NCAA is dying but the Pac-12 goes down first
Ed Stein
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College athletics, as many fans know it, is dying. Unfortunately, the Pac-12 Conference won’t be around when it finally kicks the bucket.
The landscape of big-time college athletics is like the Wild West right now, anything goes. Rule 1 is there are no rules. Money is changing hands rapidly and the NCAA has no way to track what’s clean and what isn’t. And they don’t want to, as evidenced by two recent events.
First, the NCAA passed a new constitution in January, letting each Division govern itself. Instead of running everything, the “new” NCAA will put on championships and negotiate broadcast deals.
I have no love for how the NCAA ran college athletics. They were arbitrary, inconsistent, and hypocritical. But someone has to be in charge to level the competitive playing field.
Dr. Mark Emmert, President of the NCAA saw the handwriting on the wall and bailed. He won’t be the captain who goes down with his ship, Emmert more like the rat that scurried off of it. His stewardship of college athletics was and is shameful. But he’ll be gone in June. In other words, the sheriff is dead and outlaws run the town.
Pac-12 commissioner's tweet after Mark Emmert announced he was stepping down.
Dan Wetzel called Emmert's reign "incompetent" and defined by ineffectiveness and inertia.
SI called him a "calamitous captain."
Others said worse. I stand by mine: Stuffed suit/Place holder/Bye. https://t.co/6vOOvADowx
— Mark Schipper – 5th Down CFB (@5thDownCFB) April 27, 2022
The Pac-12
Before the NCAA ship sinks, the Pac-12 will go first. It’s a shame that an entity that for so long was an integral part of college sports will suffer through a horrible death.
Trying to get 12 college administrations to agree on anything is like herding cats. But these cats are of varied size and ferocity. Some are kittens and others are lions.
Some Pac-12 schools can and will adapt to a changing landscape such as Oregon, Washington, and USC,. Then, there are other schools like Stanford, Cal, and UCLA that will firmly plant their feet and resist. The dichotomy will rip the conference apart.
Let’s get specific, there are several reasons why the Pac-12 precedes the NCAA in death.