Post Reply to Cartier Field

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If I were Jack.... by beattherush

I think Stewart Mandel makes some good arguments in the linked piece to revamp the NCAA. The mechanism clearly needs an overhaul, and Emmert I think is at least trying to clear some of the brush out of the way with recruiting changes but really a wholesale change is needed.

If I were Jack Swarbrick, I'd be thinking about creating a new NCAA, at least for football.

Define some common sense principles about how college athletics ought to work, balancing amateur status with some changes, most notably stipends for athletes to give them some pocket money and keep them out of trouble. ID a law firm to handle enforcement - Jack knows a lot of those firms. Write up a contract for schools to sign that commits them to providing the enforcement process with unofficial subpoena powers, on pain of ejection from the association for non-compliance. Work out a structural arrangement that preserves some independence for Notre Dame and discourages the 16-team conference that threatens to destroy the game as we know it.

Next, call up Deloss Dodds and get Texas on board. They should be amenable, their recruiting is not reliant on underhanded tactics anyway. Then you call new Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby and get the rest of the conference on board. Bowlsby used to work in NCAA compliance and knows the ropes.

Once you get them on board, then call your buddies in the ACC. Convince them Miami is dead man walking but also that the NCAA has gotten out of control and ought to be replaced. Dangle full membership in a new structure where the ACC teams won't be picked up for spare parts.

Then go after the last three, probably in the order of PAC 12, B10, and SEC. While the SEC benefits from the NCAA's current weakness, they won't be so stuck on it that they won't go along.

Then secede from the NCAA for football, offer some better cross-conference scheduling to up the TV contract, and you're in business.

Antitrust? The government cannot prevent free association among teams, as the original CFA formation and legal arguments proved.

Go get 'em, Jack.

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