Canzano: Pac-12 Joins Rally Cry for NCAA Change

[Charles Fischer]

Commissioner George Kliavkoff has some moxie doesn't he?   Interesting comments by Nate Costa about Butterfield....

 

 

The NCAA is getting a new boss. Mark Emmert announced he’s leaving the post after spending 12 years carefully running the entity in circles. He’ll stay on the job until June 2023 or whenever the NCAA hires his replacement. Sports Illustrated called Emmert a “calamitous captain.” The New York Times termed his impending exit “stormy.”

 

Yahoo columnist Dan Wetzel wrote that Emmert’s tenure was marked with “inertia, ineffectiveness and incompetence.”

 

Yup. But Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff may have best summarized the scene with a tweet on Tuesday night. Wrote Kliavkoff: “As the Wizard of Westwood once said…” and the commissioner posted a John Wooden quote that read, “Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.”

 

It was more scalpel than sledgehammer. But Kliavkoff got his point across beautifully.

 

 

 

Emmert, 69, got a contract extension by his Board of Governors a year ago. It was supposed to carry him through 2025. Make no mistake, this was a calculated and shove out the door by the NCAA. It couldn’t afford to wait a day longer.

 

Emmert will be treated like a piñata in the coming months. He deserves it. His failure to lead has left the NCAA an eroded mess. Athletic directors have been crying for new leadership for years. They’re now looking to federal lawmakers for help in trying to reel in a name, image, likeness dynamic that has pitted wealthy booster groups against each other, buying high school talent on the open market.

 

The NCAA members had to move on Emmert. He couldn’t lead. Nobody would follow him anymore if he tried. These times call for a massive overhaul of major college athletics. The NCAA needs to figure out what it wants to be.

 

The scene was laughable earlier this month when Emmert arrived at the men’s NCAA Tournament Final Four. Kansas won the title and cut down the nets, all while still being under investigation by the NCAA for major infractions that should have been settled long ago.

 

Here’s another one — Portland State and the University of Oregon both fall under the authority of the NCAA. They play each other at times in college football. PSU will report approximately $15 million in athletic department expenses in the next fiscal year amid questions about its future. Oregon will spend in excess of $100 million and have a booster collective helping land six and seven-figure endorsement packages for its athletes.

 

These two animals are not the same. Neither are McNeese State and LSU. We all can plainly see the separation. So why do the “haves” and “have-nots” still operate under the same section of the NCAA handbook?

 

We’re at a critical juncture in NCAA history. Emmert’s replacement doesn’t have to come from the world of college athletics but that person needs to understand it. The hire will also need to be a non-traditional thinker. The times demand it. The NCAA has drifted woefully out of touch with college athletes and I fear that if the entity doesn’t experience a quick correction it will never find its way back.

 

I like that Kliavkoff fired a public brush-back pitch at the NCAA on Tuesday. He’s got some moxie. If Kliavkoff weren’t so new on the job in the Pac-12 I’d wonder if he were the NCAA’s solution. “King George” sees the benefit of rallying people around the notion of change and college athletics desperately needs it.

 

Jennifer Cohen, the Washington athletic director, told me last summer that she was concerned about the direction of the NCAA. Oregon State AD Scott Barnes echoed that in a conversation with me a week ago at the Beavers’ spring game. Washington State’s Pat Chun said he believes it will take congressional intervention to fix college sports. None of what we’re seeing here is a surprise to anyone who is paying attention. Except maybe Emmert’s timeline, which feels unnecessarily extended.

 

He’s gone?

 

But still hanging around?

 

Emmert is paid $51,923 a week — A WEEK — in salary. Like Wooden said… failure isn’t bad by itself. But if you don’t change amid failure, you haven’t got a chance

 

 

DEFENSIVE TAKE: Former Oregon defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti was at the Ducks’ spring football game calling the game for the Pac-12 network. He told me he thinks UO quarterback Bo Nix will start the season opener at Georgia, but he’s not ready to hand Ty Thompson the role of No. 2 quarterback. In fact, Aliotti ranked the performances of the Oregon spring game like this:

1.  Bo Nix

2.  Jay Butterfield

3.  Ty Thompson

 

Keep an eye on that race. Former Oregon Assistant Nate Costa told me that he’s a big fan of Butterfield, too.

