Beyond the Arc : NCAA

The (not so) wonderfully illogical NCAA

Mike Miller — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:36:00 GMT

If anyone ever doubted the NCAA lacked chutzpah, doubt no more.

The NCAA Committee on Infractions wants its punishment of the University of Memphis upheld because schools need to be punished when they use ineligible players.

In case you forgot, the punishment refers to the school using an ineligible player – Derrick Rose – during the 2007-08 season, a player who was cleared by the NCAA clearing house. Yes, the NCAA wants to uphold a penalty it imposed on Memphis because the Tigers used a player the NCAA approved.

(sighs)

It was an illogical lesson when the ruling was handed down. If the infractions committee gets its way, the ridiculous lesson will only be enforced. Thanks for that, NCAA. Remind me not to ask about that whole college football playoff thing…

Mike Miller also occasionally rants like this on Twitter (@BeyndArcMMiller). Just shorter.

How serious are allegations at S. Florida?

Mike Miller — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:42:00 GMT

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.

The lengthy report, written by former Tampa Tribune reporter Brett McMurphy, who covered the Bulls and the Big East for the paper, is fairly well documented and covers a litany of issues, including a basketball aide providing improper transportation to a current player and overseeing open-gym workouts.

I don’t know the history between McMurphy and Bulls coach Stan Heath, but it doesn’t sound like Heath is impressed.

"You want to keep nickel and diming him," Heath said. "All this little [crap] ... I don't know what this is all about. It's stupid."

Are they serious allegations that could result in NCAA sanctions? Hard to say. It depends on how often they occurred. After all, even little things like phone calls can pile up into one big mess.

If the school deems it didn’t gain a competitive advantage from the allegations, they’ll likely self-report everything to the NCAA and it won’t be a big deal. I mean, even squeaky clean coach can make mistakes.

Follow me on Twitter (@BeyndArcMMiller) and get more college basketball news at NBCSports.com.

Coach K, Roy endorse shorter season

Mike Miller — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:46:00 GMT

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.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty images

You want to start after Nov. 1? Hey, me too!

The NCAA’s 30-member Men’s Basketball Enhancement Group (terrible name, but it actually has a decent amount of responsibilities) thinks that dropping a regular-season would be a good way to shorten the season and thus ease some of the burdens on student athletes. The NCAA’s Legislative Council is going to consider the proposal in January.

Shortening the season is fine, but eliminating one regular-season game would be stupid. That wouldn’t reduce any practice time, which is the big time suck for players. Taking away a game also would reduce revenue for schools since that’s fewer tickets sold.

But hey, don’t take my word for it. Listen to a couple of the game’s top coaches.

Williams and Krzyzewski both told the Raleigh News & Observer that they’re in favor of starting practice Nov. 1 – two weeks later than it starts now – and starting the season a couple weeks after that. It would affect a couple of games and particularly the holiday tournament schedules, but there’s enough room to adjust.

And the potential pay loss looms large, especially during this recession.

"When we talk about length, I don't think they should do number of games," Krzyzewski said. "Kids want to play games. I think that's a big mistake, and also financially, that's a big payday every game. They can shorten the season, the practice time."

If the coaches aren’t sweating the loss of practice time, isn’t that enough to sway the NCAA?

Follow me on Twitter (@BeyndArcMMiller) and get more college basketball news at NBCSports.com.

ESPN wants to bid for March Madness?

Mike Miller — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:31:00 GMT

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.

"We do 1,100 college basketball games a year and they all lead to one thing and that's the NCAA tournament," Burke Magnus, the network’s senior vice president of college sports programming told USA TODAY. "If it were to become available, and fit the definition of a business decision for us, I'm quite certain we'd be interested."

So that’s out there. But it seems unlikely for this reason: Money.

CBS’ contract runs through 2013. By opting out, the NCAA would forego about $2.2 billion. That’s a lotta dimp. And I’m not business expert, but leaving that much money on the table in a recession is risky. I’m sure CBS and ESPN would offer good packages, but would it be in the $2.2 billion range?

