Fansided

The 5 biggest threats to the NCAA’s existence

By Patrik Nohe

Apr 6, 2014; Arlington, TX, USA; NCAA president Mark Emmert speaks at a press conference before the national championship game between the Kentucky Wildcats and the Connecticut Huskies at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 6, 2014; Arlington, TX, USA; NCAA president Mark Emmert speaks at a press conference before the national championship game between the Kentucky Wildcats and the Connecticut Huskies at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports /
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Rockefeller criticized ESPN at a hearing on the NCAA and student-athletes last week, saying the network was “undermining our commitment to education.” (CQ Roll Call File Photo)
Rockefeller criticized ESPN at a hearing on the NCAA and student-athletes last week, saying the network was “undermining our commitment to education.” (CQ Roll Call File Photo) /

5. Congress

“I feel sorry for you,” said Senator Claire McCaskill to NCAA president Mark Emmert in a hearing this past July. “I can’t even tell whether you’re in charge or whether you’re a minion (to the universities). If you’re merely a monetary pass-through, why should you even exist?”

McCaskill — along with a handful of other senators at the hearing — was busy excoriating the NCAA for its inability to properly police the universities it counts among its members when it comes to sexual assault. A report commissioned by McCaskill shows the extent to which the NCAA has been unable to police its own members — she claims up to 30% of schools across the NCAA’s three divisions allow their athletic departments to handle sexual assault accusations against athletes (a claim that has been partially called into question) — and McCaskill used those claims to build a case that the NCAA as a governing body really fails to govern schools in the places they need it most.

Another senator, Jay Rockefeller from West Virginia, took the chance to attack the NCAA’s amateurism defense: “I don’t see how a multibillion-dollar commercial enterprise can merely be an amateur pursuit… I don’t see how the NCAA will ever be capable of truly making a safe, quality educational experience for students their No. 1 priority.”

And the hits just kept coming. In many ways Emmert must have felt more like he was facing a firing squad than a congressional hearing as senator after senator took their shots at him and his organization.

Congress can not really dissolve the NCAA, not exactly. But the influence of Senators in their own states is large enough to apply some pressure and scare the NCAA. When you consider that the vast majority of the NCAA’s members are public institutions — institutions that use state and federal funds to operate — it’s easy to see why the NCAA has now hired a prominent lobbying firm to represent it moving forward. And to see why the NCAA is now spending more money than ever on those lobbying efforts.

“I guess they think they’re in trouble,” Rep. George Miller, ranking member of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, told POLITICO. “People who don’t think they’re in trouble don’t go around hiring lobbyists.”

Perhaps the most salient line from last month’s congressional hearing came from former Stanford running back, and current New Jersey senator, Corey Booker, when he told Emmert: “We need another hearing, with the real rule makers, the college presidents.”

Translation: We are wasting our time with you.

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