Apparently NCAA President Mark Emmert has grown as tired of conference realignment as the rest of us.
Emmert blistered university administrators today in response to the conference sausage-making that has played out in public in recent months, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education blog Players. The money shot, literally, from Emmert: “The world’s convinced that’s all we care about…that all this is about money. I didn’t read many of us stepping up and saying that this will work really well for student-athletes because we’ll do X, we’ll do Y, it will create more resources, it will help us stabilize our programs.”
The cynic in me – which is to really just say “me” – would note that that it’s entirely possible nobody mentioned anything other than money because the whole thing really has just been about money. Likewise, it could be that no authority figures wanted to talk about some of the other factors at play in this case, stuff like recruiting territory and ego, because, ironically, money actually offers a more palatable excuse for all this boorishness. Maybe we should read this more as Emmert being upset that the primary players in all this drama passed up such an obvious opportunity to sell everyone that all the rumor-mongering really does benefit the athletes in some bizarre way.
If you were really jaded – OK, I admit that I am – you’d also note that Emmert himself has plenty to lose through conference consolidation. Namely, he could get booted from his prestigious gig as Chief of the Amateurism Police should the big dogs break away from the Association. A little rattling of his saber could signal to the schools that Emmert realizes the game is afoot.
Having said all that, I really do hope Emmert is genuine about looking out for the players’ interest in all this conference-swapping. Every time someone talked about Oklahoma joining the Pac-12, I couldn’t help but imagine a plane full of runners flying from Oklahoma City to Pullman, Wash., or wherever for a cross-country meet. Totally sounds like progress, doesn’t it?