(whistles)

Seems smarter to wait until 2013 when the economy is whistling along again and the price tag would be even higher. Hell, the tourney may up to 124 teams by then. Think what the NCAA could charge for that number of games…

Follow me on Twitter (@BeyndArcMMiller) and get more college basketball news at NBCSports.com.

Change coming on coaches' salaries. Maybe

Mike Miller — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:46:00 GMT

For those who think college coaches’ salaries are excessive, change is coming. Slowly. Maybe.

It’s being talked about, so chalk it up as possibly.

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.

“There’s been an explosion of salaries, multimillion, multiyear contracts,” one president told the Kansas City Star. “It drives everything; fund-raising needs, ticket prices, exposure, need to win. If you don’t win a championship, the team is no good, and you need a new coach.

“Coaches get raises while faculty pay is frozen.”

Some may point out that faculty pay isn’t determined by the athletic department, but it’s certainly tied to it, no matter how many incentives are tied to a coach’s contract. Because they’re all in the same boat.

In the wake of last week’s story that only 25 percent of those 119 D-I football schools actual have a profitable program, it’s probably time to give this serious thought, no? Schools that only play D-I hoops are slightly better off, but not by much.

And true, some coaches are actually a bargain when one considers how much revenue they bring in, but that’s a year-to-year thing, dependent on how a team performs.

One president wants the NCAA to wield an iron fist and implement rule changes that help schools control these budgets, yet doesn’t sound optimistic.

“I think it would be great if the NCAA had rules about coaches’ salaries, but I don’t think they will ever have the guts to do that,” one president told the Star. “I’m in favor of the Knight Commission doing what they do if they actually do it and don’t just talk about it.”

Follow me on Twitter and get more college basketball news at NBCSports.com.

When your school asks for $$$, it's serious

Mike Miller — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:08:00 GMT

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. (For the super dry version, click here.)

The report’s author, Dan Fulks, says it’s easy to figure out. The recession had a huge impact and "if you're not selling a bunch of tickets and you don't have a large alumni-booster base making contributions, and you're not in the right conference, you have very little chance of showing net positive revenue," Fulks said in a statement on the NCAA's Web site.

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.

And sometimes basketball doesn’t even help. Of the 119 schools playing D-I football, 67 made a profit. And of those same 119 schools, only one made money in women’s hoops in 2008.

(No individual schools were identified, which makes me wonder if it was Tennessee or UConn that made money.)

So when you get that letter from your alma mater asking for a donation, they’re serious. Time to pony up.

Follow me on Twitter and get more college basketball news at NBCSports.com.

NCAA's new rules are downright nutso

Mike Miller — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:12:00 GMT

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.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty

Eric Gordon went to Indiana for one season before jumping to the NBA.

First, the good:

Bilas likes the new proposal to allow unlimited phone calls to recruits during contact periods (as does Sporting News columnist Mike DeCourcy). In an age of Facebook, e-mail, Twitter, caller ID and answering machines, recruits screen their contact with prospective schools. The NCAA doesn’t need to oversee. (This would add an interesting twist to the Kelvin Sampson violations, who was, in Bilas’ words, crucified for making essentially one extra phone call a week.)

“Soft” recruiting doesn’t bother him either. Just because a prospect like Eric Gordon gives an oral commitment to Illinois doesn’t mean he shouldn’t keep his options open, yet Gordon and Sampson were grilled when he went to Indiana. Austin Rivers is doing the same thing right now. He’s got a “soft” commitment to Florida, but is still interested in going to Duke. Unless they’ve signed something binding, recruits are fair game.

Schools can no longer establish conditions on letters of intent, which annoys Bilas. He thinks players’ futures should be tied to coaches, not to schools, because that’s who they sign with. But schools can no longer release players under certain conditions.

Now, the absurd:

Anyone camped under the basket won’t be able to draw a charge. But, unlike the NBA’s method of using an arc designating the non-charge area, the NCAA says refs should use an “imaginary box” that stretches from the front and side of the ring, to the front of the backboard that prevents a “secondary defender” from establishing initial legal guarding position.

