by Kent Sterling In the midst of an academic scandal, fans of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are borrowing liberally from the disgraceful and unprincipled playbook of the Richard Nixon presidency. Last night, I was watching the excellent “Nixon by Nixon – In His Own Words” documentary on HBO as my iPhone […]
by Kent Sterling Winning press conferences is not too tough. You state your goal, talk about how it will be achieved, and then walk confidently from the room. Indiana Football coaches have won a hell of a lot more press conferences than games over the past 20 years, but things feel different in 2014. The […]
by Kent Sterling Allowing bureaucrats unfettered access to a microphone is always an adventure, and Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby took advantage with a rambling diatribe that accused the NCAA enforcement staff of being inert in the battle against cheating. “Enforcement is broken,” Bowlsby said. “The infractions committee hasn’t had a hearing in almost a […]
by Kent Sterling College football and men’s basketball players who toil for programs belonging to the Big Five conferences (SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and ACC) are being exploited to the tune of billions, and many are being forced into sham classes and majors that serve as worthless compensation for the money their athletic […]
by Kent Sterling NCAA President Mark Emmert has been dealt a bad hand – the kind of hand that Phil Ivey could not bluff into a winner. He is forced to spew blather that defies logic in an effort to perpetuate the bold lie of amateurism in collegiate sports. As the head of a member […]
by Kent Sterling For the majority of college athletes, the NCAA does its job quite nicely. Athletes earn degrees and learn the incredibly important lessons that the adversity of competing provides. The school gets notoriety, a marketing platform, and a campus esprit de corps. Players get education. Nice. But rules aren’t written to provide cover […]
by Kent Sterling The Big Ten made a few smart calls today by announcing the conference football championship will be played in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium through 2021, and that the women’s basketball tournament will be held at Bankers Life Fieldhouse from 2017-2022. When a city has been built specifically as a host site […]
by Kent Sterling There is going to come a breaking point in this process of separation between the 65 big conference schools and the other NCAA Division One schools, and it moved a couple of steps closer with a letter authored by the Pac-12 presidents that was sent to the other 53 presidents of the […]
by Kent Sterling The great Pauly Balst called and texted this morning demanding that something be done to help Boise State football recruit Antoine Turner. The kid is homeless, and living in a car until he is allowed to report to campus. “We need to put him up until he gets to report to Boise. […]
by Kent Sterling The NCAA was a miscast target of one of the greatest collegiate athletes of all time. Hall of famer Jim Brown correctly feels that college football and men’s basketball players are exploited, but hanging responsibility on the Indianapolis based organization that oversees college athletics misses the mark. NCAA president Mark Emmert and […]