I know who cares as impotent and ineffective as NCAA has become, but it is an intriguing hire
Interesting choice. Basically, they are hiring a lobbyist s the next president
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Emmitt was a joke and this guy will be too! Just a made up job for an idiot to make over 6 figures. The gutless NCAA should close shop they are a waste of time
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He may be the last NCAA president.
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Dana O’Neal of The Athletic pretty much agrees, Army. And he’ll make more like $3 million.
I listened to the MWC Commissioner on ESPNU Radio a couple of hours ago. She said that the skill sets of the new hire were focused on political skills and experience. She said the NCAA was going to push for congressional legislation to help it grapple with all the current issues, e.g., transfer portal and NIL. One of the things she mentioned was possibly seeking an antitrust exemption.
After seeing what with IARP came back with against the 2 peaon assistant and let The HC Sean Miller skate free put icing on the cake.
Those 2 got and 10 year and 2 year ban. Miller gets to walk free as a bird. That’s absurd.
Which is ridiculous. And is not going to happen. If Congress does anything in this area, which I doubt, it will be toward MORE freedom (and compensation) for the athletes.
The first paragraph of that article says a whole lot:
Every once in a while the last few months, during a random conversation about something entirely unrelated, I’d be reminded that the NCAA still needed a president. Truly felt like a light-bulb moment. “Oh, right, that job is still open, isn’t it?” Which can be interpreted in plenty of ways. That no one missed Mark Emmert, most obviously. But also how feckless the entire concept of NCAA president had become.
Do you see the NCAA eventually moving towards an NFL type arrangement & union/bargaining agreements such that Div1 players are employees of the school employers (or alums) where there are team salary caps to level the playing field & contracts with players with time durations? Perhaps this will bring about sanity & stability to college sports & not otherwise risk fans & viewers losing interest, if not abandon college sports altogether… Don’t see that Congress needs to get involved.
I think that’s the most likely outcome. What the NCAA hopes for is that Baker will get Congress to go along on maintaining the status quo, if not rolling it back to pre-NIL. That ain’t happening.
With free agency, pro sports for the most part have become fan attachment to the name on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back. The NBA is an exception; they’ve prospered by marketing their stars, from Magic and Bird to MJ and Dominique to Kobe to LeBron. But Cowboys fans will be Cowboys fans long after Elliott and Dak and Parsons are gone, and Patriots fans are still there after TB12 went off to Tampa.
But college sports have always been that way. Five years at most, and people are gone, to the pros or just to the rest of their lives. Now with the portal, even more so. To put it bluntly, we’re cheering for cardinal and white laundry, with the occasional anthracite thrown in. Next year, or in two weeks, different people wearing that laundry.
Understand & agree with your comments about team, brand loyalty, & fan attachment, especially with pro teams & per recognizing players come & go. However, pro sports have inherent advantage of much larger fan bases per the limited # of pro teams (vs 350 Div 1 college teams) & most pro teams located & catering to cities with large populations. Win or lose, most pro stadiums will fill up while college attendance is more tied to being competitive. We definitely saw that during 2 yrs of CCM. No doubt salary caps on pro teams leveled the playing field & helped to maintain fan interest throughout the NFL due to teams being more equally competitive.
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