Mark Emmert Announces Commission on College Basketball

I’ve been pretty vocal about my stance towards the NCAA and the sham I think it is, so pardon me if I repeat myself here. Mark Emmert is a joke. The NCAA is a joke. This is a complete joke. That’s the nicest way I can put this.

I have a lot of problems with this so we’re going to through one by one as I try to vent here. First off, how about the fact they have hardly any former players, any recently former players or people associated with grassroots/AAU recently? The committee includes Condi Rice (the chair) and the following:

The youngest person here is Grant Hill. Think times have changed from what he played at Duke in the early 1990s? David Robinson, who went to Navy and had a completely different experience than those that they are trying to ‘fix’ going to bring a lot to the table? What about these AD’s and President’s? On top of all that what the hell is Condoleezza Rice and Mark Emmert bringing here? This is a laughable excuse for Emmert to please those who think amateurism is still a thing. All this commission is doing is trying to prevent the NCAA from moving into the present day. This is about holding outdated values and trying to enforce it at the price of kids for their own income.

Second biggest complaint. This line from the release.

This is just Mark Emmert being absolutely clueless. How can the NCAA change its own eligibility rules to address that dynamic? Here’s an answer for you. Let the players make money off their own likeness. That’s step number 1. Let them have representation. That’s step number 2. It’s pretty obvious here, except to those who have the potential to lose money i.e. Emmert and those in power. Don’t get this twisted. This commission is all about how the NCAA can still make money and not help the kids. Who really cares if a player is getting paid? If you do, you’re either a gigantic liar or you’re upset you’re not getting the same money.

Here’s the truth. There will always be ‘cheating’ in the NCAA. It doesn’t matter. The only way to limit it is put it out in the open. That’s one of the main reasons why these kids should be able to profit off their own likeness. Spare me the, ‘they get to go to college for free. That’s enough.’ They aren’t like the regular student. They aren’t like the other students that get to go to college for free. They are part of the reason as to why the college is making a ton of money. Without an open marketplace there will always be things going on behind closed doors. That’s just how this operation is run.

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It’s time for the NCAA to get past those outdated values. This is not a step in the right direction. This is an absolutely awful idea by Mark Emmert, who has been nothing short of terrible. Stop pretending to care about the student-athletes. If you did, this commission would look vastly different.