The End is Nigh: Emmert's NCAA Retreat

The NCAA booted this guy out of their meeting for speaking up on behalf of non-revenue sports.  Then they made a rule stating that new pools built at universities must now have a lazy river for football players to play in instead of lap lanes.

The Viking's summarization of day one of Mark Emmert's NCAA Reform Retreat and all of the self-contradictions therein:


Yes, we at the NCAA don't ever want to leave amateur athletics and move to pay-for-play spending; we are certainly concerned about outrageous coaching salaries and the disparity between Division 1 schools with $5 million dollar budgets compared to those with $145 million dollars to spend and the competitive advantages it affords them; and we know that most schools are already losing money trying to keep up with athletic spending of their competitors... 


but we really feel that the solution is to expand scholarships to provide money up to the full cost of attendance.  You know, the money it really costs to go to school beyond tuition, fees, room, board and books.  This has the support of all of the schools in the big conferences who can afford it, and after we make this move all of the rest of the schools and their non-revenue sports will dry up and die and then we won't have to listen to their whining anymore.  This really will solve all of our problems and the challenge is to make sure this happens "quickly and thoughtfully."  

At least, that is my take on it.  You can come up with your own take by reading about it in the following articles.

NCAA Calls for New Scholarship Rules at Retreat- AP

Emmert's Retreat Can't Fix NCAA's Tough Issues


To be honest, Ralph Nader's Sports Manifesto is sounding less and less crazy every day.


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