Former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon Jr. sits in his office in Henderson, Nev., in this 2010 file photo.I’m going to do something today I never previously thought was possible. I’m going to root for NCAA President Mark Emmert to have a good effort on the witness stand in the (Ed) O’Bannon vs. NCAA trial in Oakland, Calif.
I’m usually about as fond of Emmert as I am traffic jams, rain delays and my daughters watching “Toddlers and Tiaras.” But as much as I hate the NCAA, I hate thinking of college athletics without the NCAA even more. Emmert’s pompous presidency aside, college athletics’ governing body does more good than harm.
It tries to level the playing field, however foolhardy that notion may have become for money machines such as Southeastern Conference. It also runs 89 separate national championships at the Division I, II and III levels, most of those eating up a good deal of the nearly $900 million the organization reaps yearly from its Division I men’s basketball championship.
And however much it sometimes fails those at the top of the food chain, college sports without a strong NCAA would appear to be headed toward anarchy.
So even if it may ultimately lose some power in the O’Bannon case when it comes to paying student-athletes, the NCAA needs to lose little enough to continue its current business model everywhere save the big five conferences of the SEC, Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac 12.