Bob Bowlsby is the commissioner of the Big 12. At the recent NCAA meetings in Arlington Texas in conjunction with the Final Four activities, Bowlsby had a few choice words for Mark Emmert and the current NCAA administration and they weren’t all good.
Now Bob Bowlsby is a tough guy. He was on the wrestling team at the University of Iowa in his college days and he is taking on the NCAA head on. Why would he want to do that? Well, given the current state of the NCAA, someone has got to do something.
Number one thing on the agenda would be to give the NCAA some definition which it is presently clearly lacking. A general tweaking of the powers that be is also obviously called for. After the successive follies of Penn State and Miami, someone needs to step in and bring back the high level of respect that the NCAA once commanded. Could that someone be Mr. Bowlsby?
Bowlsby did bring up some issues that Emmert’s office has been busily trying to sweep under the rug for months now. There are major changes coming to college athletics and, unless the NCAA faces up to them, it could spell some very troubled days ahead for the association ostensibly set up to protect student athletes.
One of the most pressing issues facing the NCAA is the question of what will be happening to the 286 smaller schools which have been left out of the BCS and must operate in the shadow of the big Universities which are raking in a disproportionate share of football revenues in America.
With head coaches at major BCS universities making between five to seven million bucks a year now and the Universities bring in over a $150 million in annual revenues, the smaller schools simply do not stand a competitive chance.
Perhaps we will end up with a stratified system where only the major universities will compete against each other for the big bucks and the smaller schools will be left with their own brand of athletics which will have to exist without much help from major media.
Some of the changes advocated by Mr. Bowlsby included a revision of the 40 year old NCAA recruiting guidelines to take advantage of modern media advancements. He also came out very strongly on the subject of single semester sports, referring mostly to basketball which maintains an overly long season.
In closing, Bowlsby called the NCAA ‘an organization that really doesn’t serve anybody’s interests or needs.”
