Mark Emmert and the NCAA Continue to be a Laughingstock

I don’t even know which story to begin with here. I’m going to start with the case that is literally the dumbest ruling I’ve seen Mark Emmert make. That is he denied the appeal of Braxton Beverly to be eligible to play this year at NC State. I wrote about it here  but if you don’t know the story it’s a pretty simple one. Beverly is a three-star guard that committed to Thad Matta and Ohio State. He enrolled in the summer to get up to campus to begin workouts and start taking some summer classes – something that is common for basketball players. Obviously Thad Matta is no longer Ohio State’s head coach – a decision that was made in June.

Once that happened Ohio State granted Beverly the right to transfer. The school completely understood that the kid committed to a certain coach and system and that was no longer there. He decided to transfer to NC State but was ruled ineligible for immediate eligibility due to the fact he took classes. That’s right. He’s literally being punished for going to class. A ruling that came down the same day UNC avoided all NCAA punishment for having a fake class. The irony is perfect.

On top of that Mark Emmert, who needs to no longer be associated with the NCAA, spent all morning talking about a need for a fundamental change in college basketball. Emmert was speaking at the Knight Commission – a commission he formed in wake of the FBI investigation. Emmert also dropped this gem:

That right there is one of the dumbest statements I’ve ever seen. That fact that Emmert can possibly think that shows everything that is wrong with him and the NCAA. Transfer rules are for student-athletes, it allows them to adjust, like any college student. Some learn they aren’t a fit in a year and decide to transfer elsewhere. That happens thousands of times a year. On the flip side it’s quite literally extremely beneficial for a player to transfer up if he’s outplaying his expectations at a mid-major. Transferring up gives him more exposure, a better chance to be a pro (whether it’s in the NBA or overseas) and provides him with an opportunity he didn’t have. Emmert can’t see that because he’s absolutely clueless. He’s the worst ‘commissioner’ in all of sports right now and that’s saying a lot.

There is no one in sports right now more clueless than Mark Emmert. When he announced this commission to try and ‘fix’ college basketball you’d assume he’d do the smart thing of bringing in people who know the grassroots programs and college basketball. The two former players he brought in? David Robinson and Grant Hill – because they are relevant now. He put himself on the commission. He put Condi Rice in charge of it – which makes absolutely no sense. Even when he tries to do something ‘right’ he fails miserably.

There were two more rulings made over the weekend that sum up Emmert’s clown status perfectly. The first is Jalen Hayes – a senior from Oakland. He’s suspended the fall semester because the NCAA deemed he’s not making ‘satisfactory progress towards a degree.’ He’s due to graduate in December of his senior year. I wasn’t a math major, but that tells me he’s in fact due to graduate quicker than most. Hayes has a 2.9 GPA overall, but the reason he was ruled ineligible was because 2.5 in a class, where Oakland requires students to have a 2.8 for human resource majors. So because of that 2.5 he fell below the 18 hours causing the NCAA to suspend him and uphold the appeal of a four-game suspension.

Finally there’s the case of Evan Battey at Colorado, who is forced to take a redshirt this year. The reason why? Battey failed his freshman year of high school and was forced to be in high school for five years. The NCAA states in order to compete as a freshman you must graduate high school in four years. So because a 13-year old kid messed around he’s getting punished 5 years later by a guy who can’t figure out the transfer rule. Let that one sink in for a second. Oh, and good for Tad Boyle who called out the NCAA. He said the following:

“It’s a little bit ironic to me with all the things that are going on in college basketball,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle told reporters Thursday when he announced Battey has been ruled ineligible to compete as a freshman. “North Carolina academic scandal, they lawyer up and fight the NCAA for two years, and they win on a technicality. They get off scot-free. There’s an FBI investigation going on. There’s four assistant coaches that have been arrested by the FBI. As of today, nothing has happened to those four schools. No ramifications for those sorts of things. But you have a kid who struggled a little bit when he was 13 years old in the classroom due to a lot of personal and family issues he was dealing with at the time, and he gets stuck sitting out this year.”

The fact of the matter is the joke of the NCAA isn’t the kids. It’s not a one-and-done rule (which isn’t an NCAA rule). It’s Mark Emmert. You want a fundamental change, it starts with getting rid of him. It starts with getting people in place who understand the sport and can move it in the right direction. It’s about updating bylaws that make sense in 2017 – not ones written in the 1960s. Until Mark Emmert is gone the NCAA will suffer.