How many NCAA officials does it take to change a light bulb?
Zero. It doesn't need changing. They decided the bulb isn't really out, it just looks that way to you and me.
Okay, so maybe that was a little lame. But hidden behind my feeble attempt at humor (yes, I made that joke up myself) lies a bit of truth.
In its quest to uphold a set of ideals, the NCAA has gotten really good at ignoring reality.
Take, for instance, the case of Mike Williams.
Williams, an All-American wide receiver at Southern California, declared for the NFL draft and left school last spring on the heels of a court ruling that opened the door for underclassmen to enter the draft. The NFL had a rule in place that required a player to be at least three years removed from his high school graduation before he could throw his name in. A court ruling in the case of former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett held that the NFL's rule was unacceptable, thus paving the way for younger players.
Williams, a consensus first-round pick, left school soon after the decision was handed down. But an appellate court reviewing the Clarett case later reversed the decision and upheld the NFL's rule.
That left Williams in a lurch. He had withdrawn from school and he had hired an agent. In the eyes of the NCAA, those are Cardinal sins.
Williams applied for reinstatement, but was denied less than 48 hours after he submitted his official request. The NCAA points to issues of amateurism and academics as the reasoning behind the denial.
That's all well and good. Those issues are real. The NCAA has well-established rules regarding amateurism and academics.
The problem lies in the fact that these issues, despite their inherent reality and the rules that come with it, don't fit into a larger reality that dominates today's college sports landscape.
That reality is far different than the one the NCAA clings to. The idea of amateurism in the big-money world of college football and basketball is sometimes laughable. And the belief that big-time college athletes go to school for the education is just as bad.
The NCAA desperately wants to believe that college athletes never take any money, that they work just as hard in the classroom as they do on the field or the court.
Desperately is the key word there. The NCAA wants to uphold its original ideals so badly that it enforces its rules as rigidly as possible and almost without exception. It uses a strong-armed approach to beat its member institutions into submission. It makes examples of offenders so that everyone will be afraid to challenge the mighty NCAA. And, worst of all, it loses sight of its purpose.
The NCAA can only blame itself. College sports -- especially football and men's basketball -- have gotten far too big for their britches. And for a long time, the NCAA let the growth go unchecked.
Now the NCAA is trying desperately to re-exert its influence. But the leaders of the organization are going about things in the wrong way. They're stuck inside the box, and can't think outside of it. They've chased their ideals so far that they can't see the reality.
They're essentially putting tiny band-aids on gigantic bullet holes.
The reality of college sports has changed dramatically, but the NCAA refuses to change with it.
In the case of Mike Williams, the repercussions shouldn't have a huge impact. He will likely still get drafted next year. But the fact remains -- the NCAA stuck to the letter of the law when it had a chance to instead look at the spirit of the law and the big picture.
It had a chance to live up to one of its primary goals: to protect student-athletes through standards of fairness and integrity.
Protect? Keeping Mike Williams out of school because he was doing what a court of law said he could do is protecting him?
Well, maybe we shouldn't be surprised.
The NCAA's reality is different, so its dictionary probably is, too.
September 1, 2004
Amy Shaw:
What are you suggesting, that NCAA athletes should be allowed to sign with agents and those pesky classes should be forgotten? Just because there is money to be made as the college game becomes more and more of a cash cow, that does not mean that the NCAA is obligated to sit by and watch student athletes become professionals.
I don’t see what is desperate or unrealistic about insisting that student athletes be students, or that they remain amateurs. Mike Williams did not do either of those things. Everyone wants to point at how the NCAA was awful to Williams, but Williams knew that the decision being overturned was a possibility. If he wanted to cover his bases and remain eligible, he should have stayed in class and waited to hire an agent. But he took money from an agent, and he dropped out of school. As soon as he did those things, he was no longer a student-athlete.
You say that the NCAA failed to protect Williams. I say that, by making the tough decision to make Williams, a marquee player who would certainly be good for the NCAA revenue-wise, ineligible, the NCAA made a sacrifice in order to protect numerous other players who may have made foolish decisions. The NCAA protected every college athlete who competes in good faith, who makes a commitment on the field, in the classroom, and in his or her heart.