NCAA
What's the organization doing?
Sign of the times: The South Florida will probe the “issues” raised by an AOL Fanhouse report of numerous violations at the school. Ignoring Internet stories like this used to be easy. No longer.
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What if I told you the college basketball season could be shorter but still have the same amount of games? Is that something you’d be interested in?
Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski certainly are. With any luck, people will listen. And by people, I mean the NCAA.
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File this one under unlikely, but interesting enough to talk about.
ESPN says it’d be open in bidding for the rights to March Madness if the NCAA opts out of its 11-year, $6 billion contract with CBS this July.
So that’s out there. But it seems unlikely for this reason: Money.
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For those who think college coaches’ salaries are excessive, change is coming. Slowly. Maybe.
A Knight Commission poll released Monday found that 85 percent of the 119 university presidents at D-I football schools think coaches’ salaries are too high, but 56 percent of them are pessimistic about controlling those salaries. Most would love to see a reduction in the sheer number of assistant coaches and support personnel for revenue-producing sports.
Translation: We’re not sure we want to anger the big guy by paying him less, but we’d like to take away part of his staff that helps him do his job.
No wonder university presidents are feeling pessimistic.
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So your school rakes in the revenue. But odds are it isn’t profitable.
That’s according to the NCAA’s latest report on revenues and expenses. Only 25 percent of all D-I football schools made money in 2007-08. The others plays D-I hoops struggled to break even.
In other words, if you’re playing D-I football and not selling out your stadium AND bringing in the booster money, you’re hosed because the rest of the sports are gonna cost enough money to make your A.D. sweat.
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Ever read something, rub your eyes, re-read it and then just shake your head? (Don’t count this blog.)
This ESPN Insider column from Jay Bilas fits that description perfectly.
For those who don’t have an Insider account, here’s the gist: Bilas breaks down the new NCAA rules for men’s hoops, summed up perfectly with the headline “New NCAA rules: The Good, the Bad, the Goofy.” Are they ever.
One forces refs to "use their imaginations," while another allows opposing coaches to pick who shoots the other team's free throws. Nice work.
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Who knew Ed O’Bannon would be the origin of so many stories this year?
This spring brought stories about O’Bannon’s post-basketball career, which center around his job as the assistant promotions manager for a Las Vegas car dealership. Pretty interesting stuff, but nothing out of the ordinary.
Until today.
O’Bannon is the lead plantiff in a lawsuit against the NCAA over its use of former student athletes’ images in DVDs, video games, photographs, apparel and other material. It’s a familiar refrain, the NCAA profiting handsomely off of its major sports and those athletes, but it’s always been able to win any lawsuits.
Now, that may change, mostly thanks to O’Bannon.
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In an economy like this, every little bit helps. Little being the key word.
The NCAA announced Wednesday that it’ll suspend membership dues for next year, and also plans to distribute about $5 million to schools.
But … there are about 1,000 member schools. And dues are only $900 to $1,800, depending on which division you play in. So that’s about $6.3 million to divvy up, which works out to $6,300 per school.
What are they going to do, buy a Yugo?
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