NCAA President Mark Emmert took the opportunity Wednesday to respond to his critics, shoot down pay-for-play and say that there may be serious changes coming for the way the NCAA is governed.
Mark Emmert speaks out against Jay Bilas’ criticism, future of NCAA
The NCAA president was candid at a forum in New York, talking about the future of the NCAA and some of his harshest critics.
Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY
Emmert spoke at the IMG Intercollegiate Athletics Forum in New York about what he has done so far and what he sees for the immediate future of the NCAA.
In Emmert’s three-plus years as president, one of his harshest critics has been ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas. Emmert used Wednesday to fire back at him:
NCAA prez Mark Emmert on @JayBilas .. "I don't like the ad hominem attacks" but says he respects his passion.
— Bruce Feldman (@BFeldmanCBS) December 11, 2013 Mark Emmert on @JayBilas: "I dare say I know more about running complex organizations than him & he knows more about basketball."
— Bruce Feldman (@BFeldmanCBS) December 11, 2013 Bilas, never one to keep his opinions to himself, quickly responded:
@BFeldmanCBS if by "ad hominem," he means many agree with me, he's correct. They're not attacks. The criticism is fair, and right on.
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) December 11, 2013 And regarding Emmert's assertion that he was better than Bilas at managing complex organizations:
@BFeldmanCBS He's absolutely correct on the latter. The former, perhaps not so much.
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) December 11, 2013 But Emmert's day in New York wasn't all just back-and-forth with the talking heads. He also took time to discuss the issues facing the NCAA moving forward, including the long-standing rumor that the power conferences will eventually seek autonomy.
Emmert said that he believes a new governance model could be in place as early as next summer that would give higher-budget schools more authority in some areas, according to Nicole Auerbach of USA Today.
Emmert said he hoped schools could come to an agreement on how to do this without having the power conferences split of from the NCAA:
“Everybody understands or seems to understand what the high-budget schools need, and there’s an increasing recognition of what the small-budget schools need. I think they’re going to end up in a pretty amicable place without anybody having to do threats or innuendos.”
There is reportedly a subcommittee of NCAA presidents working on a proposal for a new governance system, and one topic that may be discussed is whether student-athletes should be given stipends. This would not be the same, Emmert says, as paying players.
“There’s absolutely no interest among the membership in turning student-athletes into paid employees,” Emmert said. “There’s nobody interested in that at all. That would destroy collegiate athletics in everyone’s minds.”
The concern, according to Emmert, is making sure that NCAA scholarships don’t fall short of covering the full cost of attendance. He is not interested in giving student-athletes anything more than that in exchange for their services.
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