NCAA needs real reform, not quick repair job

The latest move by the NCAA to give athletes a few more rights highlights at least one thing about the people in charge of the cartel that runs college sports.

They can move quickly when their golden goose is threatened.

That became clear last week when the NCAA adopted new rules hurriedly put forward in the wake of the ongoing scandal in college basketball. The rules were recommended in April by a commission formed when the existence of an FBI probe into pay-to-play allegations surfaced. They are designed to give elite basketball players more options, including the right to hire agents even before they commit to a school.

“These changes will promote integrity in the game, strengthen accountability and prioritize the interest of student-athletes over every other factor,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said.

It all sounds good, a tidy package of giveaways designed to solve some of the more pressing issues facing college basketball. For those lucky enough to be ranked among the best in the nation, they include the right to hire agents and to return to college if NBA dreams don’t work out.

There are also some long overdue changes in the NCAA’s investigative policies, including using outside information to help break down cases that NCAA investigators are either unwilling or unable to resolve themselves. There are longer possible suspensions, and longer postseason bans for those caught violating rules.

In all, they are mostly common-sense efforts to fix a system badly broken. But they are incremental at best, and come only because of the FBI probe that threatens to further expose the dirty laundry of college basketball.

They are also a bit perplexing, especially calling on USA Basketball to rank high school players to decide which can hire agents. And they will be implemented without any agreement in sight with the NBA and its players’ union on lowering the league draft age to 18.

Ultimately, they do little to address the more serious issues facing college basketball, and college sports in general. But that was always pretty much a given since no one, it seems, wants to mess too much with a system that makes everyone money but the players.

Seriously, does anyone in the NCAA actually believe that allowing high school juniors to hire agents is some kind of fix-all for the sordid mess that is college basketball? Do they believe stiffer penalties will do away with wrongdoing when they can’t enforce existing penalties?.

Real reform means things like:

■ Allowing players to sell their images and likenesses, something that should have been settled in Ed O’Bannon’s lawsuit against the NCAA but really wasn’t. This means things like allowing players to profit on sales of replica jerseys or having their name on a new pizza at a campus eatery.

■ Kicking out shoe companies, or at least halting the arms war in athletic apparel.

■ Making players actually go to real classes if they’re going to be labeled student-athletes.

■ Giving the players a cut of the action. There’s so much money in college basketball that schools have to hunt for ways to spend it, yet players get little more than books, food and a place to sleep.