NCAA President Mark Emmert described college basketball's recruiting model as "'dysfunctional, as well as the relationship between apparel companies such as Adidas," according to Julian Benbow of the BOSTON GLOBE. Emmert yesterday was at Harvard for a panel that "explored the relationship between athletics and higher education." Emmert was joined by Ivy League Exec Dir Robin Harris, UConn President Susan Herbst and Robert Morris President Chris Howard. Emmert: "I find it impossible to believe that the only way people can sell shoes is by bribing youngsters, but that seems to be where some people have digressed now. We saw what’s most despicable to me coaches who make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year taking $10,000, $20,000 bribes to take advantage of the trusting relationship that a young person has in them to send it toward an agent or a financial adviser who unequivocally doesn’t have their best interest at heart. And when you see that, you say, ‘What in the world’s going on with that set of relationships there?’" Harris said, "While the allegations are incredibly troubling and, if true, terrible -- and they need to be addressed and I think they will be addressed -- it’s cyclical, it’s happened before. The Pony Express (at SMU). It went to the governor’s office with case payments to football players and that was, oh my gosh, the end of college football. Well, the NCAA policed that and SMU got the only death penalty and it’s taken SMU decades to recover." Howard: "I hope the FBI comes in and cleans house and fires a lot of people. I'll be honest with you. I hope a lot of people get in trouble over this" (BOSTON GLOBE, 10/17).
TAKING AN INTERNAL LOOK: In K.C., Jesse Newell reports the NCAA has directed all D-I programs to "examine their men’s basketball programs for potential rules violations" following the FBI's probe of the sport. Univ. of Kansas AD Sheahon Zenger said that the NCAA BOD also was requiring all D-I institutions to "look at the conduct of their men’s basketball coaching staffs and administrators to ensure compliance with NCAA rules" (K.C. STAR, 10/17).