Clear as mud, right?

Basically, defenders can’t draw a charge with any part of their body in that “box,” but can do around the “box.” I’m sure this won’t cause any outcry toward the refs and any of their calls.

But even worse is this rule. Take it away Jay.

There is a new rule in college basketball that could force a player of limited skill to the free throw line during a game. A new rule states that when a player is injured and unable to shoot his free throws, the opposing coach will get to select the new shooter among the four remaining players in the game. But if the foul that led to the injury is flagrant or intentional, the new rule states that the opposing coach may select any uniformed player on the opposing team to shoot the free throws.

Go ahead, rub your eyes and re-read that grab. Now shake your head. You read it correctly.

The rules committee thought teams were gaining an unfair advantage because players were “faking” injuries, so they are gonna let opposing coaches pick who goes to the foul line? In Twitter terms, WTF?

I can’t wait to see the first time a scrub is pulled off the bench to shoot some crucial free throws. That’s one rule that’ll go over real well with … no one.

An ex-Bruin could change everything

Mike Miller — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:50:00 GMT

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.

Eric Draper/AP

Ed O'Bannon

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. And that may be the best thing O’Bannon’s ever done – and yes, he’s a former MOP of the Final Four.

This fabulous story from Yahoo! Sports’ Dan Wetzel covers most of the basis in the lawsuit, what prompted O’Bannon to file it and what could possibly result from it.

There’s also plenty of historical context (such as the Four Horsemen and Texas Western) and the parties involved. But the crux of everything comes down to this:

At stake is a share of the estimated $4-billion market for collegiate licensed merchandise, a business that has exploded over the past 15 years.

If the NCAA were to lose the case it would be forced to pay a substantial penalty. It’d also either have a growing revenue stream dry up or in a groundbreaking switch be forced to share it with former players [the way professional leagues do]. Who the heck negotiates that on behalf of “former players” is a question unto itself. Either way, this isn’t what schools, already dealing with sagging revenue due to the economy, needed.

Whether you agree with O’Bannon that former student athletes are being cheated out of money or think they shouldn’t complain because they received scholarships and boosted their chances at a professional career is beside the point.

Everything could change in college sports as we know it. The NCAA’s revenue stream may take a hit. Future marketing deals could change. More lawsuits are likely, even if O’Bannon’s doesn’t win because more people will want to test any limits. We’ll find out the how much power the NCAA actually holds and how much its member schools depend on its leadership.

Slow time? Who knew all of that might change?

Member schools, the NCAA feels your pain

Mike Miller — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:09:00 GMT

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.

“There's a multi-pronged approach to help schools and these are the beginning steps in a plan to relieve some of the financial pressure,” NCAA spokesman Erik Christianson told the AP. “Our members believe every bit helps.”

Little bit is right. $6,300 is barely enough to pay off the average credit card debt of two college students, let alone boost an athletic department’s budget. It’s barely a blip on the revenue for most D-I schools. Maybe they can buy a Yugo or splurge on lottery tickets.

Check out this list of D-I budgets and revenue (thanks BBState.com). Savannah State’s 2008 revenues were $2,222,989. Its expenses were $2,102,031. And it’s 340^th among all D-I schools. It can’t even come close to spending money like the top D-I schools.

Revenues from Texas ($120,288,368), Ohio State ($117,953,712) and Florida ($106,030,896) all topped $100 million. The Longhorns and Buckeyes both made about $20 million last year.

OK, so it’ll give Cal some breathing room. The Bears made $746 last year.

If BBState’s figures are correct, no school lost money last year (a far cry from English League soccer). Heck, 191 schools on the list spent every penny, and not a dime more. (Hmmmm.) It makes me wonder if some numbers have been fudged, but if those are correct, then maybe the money isn’t necessary.

Wouldn’t the money be better spent on establishing an endowment for student athlete scholarships? Or improving facilities? Or creating more jobs for graduates within the NCAA? (Anything to bolster the economy.)

Then again, distribute the money. They can have a party with this bottle of bubbly.