NCAA President Mark Emmert this morning said the current system that “oversees the compliance with the rules of amateurism is clearly not working in fundamental ways.” Appearing on ESPN Radio’s “Mike & Mike in the Morning,” Emmert noted there have been a “number of highly sensational cases” in recent months regarding schools committing NCAA violations, including yesterday's report concerning a Univ. of Miami booster providing gifts to dozens of players over the last eight years. Emmert: “We’ve got people in and around programs that are engaging in ways that are utterly unacceptable. We have had a whole string of these kind of high-profile cases that are very, very disturbing and you can’t look at that and say the system is working well. It’s not. It’s one of the reasons I got together a group of presidents last week to talk about it. … We talked very directly about a system that it is in serious need of serious repair.” He noted there was a “clear, strong agreement among all the presidents” at last week’s meeting there needs to be a “set of rules that are clear, that focus on the things that matter and not on the things that don’t matter.” Emmert: “We’ve got to clean out a rule book that has a variety of extraneous, unenforceable rules in it and focus on those things that are serious threats to the integrity of collegiate athletics, and then we have to have not just an enforcement process, but penalties that provide real, severe disincentives. Right now, my fear is that we have coaches and people around programs who are sitting doing a cost-benefit analysis about whether or not it’s worth trying to cheat.” He noted there is a “very clear appetite for stronger, more severe penalties that effect the kind of things that people really care about, whether it’s playing time, whether it’s career-changing penalties, whether it’s ability to be on television, whether it’s death sentences.” Emmert: “We have to look at all of those tools that are at our disposal and find ways of matching up penalties that fit the violations that provide a legitimate deterrence” (“Mike & Mike in the Morning,” ESPN Radio, 8/17).
FACING REALIGNMENT HEAD ON: Big East Commissioner John Marinatto said that he "has been in constant contact" with Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe and ACC Commissioner John Swofford "in recent days and has suggested the three meet to discuss conference realignment." Marinatto said, "I thought it would be important for us to meet face-to-face and take the lead in trying to do things the right way." The AP's Ralph Russo reported Marinatto also has spoken with Emmert, but he said that Emmert is "not planning to hold any meetings with conference commissioners" on realignment (AP, 8/16).
