Does Mark Emmert Have An Agenda For The NCAA?

Who is this man? And what is his agenda? Well, Mark Emmert has no problem with flexing his muscles and pointing fingers, and making a general mockery of the term “common sense”. And on top of that he also is not going to apologize for it. Up until a few months ago, I was having myself a good laugh at the NCAA, and writing about it at least once a week. I was labeled a “conspiracy theorist” because I felt like the NCAA was “out to get UK”, and that was very true. The NCAA is not out to get Kentucky “per se”. But make no bones about it, Mark Emmert is out to make an example of a few people, and if the school that cost him one of his school’s prize recruits is first up, it will not bother him one iota.

In a phone conversation with Seth Davis over at CBS Sports Emmert made no bones about

bringing up the fact that very few colleges recruited Kanter because of his eligibility issues and therefore “no one should be shocked.” Emmert also stated his point that the NCAA recent decisions that are not inconsistent, it’s the facts of the particular cases which are inconsistent.

OK, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt on that one. Oh wait, wasn’t his own school, The University of Washington, the school which recruited Kanter in the first place, until he withdrew his verbal committment and opened his recruiting back up, at which point Calipari and crew stepped in? Score one for common sense. And while we are at it, let us discuss this difference of facts for a moment. Is Mark Emmert trying to tell us that the unadmitted “appearance of impropriety” is less of an offense than a kid and his family sitting down with the NCAA, documenting everything they have ever did, putting it all out there for all the world to see, and asking the NCAA to help them do whatever they could do within the NCAA’s guidelines to fix anything wrong? Emmert 1, Common Sense 1.

People are going to criticize me for blaming Emmert on this. OK. Fine. Have At It. But can anyone show me a period of time in the history of the NCAA where there have been more bizarre decisions handed down than in the last year? Face it folks, the NCAA answers to no one. And all of these claims about the fact that the NCAA is it’s body of members don’t wash either. The NCAA drifts and wanes at the whim of whomever is in charge. Cue Mark Emmert.

But my real point to all of this is as such. What EXACTLY does Mark Emmert want? Which direction is he taking the NCAA in? I was no fan of the late Myles Brand, former president of the NCAA for his treatment of Bobby Knight at Indiana. Sounds ridiculous for me to take Bob Knight’s side, right? Well, no it really is not. Myles Brand could have handled the Bob Knight situation numerous ways, and he chose to make a public spectacle out of Knight. Some of you will claim that if anyone needed it, it was Bobby. Well, I may agree with you somewhat, but the man deserved to have that situation handled with much more dignity from the other side than he got. Even if dignity on his side would have been a joke. But even Myles Brand’s decisions which I felt were making the NCAA the butt of it’s own jokes, were nowhere near as bizarre as the last few months have been under Emmert. And the funny part is that he is using and quoting the NCAA rulebook all along the way, and then throwing it out the window when it doesn’t suit him.

How can any educated and ethical person not see a correlation between the Ohio State debacle, the Cam Newton fiasco and the backlash that it had on the Kanter decision? So, the message we want to send to the young people out there who are future student-athletes is that you can have parents that shop you around like the next hottest free agent at the Baseball winter meetings, and you can sell off your memorabilia to get money for tattoos, get cars and enjoy all of those “perks” while you are an NCAA collegiate athlete, but you cannot take money to play in a European League system designed to give kids a chance to play because they have no other opportunities to do so? the answer of course is yes, and they can quote you NCAA Law and By-Law for each exact condition. The Bible tells me in Exodus 21:24 that “An Eye for An Eye, Tooth for a Tooth” was the law of the land in ancient times as well, but we learned from that one that it was not really smart just to let laws dictate society, we had to let morals in there somewhere too.

If this were Louisiana and it was 1930, I would swear that Huey P. Long,Jr. was alive and well in Mark Emmert. Spouting reform and claiming social injustice, Long would use scare tactics and political backstabbing of whomever he needed to and for whatever reason suited him. All the while making himself a proponent of the “common man”. When Emmert took office back last fall, he stated:

"“It is my great honor to accept this assignment,” Emmert said. “It is more than a new job for me. This is special. This is an opportunity to help shape one of the great American institutions.”"

Little did we know just how much he was intending on shaping.

"“The piece that we all know intuitively about sports in America is the very large role they play in our society, and while you know that intellectually, to see that play out firsthand is a reminder about how important this enterprise is to so many people,” he said. “Of course, everybody has suggestions about what I need to fix first.”My answer would be yourself there, Mr. Emmert. It seems you have already forgotten your own statement in just the last few months. Has your brain gone into a winter freeze?And what about the statement below? How was Enes Kanter served in your NCAA’s world? The obvious answer is that he wasn’t. He was brushed aside like so much dirt on the floor of “My Old Kentucky Home”. And how is it that you cannot see this? I have no idea. Everyone else can.“My primary interest is that the student has the best opportunity to get an education,” Emmert said. “What we want is students to come in with every expectation that they’re going to get an education, and we think we can help shape a high-quality educational experience for everyone so that they come out of it as a higher-educated student.”Even if they do not get to participate in the sport of their choosing to do it, right Mark? We have seen this kind of pontificating in the world of politics before, but no one has tried to put it into use when running an organization such as the NCAA, mostly because the NCAA is supposed to be about protecting the Student-Athletes.“It’s been a long transition, but we in academia don’t ever do things quickly,” Emmert joked. “I want to see what the opportunities are to expand the interaction of what the organization can do beyond the sports world.”So what does Emmert have planned next? Who knows at this point. But his last statement there pretty well sums it up for me that he is not going to settle for the NCAA doing it’s job at hand.I get nervous when someone is glad-handing me in front, while they hold a knife at my back. Just makes me want to grab something and pound on them before they have a chance to do it to me. I really hope that this is not the case with Emmert, but it has all of the aspects of being just that. And for all of you out there who think that this is just another UK fan hammering away at the NCAA because I don’t like the way my school gets treated, just hang on, because I am sure that the NCAA will be at your door next. Because mark my words, this is bigger than a UK problem. Much bigger.Keep following www.http://wildcatbluenation.com for the best in Kentucky basketball and football news, rumors, and opinions. By Kentucky fans for Kentucky fansPublished on 01/11/2011 at 5:00 AM EDTLast updated on 10/21/2016 at 7:19 PM EDT “My primary interest is that the student has the best opportunity to get an education,” Emmert said. “What we want is students to come in with every expectation that they’re going to get an education, and we think we can help shape a high-quality educational experience for everyone so that they come out of it as a higher-educated student.”“It’s been a long transition, but we in academia don’t ever do things quickly,” Emmert joked. “I want to see what the opportunities are to expand the interaction of what the organization can do beyond the sports world.”"