Sprints Hates Defending Mark Emmert, But Here Goes // 09.29.11
by cocknfire on Sep 29, 2011 3:33 AM EDT
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Leave Mark Emmert alone
There are few people that are more critical of Mark Emmert than I am. That's not entirely fair, only because there are a lot of people that are very critical of Mark Emmert. The thing is, Emmert gives anyone who wants to criticize him more than enough ammunition to do so. Which is why it was so frustrating to watch a lot of otherwise smart people decided to make fun of Mark Emmert -- for saying exactly the same thing they were saying to make fun of Mark Emmert.
"I think what came across (with realignment) is that all we care about is money and what we can do that is to our advantage," Emmert said in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press. "Nobody was talking about what this is going to do for student-athletes or intercollegiate athletic programs. It was all about let's make a deal."
And while I hate to differ with SB Nation so openly -- Emmert is right. And SBN.com is saying that in the same commentary where it's criticizing Emmert. There's nothing in that statement or the full interview that suggests that Emmert is saying conference realignment isn't about money; he's saying that it is all about money, or at least it looks that way, and it shouldn't be.
A lot of the other criticism -- from a lot of sources (I'm honestly linking to SBN.com because if I have to link somewhere, it's going to be us) -- is the old line that the NCAA is a business because it makes a lot of money. You know, like the Red Cross. Or any other large nonprofit. The idea that the NCAA is a business is something that a lot of people say to prove how cynical they are, without really questioning whether that cynicism is justified.
Think of it this way. Why do the Atlanta Falcons do what they do as an organization? Yes, they pay players, and they have some of the nicest facilities in the NFL. But at the end of the day, Arthur Blank is going to get a cut of the money for profit. Blank wants badly to win -- anyone who's followed his ownership of the Falcons knows that -- but he also wants to make money. That's why he, or any other professional franchise owner, is in the business.
Who makes the profit from a college sports program? Well, except for a few examples across the country, there's no unused money being made in the first place. Which is the first major difference. The second is that there is literally no one -- no team owner, no shareholders, no one -- who would pocket that profit if it existed.
That's the difference between a college sports program and a professional one. It is when the college sports programs begin to act like the professional ones that we run into trouble. And that's what Mark Emmert was trying to say. Too bad everyone was so busy looking for an opportunity to criticize him that they forgot to listen to him.
Chuck Neinas called Mike Slive a floozy
Not in those precise words, but pretty much.
Neinas, 79, compared the SEC to a "pretty girl and walks down the aisle" but that the Big 12 is the "one that’s tried and true and you know is going to be there."
Of course, the Big 12 is actually the girl who's tried and true but has a medical condition that could cause her to spontaneously combust at any moment, but let's not be picky here. The real news of this article is that Neinas basically admits that Missouri is trying to decide whether or not to leave for the SEC, which is only news because he said it out loud.
This is sure to win them over
And the Big 12's response is to depose the Missouri chancellor as the chair of the expansion committee, which makes sense to a degree but also isn't exactly how you win hearts and minds.
OTHER NEWS
Les Miles might get the chance to prove whether he's dumb
I'll just go ahead and say it: Les Miles is something approaching an idiot if he takes a job as an NFL head coach. I don't believe Miles fits in the NFL -- he is Bo Schembechler in purple and gold, and Schembechler also wouldn't have been a very good professional coach.
Before he went slightly insane and returned to the pro ranks, Pete Carroll used to essentially ask why he would go to the NFL and coach a team that could add just one first-round draft pick a year when he could recruit several to Southern Cal. It was an oversimplification that hinted at a wider truth -- Miles won't have access to the same talent differential in the NFL that he can build at LSU.
And Miles' coaching style won't work at the NFL level. It's a risk-averse league built on simply making sure you win enough games to get to the playoffs, and doing it in a conventional way so that you can't be criticized too harshly if things go wrong. NFL general managers look at Miles as a coach with a knack for the odd playcall, without realizing that those odd playcalls are part of what makes him Les Miles.
That's not to say Miles might not try it, though as an SEC fan I hope he sticks around for a long time. But if he goes, I doubt he goes to the playoffs more than once, and I'll be stunned if he lasts more than five years.
Their careers are alive and kicking. Maybe we should use another phrase there ...
Jordan Jefferson and Josh Johns are back with the LSU football team after a grand jury's decision Wednesday. The jury reduced a charge against Jefferson to a misdemeanor -- which we should note is still a crime, even if a far less serious one -- and essentially cleared Johns after a bar fight.
"We certainly don't condone participation in the incident, but the legal system has determined that their actions did not rise to the level originally charged, and their punishment to date related to football has already been considerable," Alleva said. "They will rejoin the team and begin practice immediately."
The question is whether LSU wants to mess with what's working so far by putting Jefferson on the field. Never imagined I'd live in a world where I would openly ponder whether a team should keep Jarrett Lee as its starting quarterback to help its BCS chances.
South Carolina gets another receiver who will watch Stephen Garcia's passes bounce five feet in front of him
Damiere Byrd is going to take the field for the Gamecocks for the first time against Auburn. This would matter if South Carolina had, you know, a quarterback who threw passes to receivers. Which is why it might not matter all that much.
Georgia players leave program because of 'things'
If Mark Richt somehow weathers this season and goes on to several more successful years, this will be a footnote. But it will be seen as something more foreboding if things continue to go downhill.
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no matter what a person's stance
regarding the NCAA, paying players, etc, I wish they would realize that its still non profit. Sure, you may think the players are being exploited unfairly, that’s a valid point of view. But it gets under my skin when people forget that all this money is ultimately going back to the university in some fashion. I don’t think people that harp on this have ever bought season tickets. At a lot of schools, to get season tickets you have to donate money. This money doesn’t have to be a check to the athletic department, it could just as easily be given to the physics dept. Its not as if at the end of the day, the school Pres takes home the surplus.
