NCAA observers are watching closely to see how the association handles allegations that a former Alabama football player accepted impermissible benefits while at the school.
NCAA President Mark Emmert has a special relationship with Alabama head football coach Nick Saban.
As chancellor at LSU from 1999 to 2004, Emmert hired Saban as his football coach and eventually helped make him the highest-paid coach in the nation at $2.3 million.
"Chancellor Emmert is absolutely the best boss I've ever had," Saban said at LSU in 2004. "He's the most significant reason I was interested in the job. Never once has he disappointed me."
But how will that relationship work out now?
Saban's program at Alabama has a problem that might draw attention from Emmert's NCAA. According to a recent report by Yahoo Sports, one of Saban's best players, D.J. Fluker, took money and gifts at Alabama in 2012 — a possible rules violation that could draw a penalty as serious as the NCAA ordering Alabama to vacate last season's national title. An assistant Alabama strength coach also recently was placed on leave for providing an impermissible short-term loan to a football player, according to The Tuscaloosa News.
It's another tough spot for the NCAA. Not only are its rules of amateurism under attack in federal court, but cases like this also present a recurring challenge to the organization's image — the perception of bias when enforcing those rules. Close relationships among power brokers fuel that perception, especially because NCAA justice is meted out by peers in the small world of college sports. The perception grows when justice seems to be handled differently for different schools. In the past few years, the NCAA has faced criticism about how it punished — or didn't punish — various schools compared to others, including Penn State, Southern California and a pending case at Miami (Fla.).
Alabama has two perceived friends in high places: Emmert and Alabama graduate Derrick Crawford, a director of enforcement for the NCAA. In the outside world, it's akin to being accused of a crime and having the charges investigated at the police station where your uncle is the police chief and your friend is the top detective.
"That's why (the NCAA) probably will handle this case very carefully — because of the perception," said Michael Buckner, a private attorney in Miami who specializes in NCAA cases. "They're probably going to err on the side of caution, so that nothing they do could be seen as being improper."
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NCAA President Mark Emmert has a special relationship with Alabama head football coach Nick Saban.
As chancellor at LSU from 1999 to 2004, Emmert hired Saban as his football coach and eventually helped make him the highest-paid coach in the nation at $2.3 million.
"Chancellor Emmert is absolutely the best boss I've ever had," Saban said at LSU in 2004. "He's the most significant reason I was interested in the job. Never once has he disappointed me."
But how will that relationship work out now?
Saban's program at Alabama has a problem that might draw attention from Emmert's NCAA. According to a recent report by Yahoo Sports, one of Saban's best players, D.J. Fluker, took money and gifts at Alabama in 2012 — a possible rules violation that could draw a penalty as serious as the NCAA ordering Alabama to vacate last season's national title. An assistant Alabama strength coach also recently was placed on leave for providing an impermissible short-term loan to a football player, according to The Tuscaloosa News.
It's another tough spot for the NCAA. Not only are its rules of amateurism under attack in federal court, but cases like this also present a recurring challenge to the organization's image — the perception of bias when enforcing those rules. Close relationships among power brokers fuel that perception, especially because NCAA justice is meted out by peers in the small world of college sports. The perception grows when justice seems to be handled differently for different schools. In the past few years, the NCAA has faced criticism about how it punished — or didn't punish — various schools compared to others, including Penn State, Southern California and a pending case at Miami (Fla.).
Alabama has two perceived friends in high places: Emmert and Alabama graduate Derrick Crawford, a director of enforcement for the NCAA. In the outside world, it's akin to being accused of a crime and having the charges investigated at the police station where your uncle is the police chief and your friend is the top detective.
"That's why (the NCAA) probably will handle this case very carefully — because of the perception," said Michael Buckner, a private attorney in Miami who specializes in NCAA cases. "They're probably going to err on the side of caution, so that nothing they do could be seen as being improper."
Continue Reading the article with a click...
