It’s a start.
That may be the best way to view Wednesday’s release of the Commission on College Basketball’s report on what’s wrong with and what recommendations it believes can fix big-time college hoops.
As with any recommendation, its worth will eventually be tied to what becomes law, or, in this case, a new NCAA rule or bylaw. And as with most such committees or commissions, this 14-member group could have gone further in its suggestions for distancing the NCAA from the big-money shoe companies and their current death grip on the sport.
Whether it be the grassroots level of organized high school ball, the cesspool that is AAU ball or the toxic waste dump many believe Power Five conference hoops to be as played by the Dukes, Kansases, Kentuckys, Louisvilles and North Carolinas of the sport, if it’s questionable, there’s probably shoe company money or agent money behind it.
And in some cases, perhaps most cases, the agents are tied to the shoe companies, as has often been alleged in the ongoing FBI probe into the sport that led to NCAA president Mark Emmert forming the commission.