There are certainly examples of corruption and waste, but almost every non profit has that. Ultimately, it is about money. Money for public education. We should be having the debate about how best to make sure the money isn’t squandered, not whether Andrew Luck deserves a piece.
by Mark Mandingo on Sep 29, 2011 8:49 AM EDT via mobile reply actions
x
The Big XII is anything but the girl you “know is going to be there.” I think that’s probably 1/2 the reason A&M left the Big XII – everyone in this great country thinks the Big XII is going down sooner or later – whether by attrition of OU and OSU to the Pac 12, or UT going independent….the Big XII will not last.
I think the disdain comes from
the idea not that the NCAA makes a lot of money in and of itself, but largely exists as an ostensibly non-profit tool for make millions of dollars for rich multi-national companies. Not that I hate capitalism or anything, but wishing the Chick fil a Bowl was still called the Peach Bowl hardly makes me a communist.
Respect the bucket, son.
its no different
Than chico’s bail bonds being written on the back of little league jerseys, just on a much larger scale. Most of the money that the NCAA receives goes right back to the schools. The rest pays for the mechanism itself. People complain that the NCAA doesn’t investigate fast enough (because they don’t have enough investigators) then people complain that they make too much money. Somebody has to pay for that DIII lacrosse championship. And the NCAA has very little to do with the chick fil a bowl. Non profit is non profit. Emmert may make a ton, bit he doesn’t have NCAA stock options.
by Mark Mandingo on Sep 29, 2011 1:59 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
I get your point
and I suspect we agree on the principle of what I was trying (unsuccessfully) to say. The NCAA, de facto, operates more in the interests of Dr. Pepper and Capital One than it does for the women’s swim team at Directional State University. I’m not suggesting this is a zero-sum game, but rather that the commercialization of college sports has become gratuitous, especially considering the supposed amateurism that it’s based on.
Respect the bucket, son.
I would say this
Commercialism is perfectly fine as long as there is no apparent harm done to the athletes and the results of the commercialization end up, for the most part, benefitting the school and/or the athletes (in general, not specifically). The NCAA is really close to the line (maybe even just over it). To me its a matter of degree. I don’t think that player likenesses should be able to be used for any other reason than to sell the product, (meaning the actual event) or to advertise the product (“next week on CBS”). I don’t have a problem with schools selling jerseys. I do have a problem with them selling game worn jerseys or ones with names on the back.
Its very fashionable right now to rip the NCAA, but while I think its become a too cumbersome organization, I still think that it tries to act in the benefit of all member institutions first, and the student athletes second.
by Mark Mandingo on Sep 29, 2011 3:02 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
I apologize for rambling a bit
I Don’t Really See Your Point
My angst stems from quotes like these:
I think what came across (with realignment) is that all we care about is money and what we can do that is to our advantage," Emmert said in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press. "Nobody was talking about what this is going to do for student-athletes or intercollegiate athletic programs. It was all about let’s make a deal.
I find it ridiculous that Emmert even makes this claim, specifically this:
Nobody was talking about what this is going to do for student-athletes or intercollegiate athletic programs. It was all about let’s make a dealDoes he not realize that the vast majority of athletic departments lose money, and being in a bad economic situation schools have stopped subsidizing athletics. This means athletic departments are going to cut sports. I can’t think of anything worse for the student-athletes than to have their athletic sports cut. By definition they are no longer student-athletes, they are just students. Yet, Emmert wants athletic departments to not generate greater revenue. He does not want them to act to become self-sustaining. Instead, he wants college athletics to stay the same resulting in two outcomes: 1) the elimination of sports 2) Increased subsidies from schools, placing a greater burden on actual students and/or the general populous (if they are state institutions).
I understand the point that steps need to be made to prevent a never-ending spiral of escalating costs in a football arms race. I understand that student-athletes and student hardships need to be considered prior to paying a coach 10 million a year, but I don’t believe that is what realignment is about right now. I believe realignment is about making athletic departments self-sustaining, thus preserving student-athletics. I think the previous view gains notoriety because the avenue for revenue is football, thus athletic departments need to obtain as much money as possible from football, to survive the other sports., hence realignment was about maximizing football revenues.
I believe a lot of the vitriol of ‘college sports as a business’ is an endemic problem facing the non-revenue sports, and if the NCAA were serious of about the well-being of student-athletes they should be exploring ways to increase the revenues or decrease costs associated with non-revenue sports. The only viable method that I can foresee increasing the profitability of these non-revenue sports is through channels like the Big Ten Network, the Longhorn Network, and the Pac-12 Networks. Broadcasting these sports and increasing their profitability through signage and advertising helps alleviate the costs of supporting these programs, but a viable network needs to be in place first. This means conference realignment.
I support the NBA player's union.
I agree with pretty much everything here.
I also have to say that the NCAA talking about increasing the scholarship dollar requirement to match the “full cost of attendance” will do much the same thing as far as risking the cutting of non-revenue sports. It’s already hard enough for many of the schools to keep up and you can’t just offer benefits to football and basketball athletes despite the fact their sports make the most money. If you offer a benefit to one set of athletes it’s going to have to be offered to all of them.
Faced with this dilemma, schools are far more likely to cut non-revenue sports when required to increase the amount of money they spend on them.
I actually think that's a legitimate criticism of what Emmert was saying
My problem was with people who were laughing at Emmert’s contention that college sports isn’t a business.
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