OT: NCAA Ineptitude Reaches a New Level

He's not incompetent. He, like Roger Goodell, is a useful stooge for his employers. By giving up any shred of honesty and toeing the party line like a champ, he allows the legal facade of amateurism to continue. That in turn allows his employers, the big D1 colleges (who wield all the power, no one in Indianapolis gives a shit about Nebraska Wesleyan), to continue making money off the unpaid labor of 18-22 year old men. 

The NCAA is a joke, yes, but if you assume that their main goal is to continue to make millions of dollars without paying their most important employees, they're doing alright. And Emmert's doing his job.

...that the NCAA said that.  I think what they said was, "Yeah...okay".  At this point, I don't believe that the NCAA or the schools are in a position to have completed "a thorough investigation", so the NCAA is essentially say, "it's on you (if it turns out that the player or the coach violated NCAA rules).

...are going to take the "nothing matters" approach that works so well in our country right now and combine totally unbelievable denials of guilt with dares to the NCAA to follow through on the courage of their convictions.  And I fear the NCAA will not have the courage of their convictions (though the recent sanction of Louisville suggests my fear may be unfounded). 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPb8ZjebUP8

Mike Spath tweeted a quote from a school compliance officer that basically said this:

if MSU/NCAA cleared Bridges in 24hrs, all they did was make 2-3 calls to his parents/Bridges, asked if they know of anyone taking money, they all said 'nope' and bang it's been "verified"

it's up to the schools (MSU say) to do all this research*, forward it to the NCAA in a short memo (I'd guess 2 pages max) and then the NCAA says, "okey dokey you're all good." The NCAA doesn't have the staff to be able to do all these inquires themselves, which is why they leave it to the schools to do it.

* note, as Spath quoted in his tweet, that the Univ compliance people have no interest in finding the truth, just in clearing the player which means asking as few questions and do as little research as possible.

As Emmert said, they haven't investigated anyone.  The schools all reached out with their own reports and asked if they should be sitting the named players based on whatever data their compliance departments pulled together in 24-48 hours.  

The NCAA will absolutely not rush into any investigations here because they realize the FBI has subpoena power and is gathering evidence for them - evidence that may not become fully available to them for 2-3 more years (if ever).  The last thing they are going to do is start suspending (or telling schools to sit) players based on partial evidence from a Yahoo story.  What happens if they give Bridges a 4 game suspension, and it turns out Dawkins was fudging his expense reports to steal from his boss?  Or they hand out a 4 game suspension and it turns out there's proof he got paid $100k and the punishment is nowhere near suitable for the offense? (Ignore the fact he's gone after a few more games)

What will happen is 3 or so years from the NCAA will crack down on these players by forcing their teams to vacate wins, while the players are 2 years into their NBA contracts and endorsement deals, and the coaches who know they're cooked are either in prison for fraud/tax evasion or (if the FBI exposes them for serious cheating but no crimes committed) sipping cocktails in some tropical paradise.  The NCAA does not have subpoena power, nobody is ever honest with them and theres pretty much nothing they can do about it, and their #1 interest is money which is made by having star players on the court.  

Players will either be paid, or allowed endorsement deals/loans in the VERY near future or else star players will bypass the NCAA in hordes.

Emmert is voted in by university presidents and his focus is on keeping them happy and the money flowing in. They'll punish a few schools here and there but the rest of the Dukes and msu's will claim "how could we have known anything?" and nothing will happen to them.

No way K or Izzo would be stupid enough to be recorded like Miller.

and everyone else was doing it - I believe Beilein wouldn't.  He is just that kind of character guy. 

He is an awesome hybrid of Bo Schembechler and Mr. Rogers.

I would rather "fans" like you left and found another school to root for. You simply don't get it.

I think it's fair for the NCAA to say, "we aren't going to force a school to sit a player until we've had a chance to gather the relevant information," and maybe they haven't because who knows what is being shared with whom.

At the same time, he's making it sound like this whole story is a bunch of wild accusations. He should have just shut his mouth after the first part.

Agreed. 

It is similar in that I wouldn't have blamed the NCAA to have simply said "we won't force MSU to sit Bridges until we have had a chance to do a thorough investigation of the allegations." But to say they "cleared" him makes it sound like they actually did do a thorough investigation, which doesn't seem to jive with reality.

Headed out to San Diego next week, son graduates bootcamp MCRD, Semper Fi Go Blue.