ACC commissioner calls for ‘complete holistic review of NCAA’
With more changes coming to college sports over the past two years than in several decades, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said a serious look at the NCAA’s governing structure is needed.
“This is the right time to have a complete holistic review of NCAA, leadership, structure, what we want to do moving forward,” Phillips said Wednesday morning during at the ACC Kickoff event.
Phillips said the examination of the NCAA should occur with “no predetermined outcomes” about what the future holds.
Since Phillips replaced the retired John Swofford as the ACC’s commissioner in February, the NCAA moved to allow athletes to benefit financially from their name, image and likeness for the first time. That move came as a result of legislation in a number of states around the country.
In June, the Supreme Court ruled the NCAA’s bylaws that limited education-related compensation for athletes was unconstitutional. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in his opinion, wrote that NCAA rules barring other types of compensation could also be overturned if they are challenged in the legal system.
The NCAA has also removed rules that previously forced athletes in football and men’s and women’s basketball to sit out a year if they transferred before receiving their undergraduate degree.
Last week, according to the Associated Press, NCAA president Mark Emmert said it’s time to consider decentralizing the NCAA’s structure.
“When you have an environment like that it just forces us to think more about what constraints should be put in place ever on college athletes. And it should be the bare minimum,” Emmert said.
Phillips said Wednesday the whole structure should be examined and re-imagined, from governance to enforcement.
“What is the governance structure, do we have the right governance structure, one size fits all?” Phillips said. “Is the (NCAA) council working? They’re working incredibly hard, but is that the right structure?”
On enforcement, Phillips said the long process means the penalties handed down in infractions cases too often penalize people who had nothing to do with the issues.
“I’m getting ready to go in August with one of our schools to Indianapolis (for an infractions case),” Phillips said. “Some of those student-athletes on that team that will be subjected to whatever penalties potentially could be handed down were in middle school. Were in middle school! So timeliness, fairness in the system.”
He hinted that more changes are coming to the NCAA and to how college sports are managed. So now is the time to think big.
“Again, this would be a great time,” Phillips said. “President Emmert has kind of called for it, a recalibration of the NCAA. I think we should take him up on that opportunity and let’s work collaboratively with the NCAA, with our conferences, with our presidents, athletic directors and such. Let’s spend the next eight, twelve months figuring this thing out.”
This story was originally published July 21, 2021 at 10:46 AM with the headline "ACC commissioner calls for ‘complete holistic review of NCAA’."