NCAA President, Mark Emmert, calls for summit

[Water Pony]

Mark Emmert is inviting 50 school presidents/chancellors to a summit, August 9-10th,to discuss the future of Div. 1 sports, including pay-for-play:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/sto ... AHeadlines

Too bad the BCS is running the FB show.

[SMU89]

Where is the retreat?

[mrydel]

Where is the retreat?

I think they are contacting the Fiesta Bowl Committee for ideas.

[SMU89]

Well, august 10 is a Wednesday; so, clearly they are meeting at Ozonas

[ponyte]

Looks like the big boys are working a way to deflect recent bad pub about, well, the big boys.

[Water Pony]

Good commentary from Louisville Courier-Journal:

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/ ... 02/rsslink

Use Ohio State as a case study on the root causes, i.e. NCAA should attack woes, not just talk

[ponyte]

Probably the most that comes out of this is a tattoo code for NCAA athletes that have to be family oriented. Face it, some of Pryor’s tats are pretty pathetic.

[Water Pony]

Watch out: The noise around paying student athletes a stipend is growing. If we break that barrier, then costs will rise even more. $200 or $1,000 a month? Revenue vs. non-revenue? Men vs. women? Needs-based or not? Cash vs. debit cards? Discretionary or not? Bowl Championship teams vs. others? BCS only?

Fortunately for the head coaches, it is not their problem to fund. The've got their's and there are no givebacks.

[Charleston Pony]

why do I get the feeling the only thing that will ultimately come out of this is to widen the gap between the "haves" and the "have nots" ?

[Water Pony]

why do I get the feeling the only thing that will ultimately come out of this is to widen the gap between the "haves" and the "have nots" ?

Exactly!

[SMU89]

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootbal ... s-mess/rss

[Water Pony]

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/15228182/ncaa-needs-to-call-special-convention-to-clean-up-its-mess/rss

Good article with a focus on a greater sense of urgency. Paying students-athletes is a slippery slope that could be fatal for many Div. 1 programs and schools. Studying the probelm, outlining options, gathering information, etc. are excuses and are in fact a decision to kick the can down the road.

[EastStang]

One person mentioned long ago that the NFL and NBA were making so much money because they didn't have to fund a minor league system to develop talent. It was handed to them on a silver platter. In hockey, there is the junior system which feeds a minor league system (as well as an international system). In soccer, there is an international pecking order in which players leap from team to team up and down the ladder. In baseball there is a huge development system. One solution is for the NCAA to come out and recommit to its amateurism principles and institute a zero tolerance. It could say, okay schools report everything you've done to date to avoid a SWC rat-athon, and after the deadline, if you're found to have violated NCAA rules and you didn't self-report, death penalty. It can institute more rigorous academic standards for admission of student athletes, so that schools like SMU don't have to face the conundrum of taking a marginal student. The rest, well, the NCAA could partnership with the NFL and the NBA and work together to build a minor league system for a five year period. After that, the NFL and NBA would own them and pay the NCAA back its investment over 20 years with interest. Imagine an Austin minor league team which feeds the Cowboys and a San Antonio minor league team which feeds the Texans. It won't be perfect. When do these teams play? Saturdays, Mondays, Sunday nights, week nights? That's the beauty of it. ESPN can fill in its schedule with these games. At the end of the day, kids who have no business going to school can go to these teams, and kids that want to pursue an education and enhance their football career can go to college. Hockey and baseball have shown that you can have both. Look at the Top 6 baseball draft choices - 5 college players, one high schooler. Its time for football and hoops to do the same.

[PoconoPony]

EastStang has some interesting observations re the NCAA connections with the professional sports organizations. I recall reading a recent stat which indicated that only 2% of college football players will ever draw a professional pay check. This is a very low % when you really think about the 85 scholarships and 15 walkons which typifies most college programs. If EastStang is correct the NBA and NFL would need to fully fund and control a total minor league system which would dramatically conflict with NCAA football mainly regarding the availability of players. In reality, not that many kids actually participate in football at the HS level let alone seek to play at the college level. And you would need 50% more kids interested and participating in football to support both a minor league pro system and college football. Every HS player believes he is a future NFL talent so the football minor leagues would take the vast preponderance of talented kids thereby initially leaving the colleges to scroung for who ever was left and wanted to play. Over time this would ultimately develop into 2 very defined groups of kids: those who would immediately bypass college for the pros and those who actually want to be students and would take their chances of being drafted out of college. This would really end up mirroring baseball today. I would love to see the return to a true student concept with an Ivy League approach to scholarships and acacemics and agree that it is time for the NFL to develop a minor league system; however, the NFL learned their lesson with the vast amount of $$$$$ lost in the Europen League ( World Football League) experiment which was discontinued with little discussion after a representative time trial based entirely on $$$$$$$ and the very few players who actually made it to the NFL. Hence, the NFL would never want to spend the dollars and colleges do no want to deminish what is currently in place. Hence, nothing will change.

[CalallenStang]

I'm just glad Myles Brand (RIP) is no longer running the organization. Under his leadership, the "haves" made significant gains over the "have-nots."

Emmert may be plotting a way to separate the haves from have nots, but note that I said "may be". If Brand were still here, that would have been "is."