NCAA task force recommendations
Schnell: Panel’s suggestions ‘underwhelming’
Early Wednesday morning, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Commission on College Basketball released their findings and recommendations for change in college basketball. Rice acknowledged in her opening remarks that the commission needed to be “bold” in its recommendations. Instead it was mostly underwhelming.
To be clear, there is a lot of good material and good suggestions in the 60page report, which took six months to put together.
For starters, the commission recommended that undrafted athletes be allowed to return to school and that (certified) agents be allowed to work with prospects and their families starting in high school. Those are no-brainers. They proposed considerably stricter punishments for programs and coaches who are caught cheating, including a potential five-year postseason ban, as opposed to the one-year postseason ban we often see.
That’s smart, too — hit schools’ bottom lines, and they’re more likely to fall in line.
The commission also wants independent investigators, which makes sense, and the NCAA to partner with USA Basketball and the NBA to run more summer events, which would take the power out of the hands of the ungoverned AAU, where shady characters run amok.
Then we get into areas where the NCAA has no power, such as suggesting to abolish the one-and-done rule.
As has been stated numerous times, that is an NBA rule and the NBA is the only group that can change it. Also oneand-done, which impacts maybe 10 players a season, is not why the NCAA and its member institutions are mixed up in an FBI investigation alleging cor- ruption. The NCAA created this climate, and until it truly addresses amateurism — which Rice acknowledged needs to happen, because the rules are confusing even to her — there will continue to be a black market.
Rice said the commission considered a baseball-style rule, where athletes are eligible right out of high school but if they choose to go to college must stay for three years. They opted to forgo this route, noting that type of rule would “keep collegiate players ready for the NBA in school against their will, where they will be potentially disgruntled magnets for corrupt money.”
Then again, we already have a lot of corrupt money changing hands.
The NCAA also decided a long time ago to get into bed with shoe companies and allowed its schools to sign blockbuster deals with those shoes companies. It’s great that the commission is calling for greater transparency, but again, the NCAA is not in charge; the shoe companies have made it abun- dantly clear they are.
That was sort of a theme of Wednesday, with the commission looking to outside entities to fix a lot of the problems in college hoops. That’s troubling. It’s also the game they created.
Besides the exclusion of in-depth discussion on pay-for-play — either directly from schools or through the Olympic model — there was one very vexing note from Rice & Co: Should the NBA decide to keep the one-and-done rule, Rice said the commission would reconvene and consider other action, such as freshman ineligibility and scholarship “lockup.”
That is a direct threat to the NBA, though I doubt Adam Silver is nervous. The thinking here is that the one-anddone rule will be abolished eventually, but there’s no guarantee it happens anytime soon. And if it doesn’t happen, the commission is essentially going to punish kids and college teams for something that’s not their fault.
If they go that route, all it will do is encourage talented young players to head directly overseas or to the G League, skipping out on college hoops all together. Will that really make the college game better?
Silver released a statement, agreeing with the commission that the “current state of youth basketball and all stakeholders ... have a collective responsibility to help bring about positive change.” He added that the NBA “will continue to assess” eligibility rules such as oneand-done. But he made no promises.
Bottom line: We shouldn’t be surprised there are no revolutionary ideas. The NCAA will continue to bury its head in the sand on the pay-for-play issue as long as it can. We knew before this news conference that the elephant in the room wouldn’t be addressed. But there are positives to take away, and considering the mess college basketball is in, that’s a start.
Sometimes change happens incrementally.