did more than dole out punishment for the worst scandal in the history of college athletics. The NCAA tried to save itself, and save college sports.
You might question whether the NCAA is the group to do that. You might argue that the NCAA has been a huge part of creating the problems that exist in college athletics. You might say that the NCAA is confusing self-preservation with improving college sports. But they saw an opportunity, they had to make a move, and it was the right move.
When college football’s five "power conferences" (plus Notre Dame) teamed up in 1992 with the six most lucrative bowl games to form the group that would soon evolve into the BCS, they formed an alliance that would quickly turn the NCAA from a beat cop into a meter maid. In possession of all the money and all the power, the BCS power brokers have shaped college football into an money-making machine that turns nearly all of its revenues over to a small, exclusive group that only grows fatter and greedier. The NCAA has been able do nothing but watch, comply, and squawk now and then about something petty, simply to save face.
|Related: Full Coverage Of Penn State Jerry Sandusky Scandal |
With the huge money involved in big-time college football, the conference realignment carousel, the out-of-control power of conference presidents and college football coaches, and the exploitation of student-athletes, college athletics has found itself on the brink of implosion. But the NCAA has had neither the power, the will nor the competence to stem the tide. Now, in danger of becoming completely irrelevant, the NCAA has made a power move to preserve itself as an authority.
The NCAA’s shortcomings are well-known but poorly understood. I spent two years inside a division 1 athletic department, dealing directly with the NCAA as we conducted the internal review and report the NCAA requires once a decade of each school to renew membership. The NCAA showed itself to be a petty, hypocritical and often illogical bureaucracy. They were incredibly frustrating to work with. But they also showed where their priorities lie.
Since taking over as President of the NCAA in April of 2010, Mark Emmert has made it clear that his two top priorities for reform are improved well-being for student athletes, and issues of institutional control. The NCAA wants member schools to prove in exact ways that it has a chain of command in place, from the board to the President to the Athletic Director to the coaching staffs and the rest of the athletic department. The NCAA wants member schools to prove that athletics is appropriately integrated with the rest of the campus, that it is held to the same standards.
Clearly, Penn State transgressed these principles in the worst of ways. As the Freeh Report showed, Joe Paterno was, in reality, the boss of his so-called bosses, and the results were disastrous and tragic. Had the NCAA not brought the hammer down on Penn State football and Penn State University, it might as well have formally dissolved itself on the spot. If you see an egregious violation of your No. 1 operating principle and you do not respond swiftly and harshly, you may as well not exist. Had the NCAA left this matter entirely in the hands of criminal courts, it would have amounted to an endorsement of Joe Paterno’s outrageous and offensive claim that "this is not a football scandal." It also would have been an admission that the NCAA’s authority does not extend outside of athletic departments.
The NCAA has put the rest of the college athletics world on notice, and they’ve caused a power shift -- just how major a shift, we’ll see over the next year.
College athletics is still on an a course that is unsustainable. The NCAA is still an incredibly flawed organization and authority. But if there’s any hope of saving college athletics as we know it -- and there are plenty of good arguments that college sports as we know it can't and shouldn’t be saved -- the NCAA had to make this move.
--
Follow on Ology: Bison Messink | Penn State Scandal
Follow on Twitter: @BisonMessink | @OlogySports
Comments (0)
Be the first to comment!