 

Said Costa: “He’s the son of a coach. He understands offense. I think he also has a photographic memory and can kind of build plays in his head and he processes information really well. What Ty has in arm strength Jay has in accuracy and ball placement… I think he’s someone players gravitate towards. He’s one of those guys you don’t notice in years one, two, three but in years four and five you say, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s draft-able.”

 

---

More good stuff…

 

• I also asked Aliotti for his NFL Draft analysis of Kayvon Thibodeaux. Aliotti said he likes Thibodeaux’s first step and pass rushing ability but said, “I thought he was very, very disruptive but there were other games where he disappeared. To be an elite guy you have to show up every weekend. Good player. He’ll go early because of his pass rush skills but to me there are a few holes.”

 

• Mike Yam of the NFL Network is a big fan of Thibodeaux and thinks he’ll be a star at the next level. Yam will join me today on the statewide radio show at 4 p.m. PT today. Tune into 750-AM in Portland or listen in Eugene (1050-AM), Klamath Falls (960-AM) and Roseburg (1490-AM). Or you can stream the show live 3p-6p weekdays

 

• Don’t be surprised when Washington State president Kirk Schulz emerges as a candidate for the NCAA president job. Schulz is smart, understands sports, and would be a breath of fresh air. There is one problem out of his control, though. Outgoing president Mark Emmert came to the NCAA from the University of Washington. Would the NCAA turn to the Pacific Northwest twice?

[Steven A]

On 4/27/2022 at 12:10 PM, Charles Fischer said:

after spending 12 years carefully running the entity in circles

I think there is a typo, "ruining" not "running"!

[idontrollonshobbas]

I have worked in higher ed for 25 years.  Strategic Change Management is not a strength of college administrators.  In fact, I think they are genetically engineered to be the opposite of that.  The exception is Mitch Daniels at Purdue.

 

 

[MaiTaiDuck]

On 4/27/2022 at 12:10 PM, Charles Fischer said:

Commissioner George Kliavkoff has some moxie doesn't he?   Interesting comments by Nate Costa about Butterfield....

 

 

The NCAA is getting a new boss. Mark Emmert announced he’s leaving the post after spending 12 years carefully running the entity in circles. He’ll stay on the job until June 2023 or whenever the NCAA hires his replacement. Sports Illustrated called Emmert a “calamitous captain.” The New York Times termed his impending exit “stormy.”

 

Yahoo columnist Dan Wetzel wrote that Emmert’s tenure was marked with “inertia, ineffectiveness and incompetence.”

 

Yup. But Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff may have best summarized the scene with a tweet on Tuesday night. Wrote Kliavkoff: “As the Wizard of Westwood once said…” and the commissioner posted a John Wooden quote that read, “Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.”

 

It was more scalpel than sledgehammer. But Kliavkoff got his point across beautifully.

 

 

 

Emmert, 69, got a contract extension by his Board of Governors a year ago. It was supposed to carry him through 2025. Make no mistake, this was a calculated and shove out the door by the NCAA. It couldn’t afford to wait a day longer.

 

Emmert will be treated like a piñata in the coming months. He deserves it. His failure to lead has left the NCAA an eroded mess. Athletic directors have been crying for new leadership for years. They’re now looking to federal lawmakers for help in trying to reel in a name, image, likeness dynamic that has pitted wealthy booster groups against each other, buying high school talent on the open market.

 

The NCAA members had to move on Emmert. He couldn’t lead. Nobody would follow him anymore if he tried. These times call for a massive overhaul of major college athletics. The NCAA needs to figure out what it wants to be.

 

The scene was laughable earlier this month when Emmert arrived at the men’s NCAA Tournament Final Four. Kansas won the title and cut down the nets, all while still being under investigation by the NCAA for major infractions that should have been settled long ago.

 

Here’s another one — Portland State and the University of Oregon both fall under the authority of the NCAA. They play each other at times in college football. PSU will report approximately $15 million in athletic department expenses in the next fiscal year amid questions about its future. Oregon will spend in excess of $100 million and have a booster collective helping land six and seven-figure endorsement packages for its athletes.

 

These two animals are not the same. Neither are McNeese State and LSU. We all can plainly see the separation. So why do the “haves” and “have-nots” still operate under the same section of the NCAA handbook?

 

We’re at a critical juncture in NCAA history. Emmert’s replacement doesn’t have to come from the world of college athletics but that person needs to understand it. The hire will also need to be a non-traditional thinker. The times demand it. The NCAA has drifted woefully out of touch with college athletes and I fear that if the entity doesn’t experience a quick correction it will never find its way back.

