The NCAA — the organization responsible for the health of collegiate athletics — has found itself embroiled in a myriad of lawsuits of late. Some have been filed over money, like the suit led by former UCLA star Ed O’Bannon, seeking compensation for their likenesses being used in NCAA-licensed products. Others concern the health of student-athletes and the NCAA’s role in preventing concussions. At least ten class-action suits have been filed against the NCAA claiming rules were not enforced, putting players at risk of injury.
While the results of these suits will be telling, the process of fighting them has opened the NCAA up to examination of records and documents submitted in court. To that end, Nathan Fenno of the Washington Times published excerpts from court filings yesterday that display the NCAA as detached at best, and negligent at worst. The money quotes:
“The NCAA denies that it has a legal duty to protect student-athletes,” the document said, “but admits that it was ‘founded to protect young people from the dangerous and exploitative athletic practices of the time.’”
“The NCAA admits that a founding purpose was to protect student-athletes,” the document said.
“The NCAA denies that it has a legal duty to protect student-athletes,” the document said.
The NCAA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, giving them favorable tax status because of their stated purpose of protecting the athletics of its member universities and advocating on behalf of their amateur athletes. Yet, as college football has become immensely profitable and the NCAA as an organization marries itself to television networks that have driven NCAA revenue over $870 million, it’s becoming more and more difficult to decipher who they are actually working to help.
The comments made in these filings should be read more as legal strategy (a denial of culpability) than a true admission of disinterest in the health of its athletes. However, they in line with a troubling trend that is leading many national voices to pine for reform.
The NCAA has stood idly by while college football powers (and ESPN) have manipulated the conference landscape to maximize profits at the expense of financial equality. Their influence has waned and their recent actions have revealed motives of self-preservation more than advancement of their member schools. Their punishment for academic and recruiting violations is inconsistent, if not conspiratorial.
As the criticisms mount, and advocates push for fairness and equality, another storm may be brewing on the NCAA’s flank. Following the creation of the giant football power conferences, several university athletics directors and Big 12 Commission Bob Bowlsby, unsatisfied with the massive amounts of money they were about to make, began floating the possibility of breaking away and forming their own division of college sports. One immune from the burdensome and antiquated policies employed by the NCAA.
All of this speaks to deep-rooted problems within the organization. Problems that the NCAA seems unwilling to acknowledge, let alone solve. These lawsuits will continue to bruise the NCAA. Their public image will continue to suffer, even as many of the suits are likely to get settled out of court. Luckily for the NCAA, they still have a lot of money to pay damages.
