The Nittany Turkey

Primarily about Penn State football, this is a tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

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Home Archives for Mark Emmert

CBS Sports: Emmert needs to go

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“If they believe that action should be taken toward me or anyone else in the organization they are free to do that.” —Mark Emmert

Dennis Dodd, Senior College Football Columnist for CBSSports.com, calls a spade a spade: “the NCAA is guilty of failure to monitor and lack of institutional control.”

At today’s press conference, Dodd wanted to ask how much Emmert knew and when he knew it, but was cut off and never got to ask it. But his point is well taken, and it resonates with my own feelings about Emmert shirking blame in this case, despicably shitcanning an underling as a scapegoat to divert the attention from his own malfeasance. Dodd and I both believe that Emmert must now step down, as too much hypocritical shit has gone down on his watch.

Says Dodd:

The NCAA executive committee, which employs Mark Emmert at its leisure, … has leverage.

“If they believe that action should be taken toward me or anyone else in the organization they are free to do that,” Emmert said.

Is that a statement or a dare?

Read about it here. Thanks to Joe for the link.

NCAA cans VP who screwed up Miami investigation

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Well, folks, the NCAA internal review ordered by its leader, Mark Emmert, is done, and the scapegoat properly identified, as expected. ?????????? ??????? As those of us who have run consulting assignments know, the ostensible object of the assignment is one thing and the actual desiredresult is another. In this case, it was a “who shall we fire to deflect public criticism from Mark Emmert” assignment.

The result? Vice President of Enforcement Julie Roe Lach got the ax. See the Yahoo Sports story on the subject.

So, what do you think? Emmert comes off as the enforcer’s enforcer and slithers cleanly away from any culpability himself? ??? ???? ????? ?? ???????? You’re thinking like I’m thinking. ????? ???? ?????? Emmert is the “Teflon Don” of the NCAA.

Julie is the fourth member of the NCAA investigative staff to go to the guillotine, voluntarily or not. Her severance follows the dismissals of Ameen Najjar (who also botched the Miami case), Abigail Grantstein (whose boyfriend bragged that she had the power to deny UCLA’s Shabazz Muhammad the right to play), and Bill Benjamin, whose short, eight-month tenure as director of enforcement turned quite a few heads, lemme tellya.

Lach was well-respected and broadly regarded as competent. Nevertheless, someone’s head had to roll and you can be damn sure it wasn’t going to be Emmert’s.

I would say that the NCAA is more screwed up than ever, and this scapegoat-seeking review did nothing to dispel that notion. In fact, by taking the action he did, Emmert affirmed the notion.

Meanwhile, Emmert is doing additional damage control by “initiating the process of seeking feedback from NCAA member schools about the best way for [the enforcement arm] of the association to operate.” Expect that to go in one ear and out the other.

Jonathan Duncan has been named interim vice president of enforcement. Anyone want to predict how long he’ll last?

Read more in ESPN.com.

By the way, I’m not the only one who believes that Emmert is hiding behind the contrived culpability of his underlings for the sorry state of the NCAA. He is a grand scale shirker. Dana O’Neil of ESPN has some interesting opinions on the subject.

 

Davy Jones Changes Tune

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While I ordinarily don’t write about other writers, I’m writing this because I find a recent not-so-subtle shift in position by the Patriot-News’ David Jones to potentially be a harbinger of a broad turn of media sentiments against the NCAA. The resulting pressure could benefit Penn State inasmuch as reducing the draconian penalties imposed last summer might be a face-saving move by Mark Emmert as media criticism mounts against the hypocritical NCAA and its Chief Hypocrite.

Jones hit two major points in an opinion piece published in his blog last Friday. First, morality and “the rules” don’t apply to the machinations of the NCAA and its leader. Second, the whole premise of the NCAA, to promote amateur collegiate athletics and protect participants from rampant commercialism is mere tongue-in-cheek hypocrisy. Hell, the major source of NCAA revenue is the annual basketball tournament. If that isn’t using amateur athletes for profit, what the hell is?

What I’m thinking is that the change in tune for Jones is significant because he was one of those who initially agreed that Penn State President Rod Erickson did the right thing by accepting his punishment and going to bed without dessert, but now he sort of kind of said that was probably necessary at the time maybe because the public sentiment demanded it. However, now that the public sentiment (however that is measured) has seemingly turned against the NCAA, Jones is hopping on that bandwagon. I think it is a good thing. One by one, the detractors are coming back into the fold. Jones’ target shifting from Penn State to the NCAA is a major win for the good guys. ESPN is showing signs of cracking, too.

So, with things heading in the right direction, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett’s antitrust suit against the NCAA is a stroke of legal and political genius. Way to go, Corbett! Great timing, dude! I believe that the “public sentiment” turning sour on the NCAA will create a favorable climate for moving forward. What fun this will be.

Want to read Jones’ article? Check out “Mark Emmert comes off as biggest fraud as NCAA investigates itself.”