NCAA basketball desperately needs reform, starting with governing body

By Michael Collins | Feb 22, 2018

(Photo by Tim Bradbury/Getty Images) /

NCAA basketball is at a crossroads, and without some sort of major reform, the sport could find itself in serious trouble.

If you are a fan of NCAA basketball, you know the last two years have been particularly difficult to swallow. Beyond the usual distractions of the ever-expanding NCAA basketball tournament and one-and-done players leaving programs twisting in the wind, there have been more disturbing issues to further cripple an already hobbled sport.

FBI investigations, accusations of outright paying players with money and paid escorts, phony classes and sexual assault cases apparently swept under the rug have overshadowed anything going on between the baskets.

Indifferent or even immoral coaches should certainly take some of the blame for the problems at hand, and for incidents involving players, they shouldn’t get a free pass either. But where the rubber meets the road is in Indianapolis, and it’s time the governing body known as the NCAA was stripped down and rebuilt to be a more effective and fair organization.

Related: Louisville's Punishment Won't Stop Corruption

The NCAA has proved itself to be not only inefficient in the way it governs *ahem*… “student-athletes”, but has also shown time and again that there is zero consistency in how they investigate, how penalties are handed down, and the severity of those penalties versus the infraction.

The current NCAA Division 1 manual is 428 pages long; the men’s basketball rule book is 146 pages long; the men’s basketball case book is 103 pages long (with similar rule and case books for women’s basketball), and the NCAA “Guide for the college-bound student athlete” (an eligibility guide) is 39 pages.

That’s over 700 pages of regulations, rules and possible consequences for a generation who won’t even read a paragraph of legalise on a smartphone app before clicking “accept”.

Beyond the gargantuan tome which reads like copy for a television law firm disclaimer, the NCAA refuses to allow student-athletes representation by an agent to protect their interests. That’s like a car salesman refusing to let a mechanic look at a car before you buy it.

If their paranoia and refusal to be transparent isn’t enough to warrant some sort of overhaul, then the NCAA’s blatant disregard for consistency in dealing with rules violations should be.

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You need look no further than the last two examples of NCAA justice being served to see how inadequately they dole out punishments and explain the reasoning behind their decisions.

In October of 2017 – after an exhausting seven-year, three-part investigation on alleged phony courses being offered to University of North Carolina basketball players dating back to 1997 – the NCAA in its ultimate wisdom decided that no real wrongdoing had gone on.

"“A Division I Committee on Infractions hearing panel could not conclude that the University of North Carolina violated NCAA academic rules when it made available deficient Department of African and Afro-American Studies ‘paper courses’ to the general student body, including student-athletes,”"

While this decision elated North Carolina fans, the rest of the nation was left looking for more answers. If it was this cut-and-dry, why so long to investigate and so many separate investigations?

North Carolina got off without even a slap on the wrist, but the next program the NCAA dealt with wasn’t so lucky. Louisville was handed a much different fate.

Most recently, the NCAA handed down some pretty severe penalties to the University of Louisville for an investigation which began in 2015 involving impermissible benefits (including strippers and sex-for-hire escorts) to players.

Louisville will now be forced to vacate over 100 regular season and tournament wins, including the 2012 Final Four appearance and the 2013 National Championship.

That’s quite a swing in the opposite direction.

The NCAA has shown to be just as inequitable when it comes to rulings with football as basketball, bringing the thunder of the gods down upon Penn State in 2012, but essentially turning a blind eye to the sexual assault scandal at Baylor in 2017.

How bad is the NCAA’s reputation? Bad enough that the FBI decided to begin investigating a number of programs on their own without even letting the NCAA in on the fun.

The time has come for the NCAA’s role as judge, jury and executioner to end.

The organization must be revamped, streamlined, and made into what it was originally intended – a group of adults charged with the protection and support of college athletes – not a witch-hunting inquisition with all the approachability of a surly barroom bouncer.

Regulations which infringe upon a student-athlete’s ability to maintain an acceptable lifestyle – including allowing them to have agents or other legal representation to protect their financial interests – should be done away with.

If these student-athletes aren’t able to benefit financially from all the money they generate, they should at least be able to count on the NCAA to support them, rather than persecute them at every turn.

The fat must be trimmed from the regulations. Trying to execute oversight into every aspect of recruitment, eligibility and on-field play has shown to be impossible. The NCAA should not be a party to eligibility maintenance, but rather to making sure players are protected.

There should be separate entities set up to deal with recruitment and eligibility, school administration and coaching functions, and player performance.

School administrators and coaches should have a clear view of what the regulations are, and what the punishment will be if those regulations are violated. No more “self-imposed” penalties, and no more waiting years for the NCAA to wrap up what should be simple investigations.

These are broad strokes and general ideas being presented here, but as with other problems our nation faces, doing nothing will change absolutely nothing. Start with the ideas, and dig in.

The status quo can no longer be tolerated, nor can the NCAA’s incompetence. College sports, particularly basketball, is at a crucial junction, and the wrong turn could lead to disaster.

Next: 10 Teams Who Could Go Deep In 2018 NCAA Tourney

Change must come from the top, and dissolving the NCAA as we know it is the change which college basketball and other sports desperately need.

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