The 5 biggest threats to the NCAA’s existence

2. The NCAA, itself

Sometimes there is no better proponent of the argument against the NCAA than the NCAA itself.

On one hand you have claims like the one made by Senator McCaskill that the NCAA cannot even police its own members when it comes to serious issues like sexual assault allegations.

Then on the other hand you have what the NCAA does police. The Oklahoma Sooners had to report a violation that involved serving their football team just a little bit too much pasta at a graduation banquet (the NCAA requires the over-eaters to pay back the value of the pasta — 3.83 — to a charity of their choice). The South Carolina Gamecocks had to self-report putting too much icing on a cookie cake meant for players on a recruiting visit. Oregon recently had to report that there was impermissible laser tag at a baseball team meal.

These may seem like false corollaries but the greater narrative is that the NCAA takes time to painstakingly regulate even the most mundane details of collegiate competition (lest “competitive balance” be affected) but appears to put its hands up and back away when dealing with something far more serious like sexual assault.

When it does render judgment against one of its members the process, the timetable, the investigation, the penalties and the enforcement are all seldom consistent. Miami dangled for nearly three years in the midst of the Nevin Shapiro scandal. In that time the NCAA committed numerous ethical improprieties during its investigation. 20% of its evidence was considered tainted and had to be thrown out. Ultimately the NCAA decided that Miami’s self-imposed penalties (a reduction in scholarships and a two-year postseason ban) were enough — because they had to be.

Afterward even Emmert himself admitted it was a blow to people’s confidence in the NCAA.

But compare it to other penalties and it’s even more bizarre. The accusations against Miami were far more egregious than those against USC — where Reggie Bush and OJ Mayo had improper contact with agents — yet the Trojans were stripped of the 2004 BCS Championship, their entire 2005 season was vacated, the program lost 30 football scholarships over three years and had a two-year postseason ban in football, plus the loss of an entire season and a year-long postseason ban in basketball.

The lack of consistency is unsettling. The NCAA prosecuted two players who compromised their amateur status — and their university — to the absolute fullest extent and essentially cratered a powerful program on one coast, but couldn’t prosecute a ponzi-schemer giving out a decade’s worth of illegal benefits — and ultimately had to thank the accused school for punishing itself — on the other.

The NCAA will let a school sell a player’s jersey (sans the name on the back, of course) in 20 different sizes and colors at its team store but if the player himself tries to sell it on his own (or trades it for a tattoo) — then the NCAA rules him ineligible and potentially deals a blow to his future earnings potential.

And then Mark Emmert shows up in congress and says the NCAA is what’s best for college sports.

The optics — regardless of where you stand on the NCAA — are not good.