Who has the courage to speak up at the upcoming NCAA retreat?

Next week, at some place in Indianapolis where time has been instructed to stand still, Mark Emmert, the president of the NCAA, will convene what is being called, without irony, a "retreat." Assembled will be about fifty college presidents, pledged to make sure that college athletics continue to remain firmly in the past, in the antiquated amateur hours.

The avowed purpose of cloistering the academic wise men is about "protecting and enhancing the integrity of intercollegiate athletics" ... which is the equivalent of upholding the gold standard of Somalia's government. Will one of the presidents, among the two score and ten in attendance, have the courage to suggest that the empire has no wardrobe, that it just doesn't work anymore?

Emmert should certainly know. Both LSU and the University of Washington, whose presidential mansions he graced, have been punished by the NCAA. But, many of the presidents will be coming from athletically convicted campuses. It's certainly worth highlighting that the two prime incumbent NCAA champions, Auburn in football, UConn in basketball, are both current offenders ---- UConn convicted, Auburn, already a serial cheat, under investigation again. If that suggests to you that virtue may be its own reward but see-no-evil is the path to trophy, well then, you are college presidential timber.

Those in presence at the retreat need to admit that integrity in the NCAA has flown the coop because it is impossible to maintain that billion-dollar entertainment industries -- which ticket sales, concessions and TV contracts make college football and basketball to be -- can exist when everybody, but the entertainers themselves, is making money. Never mind fairness; it is against human nature. The system obliges hypocrisy and mandates deceit. Yet, a stated purpose of the retreat is to "maintain amateurism" ---- even as more and more observers and insiders, including coaches, have changed their minds and concluded that the NCAA must acknowledge that the nineteenth century really did end sometime ago.

The NCAA claims that amateurism equates to purity. That is a canard; there is simply no proof of that. Otherwise, we would have amateur musicians, painters and writers, and art would flourish pristine as never before. The NCAA's stated defense for athletic penury is "student-athletes should be protected from exploitation." Hear! Hear! But right now, it's the NCAA member colleges which exploit football and basketball players. Will there be just one president at the retreat who will speak the truth and acknowledge that the only true reason for amateurism in big-time college sport is to legally get free entertainment for paying students and wealthy alumni?

Published Aug 3, 2011 | Modified Aug 3, 2011

FRANK DEFORD

Frank Deford is among the most versatile of American writers. His work has appeared in virtually every medium, including print, where he has written eloquently for Sports Illustrated since 1962. Deford is currently the magazine's Senior Contributing Writer and contributes a weekly column to SI.com. Deford can be heard as a commentator each week on Morning Edition. On television he is a regular correspondent on the HBO show Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel. He is the author of 15 books, and his latest,The Enitled, a novel about celebrity, sex and baseball, was published in 2007 to exceptional reviews. He and Red Smith are the only writers with multiple features in The Best American Sports Writing of the Century. Editor David Halberstam selected Deford's 1981 Sports Illustrated profile on Bobby Knight (The Rabbit Hunter) and his 1985 SI profile of boxer Billy Conn (The Boxer and the Blonde) for that prestigious anthology. For Deford the comparison is meaningful. "Red Smith was the finest columnist, and I mean not just sports columnist," Deford told Powell's Books in 2007. "I've always said that Red is like Vermeer, with those tiny, priceless pieces. Five hundred words, perfectly chosen, crafted. Best literary columnist, in any newspaper, that I've ever seen." Deford was elected to the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame. Six times at Sports Illustrated Deford was voted by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of The Year. The American Journalism Review has likewise cited him as the nation's finest sportswriter, and twice he was voted Magazine Writer of The Year by the Washington Journalism Review. Deford has also been presented with the National Magazine Award for profiles; a Christopher Award; and journalism honor awards from the University of Missouri and Northeastern University; and he has received many honorary degrees. The Sporting News has described Deford as "the most influential sports voice among members of the print media," and the magazine GQ has called him, simply, "The world's greatest sportswriter." In broadcast, Deford has won a Cable Ace award, an Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award for his television work. In 2005 ESPN presented a television biography of Deford's life and work, You Write Better Than You Play. Deford has spoken at well over a hundred colleges, as well as at forums, conventions and on cruise ships around the world. He served as the editor-in-chief of The National Sports Daily in its brief but celebrated existence. Deford also wrote Sports Illustrated's first Point After column, in 1986. Two of Deford's books, the novel, Everybody's All-American, and Alex: The Life Of A Child, his memoir about his daughter who died of cystic fibrosis, have been made into movies. Two of his original screenplays have also been filmed. For 16 years Deford served as national chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and he remains chairman emeritus. He resides in Westport, CT, with his wife, Carol. They have two grown children – a son, Christian, and a daughter, Scarlet. A native of Baltimore, Deford is a graduate of Princeton University, where he has taught American Studies.

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