A Jersey Guy: Time For NCAA to Shrink

The NCAA is gradually stepping away from the business of ruling college athletics. It needs to speed up the process.

It is time for the NCAA  to get out of the business of governing college athletics. 

This is not a new idea.

 In fact, NCAA President Mark Emmert has suggested that the Indianapolis-based organization is trending in that direction on the major issues of enforcement and eligibility.

If there was ever a reason to speed up the process, it was the latest missive which came from the NCAA regarding a five year investigation into the Baylor athletes regarding numerous instances of sexual assault involving Baylor athletes.

The NCAA concluded that while "unacceptable' behavior'' was exhibited, there were NO violations of rules, which meant that there would be no additional penalties given to Baylor which is currently riding a new high following an NCAA championship in men's basketball last April.

Although the school investigated and fired football coach Art Briles, while also hastening the departure of athletic director Ian McCaw and school President Ken Starr, the crimes committed did not fall under the umbrella of "NCAA violations''.

The NCAA Committee on Infractions report said, ""that those failings, however egregious, did not constitute violations of NCAA legislation.''

Are you kidding me?

Enough. 

It is bad enough that hundreds of pages of minor tack violations clog the NCAA rules and that it takes years to conclude an investigation.

It is bad enough that the NCAA can not control, nor wishes to control the new and financially lucrative area that the upper levels of college football have become.

But now we have seen two major cases in the past several years in which outrageous behavior which tarnishes the image of a university did not result in sanctions against the schools.

There is still steam coming from many school officials after a blatant case of academic fraud in the North Carolina athletic did not result in any penalties for the iconic NC basketball program.

And now we have crimes which result in actual jail time also are not subject to penalty because they weren't violations of NCAA rules.

It is time to throw out not only the rule book, but the people involved in enforcing those rules.

Having said that, however, it creates a bigger area of uncertainty.

You need someone to police the sports, because people do and will continue to cheat and break  major rules.

The problem is that in football and to a lesser extent basketball--the two primary revenue earning sports--there is no central leadership willing or able to fill that role.

But it needs to happen.

And happen quickly.

University presidents who talk about maintaining high academic standards need to step into the real world of billion dollar football and basketball where bad guys and bad things happen committing acts which need to be investigated and punished.

Here's a suggestion.

Take some of that football and  basketball money and fund a committee consisting of college athletic administrators, law enforcement officials, give them subpoena power and the power to conduct investigations and hand out penalties for misconduct of any kind.