What follows is some commentary from NCAA President Mark Emmert, NCAA Executive Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Oliver Luck, and former NBA Commission David Stern about the NCAA and pivotal issues in collegiate athletics at the IMG Forum of Intercollegiate Athletics in New York City earlier this month.
Emmert on the University of Missouri story
“The issue in Missouri wasn’t about the athletic department. It was a social justice question that was going on in that university community. It was about a group of football players, who wanted their voice to be heard. I thought that was inherently good that a group of student athletes thought they could be a part of a very important debate. I expect we’ll see more of that in the future. We have seen it before in higher education and I expect we’ll see it again.”
“The trick for all of us is to stay close to your students and understand what their concerns and issues are. You should never be shocked and surprised that something can create such a powerful motivation. But if we are doing our jobs effectively, that shouldn’t occur.”
Emmert on simplifying the NCAA rulebook
“We’re headed in the right direction (as far as simplifying the rule book). I’ve been pleased and surprised at some of the successes and some of the resistances. It’s like the tax code. Everyone says lets simplify it. But the fact is that everything went into that tax code for some reason. So you have those debates. As far as the process of making these changes, that’s going much better.”
Luck on the NCAA and antitrust
“The student relationship on campus with a coach and with a professor is a healthy one. And if we change that relationship to an employer-employee relationship, we will have lost our way as Bob Bowlsby likes to say. Think about all the labor law implications of that. Second, I don’t think our respective fan bases all across the country would be as interested in that relationship playing out as they are with the existing model. There is something very special about that relationship. People may say that is a very hypocritical stance, given the relationship we have with coaches in the free market. However, coaches are adults. I don’t think the 18-year-old who shows up on a campus is a professional. Changing that relationship would damage what has been built up over the century.”
Stern on the need of the NCAA
“I think you need a body like the NCAA to help guide college sports. There needs to be eligibility rules. There needs to be some overarching body, almost an enabling of the sports. What the NCAA is running into now is what I like to think of as judicially abetted collegiate ambulance chasing. You’re going to get lawyers who are suing because the NCAA can only exist by conspiring. Any agreement between two organizations provide a predicate for a claim under antitrust law. Then you have the whole issue about whether to pay the athlete. It is just too easy for lawyers to sue without proposing a solution. There are some legislative bodies in Washington, who haven’t done much lately, who should be able to come up with a set of rules to help define amateurism.
“Overall, the NCAA is doing the right thing, with cost of attendance. Where it may get the association into trouble is that you have different amounts of cost of attendance at different schools. But the alternative, bidding for players, is worse. How do you spell unseemly?”
