[Vision2020] More N.C.A.A. ‘Justice’

[Art Deco]

  [image: The New York Times] <http://www.nytimes.com/>
 Reprints<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/14/opinion/nocera-more-ncaa-justice.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212&pagewanted=print#>


------------------------------
January 13, 2012
More N.C.A.A. ‘Justice’ By JOE
NOCERA<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/columns/josephnocera/?inline=nyt-per>

Last week’s case
study<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/07/opinion/nocera-ncaas-justice-system.html?_r=1>in
N.C.A.A.<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_collegiate_athletic_assn/index.html?inline=nyt-org>injustice
took place at the University of North Carolina, where every sport
is big time. Today, we move north to a different kind of institution, St.
Joseph’s University <http://www.sju.edu/>, a small Jesuit-run school in
Philadelphia. With fewer than 5,000 undergraduates, St. Joe’s doesn’t even
field a football team, but its little-engine-that-could basketball team has
long been a source of pride. During the 2003-4 season, for instance, it
went 27-0 in the regular season and made it to the regional final of the
N.C.A.A. championship tournament.

In 2008, Todd O’Brien, a 7-foot center, transferred from Bucknell, where he
had played as a freshman, to St. Joe’s. After sitting out a year, which the
N.C.A.A. requires when a player switches schools, he played the next two
seasons at St. Joe’s. His coach, Phil
Martelli<http://www.sjuhawks.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/martelli_phil00.html>,
gave him plenty of playing time in his first year, but in his second year
the team struggled, O’Brien played poorly and he wound up mostly on the
bench.

He also graduated with a major in economics. Yet because of the year he sat
out, he still had a year of athletic eligibility left — and he still wanted
to play basketball. The athletic department’s academic advisers suggested
that he delay graduation and fill his final year with courses like pottery,
O’Brien told me. He had larger ambitions, however. He wanted to get a
graduate degree in public administration. St. Joe’s didn’t have a suitable
program, but O’Brien found one to his liking at the University of Alabama
at Birmingham. The basketball coaching staff there was excited to have him
join the team for his final season of college basketball.

There was one problem, however. Even though O’Brien was a bench warmer,
Martelli, O’Brien said, was furious when he found out the player was
leaving. As O’Brien later recounted to Sports
Illustrated<http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/basketball/ncaa/12/19/todd.obrien/index.html>,
when he told his coach that he was going to be attending Alabama-Birmingham
for graduate school, Martelli responded with an expletive-laced tirade,
vowing to block him from finishing his course work, and even threatening to
sue him.

In a second meeting a few days later, according to O’Brien and his lawyer,
Martelli told him that he would either “be playing at St. Joe’s next year
or not playing anywhere.” O’Brien had already ascertained that there was no
N.C.A.A. impediment to him playing for another school. It has a special
rule for athletes like him — graduate students with remaining eligibility —
allowing them to enroll in another university without having to sit out a
year. The rule also states, though, that the player’s previous school has
to agree to “release” him. St. Joe’s, clearly acting at Martelli’s behest,
refused to sign the necessary paperwork.

Let’s put aside the question of why college athletes usually have to sit
out a year when they transfer, even though coaches can switch schools at
the drop of a hat. That’s a column for another day. Let’s focus instead on
O’Brien’s plight. How can a student who has graduated from one institution
be prevented from participating in an extracurricular activity at a
different school? How can a miffed coach’s pique control the activities of
a student who doesn’t even play for him anymore? Can a music teacher who is
angry at a violin student prevent him from playing in another school’s
orchestra? The very idea is absurd. Why is it any less absurd when the
student is an athlete? Why is it any less wrong? Yet that is precisely what
the N.C.A.A.’s rules make possible.

And which it then reinforces with its own iron fist. Unable to persuade St.
Joe’s to change its mind, O’Brien appealed to the N.C.A.A. Did the
N.C.A.A., which purports to care about the welfare of its
“student-athletes,” take stern action against St. Joe’s? Of course
not<http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/seth_davis/01/09/Todd.O.Brien/index.html>.


In response to O’Brien’s appeal, St. Joe’s submitted a letter complaining,
among other things, that his transfer was done for “athletic reasons”
rather than academic ones. Though that clearly is untrue, so what if it had
been? Why should his reason matter? Nevertheless, the N.C.A.A. sided with
the school. An N.C.A.A. spokeswoman sent me a statement saying, “St.
Joseph’s opposition was an important factor” in denying O’Brien’s request.
Which only makes sense, since coaches, not athletes, are the N.C.A.A.’s
real constituency. (She also said that the N.C.A.A. would review the case
again this week.) For its part, St. Joe’s has refused to discuss the
situation, citing “privacy laws.”

In a column in The Wall Street Journal this
week<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204257504577151212467142838.html?mod=googlenews_wsj>,
Mark Emmert, the N.C.A.A. president, complained about unnamed critics who
were calling for players to be paid — gee, who could he be referring
to?<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/lets-start-paying-college-athletes.html>—
and said that the N.C.A.A. had to come up with solutions “that reflect
our values.” Its real values are reflected in cases like Todd O’Brien’s.
There are a hundred others just like his.

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, a small Catholic school has disgraced itself
because it won’t stand up to its bully of a basketball coach.

  [image: DCSIMG]


-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20120114/e482fe9d/attachment.html>