A Few Suggestions for NCAA’s New President, Mark Emmert

Improvements Are Possible if the NCAA Gets Out of Its Own Way

It’s been about a month since newly appointed NCAA president Mark Emmert moved into his Indianapolis digs, but we haven’t heard a lot from Mark.  Good for him.  Let’s hope he’s hold up in the NCAA confines trying to get a grip on what can comfortably be called one of the most powerful and complex organizations in the United States.  So, while Dr. Emmert is settling in, we started wondering about things, you know, things like…

• Division I football playoff system.  Nearly everybody outside the NCAA wants the darn thing to happen except for the college presidents who are afraid they’ll lose a few dollars if all those meaningless bowls disappear.  Instead, they opt for the guaranteed buck while the BCS does its annual “Let’s Irritate Half the People” dance.  Help us with this one, please, Mr. President.  We need an FBS post-season championship tournament just like every other sport in your organization.   
• Pro Agents and Advertisers.  This agent-thing has gotten out of hand.  Okay, duh.  Nevertheless, please begin work immediately with the NFL, MLB, WNBA, NBA, NHL, or whomever, and hammer down a litany of tough-as-nails rules which will scare the britches off the agents whose apparent function in life is to circumnavigate all the rules so they can make their three percent on a contract which may never be signed.  Sports Illustrated recently published an intriguing article about the nefarious goings’-on and there is nothing in the story which indicates that agents are above board.  Top-level, competitive college sports will be under a shadow until greedy agents are extricated from the process.   
• Performance Enhancing Drugs.  Please ban all PED’s and supplements.  Test all the athletes.  One strike and you’re out for good.  Done.  No questions asked.  Send a message that there really is such a thing as a no-tolerance position.
• Compensating Players.  No.  However, please allow athletes to apply for no-interest loans from the college they attend to help with their documented expenses each month.  If they graduate within seven years of initial enrollment, forgive the loans.  Everybody wins. 
• Verbal Offers.  Yes, but only beginning at the start of the junior year in high school, and only during unofficial visits.  If you wait until the senior year, everybody in the process will be pulling their hair out.  And, tell coaches that they can’t make more verbal offers than they can actually fulfill.  Kids can make only two verbal commitments prior to National Signing Day.  All verbal offers should be signed to show intent on both parties, but not legally binding until the National Letter of Intent has been signed.  No more making commitments to 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th graders.      
• Head Coaches That Cheat.  We’re really tired of seeing these offending coaches moving on from one job to another without having to face significant consequences.  So, if they knowingly break the rules while in charge of a program, don’t allow them to coach or teach at an NCAA-affiliated college for 10 years.   No appeals.  That should do it.
• Discipline.  We’ve had it up to here reading about student-athletes who beat up their girlfriends, steal other students’ property, fight with classmates, drive drunk, sell drugs, etc.  Break the law (campus, community, state or federal) and you’re done, over, kaput.  And, that should be written into the NLI so that there are no surprises or question about the consequences when it happens.  To add some bite to it, get the professional leagues to agree not to draft any of these offenders until they would have graduated college had they remained in school all four years.      

Really, Dr. Emmert, let’s get tough with presidents on the playoff thing and tougher with the bad guys who soil college sports, well, because they can.  We’re behind a concerted effort to tie up the loose ends which continually snag the public’s attention.