 

I like that Kliavkoff fired a public brush-back pitch at the NCAA on Tuesday. He’s got some moxie. If Kliavkoff weren’t so new on the job in the Pac-12 I’d wonder if he were the NCAA’s solution. “King George” sees the benefit of rallying people around the notion of change and college athletics desperately needs it.

 

Jennifer Cohen, the Washington athletic director, told me last summer that she was concerned about the direction of the NCAA. Oregon State AD Scott Barnes echoed that in a conversation with me a week ago at the Beavers’ spring game. Washington State’s Pat Chun said he believes it will take congressional intervention to fix college sports. None of what we’re seeing here is a surprise to anyone who is paying attention. Except maybe Emmert’s timeline, which feels unnecessarily extended.

 

He’s gone?

 

But still hanging around?

 

Emmert is paid $51,923 a week — A WEEK — in salary. Like Wooden said… failure isn’t bad by itself. But if you don’t change amid failure, you haven’t got a chance

 

 

DEFENSIVE TAKE: Former Oregon defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti was at the Ducks’ spring football game calling the game for the Pac-12 network. He told me he thinks UO quarterback Bo Nix will start the season opener at Georgia, but he’s not ready to hand Ty Thompson the role of No. 2 quarterback. In fact, Aliotti ranked the performances of the Oregon spring game like this:

1.  Bo Nix

2.  Jay Butterfield

3.  Ty Thompson

 

Keep an eye on that race. Former Oregon Assistant Nate Costa told me that he’s a big fan of Butterfield, too.

 

Said Costa: “He’s the son of a coach. He understands offense. I think he also has a photographic memory and can kind of build plays in his head and he processes information really well. What Ty has in arm strength Jay has in accuracy and ball placement… I think he’s someone players gravitate towards. He’s one of those guys you don’t notice in years one, two, three but in years four and five you say, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s draft-able.”

 

---

More good stuff…

 

• I also asked Aliotti for his NFL Draft analysis of Kayvon Thibodeaux. Aliotti said he likes Thibodeaux’s first step and pass rushing ability but said, “I thought he was very, very disruptive but there were other games where he disappeared. To be an elite guy you have to show up every weekend. Good player. He’ll go early because of his pass rush skills but to me there are a few holes.”

 

• Mike Yam of the NFL Network is a big fan of Thibodeaux and thinks he’ll be a star at the next level. Yam will join me today on the statewide radio show at 4 p.m. PT today. Tune into 750-AM in Portland or listen in Eugene (1050-AM), Klamath Falls (960-AM) and Roseburg (1490-AM). Or you can stream the show live 3p-6p weekdays

 

• Don’t be surprised when Washington State president Kirk Schulz emerges as a candidate for the NCAA president job. Schulz is smart, understands sports, and would be a breath of fresh air. There is one problem out of his control, though. Outgoing president Mark Emmert came to the NCAA from the University of Washington. Would the NCAA turn to the Pacific Northwest twice?

So your telling me Emmert was being paid 56, thousand a week? That's interesting to say the least. I can't fathom the NCAA paying that guy even 5000 thousand a week. That is ridiculous at best. That tells me that money goes everywhere everyday and lots of it to people who shouldn't be getting that big a pay day. People starving homeless and that clueless wonder makes that kind of money. I'm seriously so close to just making better use of my time with any sports period.

[MaiTaiDuck]

So I did the math and Emmert is getting paid 18,951,895 Million a year. Now is this the same guy that owns the heavy hall company like moving houses. I heard that he isn't a nice man at all.

[Jon Joseph]

On 4/27/2022 at 8:06 PM, MaiTaiDuck said:

So I did the math and Emmert is getting paid 18,951,895 Million a year. Now is this the same guy that owns the heavy hall company like moving houses. I heard that he isn't a nice man at all.

Salary $2.7M; bonus (for WHAT I have no idea) earned Mark $2.9M last year.

 

BTW, Shultz' name has also been mentioned for the B12 commissioner job.

[Wrathis]

On 4/27/2022 at 2:10 PM, Charles Fischer said:

Outgoing president Mark Emmert came to the NCAA from the University of Washington.

Given the ineptitude and wholly lackluster results, this should surprise no one. That they (NCAA) would have a butt sniffing, flea infested, mange ridden mutt leading their organization only makes sense. It's like 2 blind people looking for a ditch to jump in...