Fansided

The NCAA’s Commission on College Basketball is missing one thing

By Chris Stone

GLENDALE, AZ - MARCH 30: NCAA President Mark Emmert speaks with the media during a press conference for the 2017 NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four at University of Phoenix Stadium on March 30, 2017 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Tim Bradbury/Getty Images)
GLENDALE, AZ - MARCH 30: NCAA President Mark Emmert speaks with the media during a press conference for the 2017 NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four at University of Phoenix Stadium on March 30, 2017 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Tim Bradbury/Getty Images) /
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The Commission on College Basketball has the right idea, but the wrong process

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s probe into bribery and fraud into college basketball has spurred the NCAA into action. On Wednesday, President Mark Emmert announced the formation of the Commission on College Basketball designed to explore solutions to the problems that have enabled “bad actors” to infiltrate the sport.

The Commission, chaired by Dr. Condoleezza Rice and with a roster packed full of big names, will be dedicated to exploring three areas:

  1. The relationships of those involved in the sport with outside entities, including apparel companies, nonscholastic basketball, and agents or financial advisors,
  2. The ways “the NCAA can change its own eligibility rules” to address the dynamic it shares with the NBA in light of the one-and-done rule, and
  3. How to create a relationship that emphasizes transparency and accountability between member institutions and the NCAA.

Ultimately, the purpose of the newly formed body is to “identify bold legislative, policy and structural modifications to improve the integrity of our processes and the well-being of our student-athletes.” It will be tasked with providing a final briefing to the Division I Board of Directors and Board of Governors in April 2018.

The Commission, however, is missing a critical component: a representative for the college athletes that it’s allegedly designed to help.

The most recent player on the committee’s roster is former Duke guard Grant Hill. He graduated nearly a quarter century ago and over a decade before the current one-and-done rule was put into place.

In order to achieve the Commission’s stated goal of doing right by student-athletes, it’s necessary to give those athletes a voice in the room otherwise the system is designed to maintain the paternalism of the status quo in which the sport’s power brokers dictate what’s best for the powerless.

The fundamental flaw of college basketball’s model is that it is designed to restrict the freedoms of those functionally forced to play within the structure of amateurism lest they lose out on future earning potential. Remember, the biggest victims of the FBI’s investigation into college basketball are not the schools, it’s players like Brian Bowen who may never step foot on a college court. They’re the ones who can’t earn fair market value for their labor and they’re the ones punished when they do.

Next: College basketball's sky probably isn't falling

The goals of the NCAA’s Commission on College Basketball are noble. Eliminating corruption and under the table influence in the sport is a significant step in the right direction. Here, though, the NCAA also had an opportunity to make a statement about the important role that athletes can play in that discussion, allowing them to offer a different and unique perspective perhaps about the value of letting them earn income based on their likeness. Unfortunately, it came up short.