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Commission calls for sweeping NCAA reform
Panel seeks one-and-done changes as scandal remedy
With college basketball reeling from scandal, an independent NCAA task force has called for widespread reform of a game that has become a multibillion dollar business fraught with bribery and fraud.
The Commission on College Basketball focused much of its report on ending the “one-and-done” phenomenon that has top players reluctantly enrolling in school for a season before jumping to the pros.
The 52-page document also suggests potential lifetime bans for coaches who cheat and a shift in the complex relationship with elite youth basketball and the shoe and apparel companies that pump hundreds of millions into the sport.
“The state of men’s college basketball is deeply troubled,” said the report, released Wednesday morning. “The levels of corruption and deception are now at a point that they threaten the very survival of the college game as we know it.”
Within hours of receiving the recommendations, NCAA leaders vowed to prepare legislation for a vote this summer, saying “we all will work together to get it right.”
But critics wonder whether the report went far enough. They see a troubling inequity when comparing the value of scholarships to the players’ market value.
“The fundamental problem is the players make more money for the schools than they receive in compensation,” said David Berri, a sports economist at Southern Utah University. “As long as that exists, you’re always going to have corruption.”
The NCAA formed its 12-member panel last fall after federal prosecutors charged 10 people — including four assistant coaches — in response to allegations of bribes and kickbacks meant to steer recruits to specific schools, agents and shoe companies.
USC, Arizona, Auburn and Oklahoma State have been ensnared in the wide-ranging FBI investigation. At Louisville, high-profile coach Rick Pitino lost his job amid allegations the program planned to funnel $100,000 to the family of a prized recruit.
These developments added to the sport’s long history of under-the-table payments and point-shaving. As the commission wrote, “the environment surrounding college basketball is a toxic mix of perverse incentives to cheat.”
Condoleezza Rice, the former Secretary of State, served as chairwoman for the panel, which included university administrators, retired coaches and former basketball stars Grant Hill and David Robinson.
There had been speculation the members might recommend more stringent reforms, such as borrowing a rule from college baseball that forces players who accept scholarships to remain in school for three years. There was also talk of opening the door for student-athletes to market their own names, images and likenesses.
“There should be an opportunity for the kids to make money through a legitimate process,” said Jim Lackritz, an emeritus sports business professor at San Diego State. “When the school is making all this money off players, why can’t we create a win-win situation where the kids can make some extra money too?”
After much discussion, Rice and her colleagues decided not to back the “baseball” option or any mechanisms for athletes to generate outside income, but said such issues could be revisited.
For now, the panel is asking the NBA and its players union to eliminate a 2006 rule that excludes young players from the pro draft until they turn 19 and are a year removed from high school graduation.