NCAA College Basketball Commission recommendations will be broadcasted live

The NCAA Commission on College Basketball will broadcast their recommendations to fix NCAAB on Wednesday, April 25th.

The NCAA Division I Council met last week in Indianapolis to decide on recruiting rule changes and other necessary decisions which need to be made for the upcoming season. The changes that are supposed to give the student-athlete a better recruiting process were supported by the national Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. For all sports other than basketball and football, the student-athlete can take “official visits now can begin Sept. 1 of a prospect’s junior year in high school instead of the first day of classes for senior year.”

Better yet this council “eliminated restrictions on the sale of alcohol at Division I championships.” Well, that’s something. But there wasn’t much decided on regarding Men’s Basketball, that’s because there is a separate commission focused on NCAAB.

Arizona Wildcats Basketball

On October 11th, 2017, President Mark Emmert and the NCAA published a statement on the Formation of a Commission on College Basketball. This Commission was set up in response to the FBI Investigation and indictments including Arizona Basketball’s assistant coach. The Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott spoke about the formation of this commission at the Pac-12 Media Days. The reason Emmert gave for why he set up the commission is as follows:

"The recent news of a federal investigation into fraud in college basketball made it very clear the NCAA needs to make substantive changes to the way we operate, and do so quickly. Individuals who break the trust on which college sports is based have no place here. While I believe the vast majority of coaches follow the rules, the culture of silence in college basketball enables bad actors, and we need them out of the game. We must take decisive action. This is not a time for half-measures or incremental change."

Emmert had to say something, and he is right, but the NCAA has turned a blind eye to whats been going on for decades. A booster, Sam Gilbert, was caught giving money to players during John Wooden’s tenure at UCLA and we all know how well that worked out for the Bruins; ten National Championships.

Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James came out and mentioned that he would have made money going to play college ball and called the NCAA corrupt.

The Lakers rookie Kyle Kuzma brushed off questions regarding the FBI investigation when his name came up on a list of players who received a benefit. But his teammate Lonzo Ball came right out with it:

"“Everybody knows everybody’s getting paid,” Ball said Friday morning. “That’s just how it is. Everybody’s getting paid anyway, you might as well make it legal.”"

The Commission on College Basketball has been focused on three areas:

"Apparel companies and other commercial entities, to establish an environment where they can support programs in a transparent way, but not become an inappropriate or distorting influence on the game, recruits or their families.Nonscholastic basketball, with a focus on the appropriate involvement of college coaches and others.Agents or advisors, with an emphasis on how students and their families can get legitimate advice without being taken advantage of, defrauded or risking their NCAA eligibility."

Where have they been? Why has it taken them seven months to come out with their recommendations? The answer is simple.There is WAY TOO MUCH money involved in college basketball.

The NCAA made roughly a billion dollars in 2016 and surpassed that in 2017 off of all the NCAA sports. The NCAA is the “Central organization that enforces the rules and runs the lucrative men’s basketball tournament every year,” according to Alex Kirshner of SB Nation. Kirshner wrote that the NCAA reported $1.045 billion in total revenue this school year.

Related Story: NCAA Basketball: The solution for the One-and-Done Rule

I predicted that the NCAA would make sure that the players mentioned in investigations and erroneous ESPN reports could play by leaving the decisions up to the respective schools. Without the best players, the tournament would be less exciting, and the TV Ratings wouldn’t be where they needed to be. I also predicted that the NCAA Commission would wait to publish their recommendations until after the tournament was over. So many fans of other teams (clears throat..ASU fans) predicted the opposite and that Arizona would take the brunt of the punishment. That didn’t happen.

The special commission is now ready, post-tournament, post major underclassmen NBA Draft declarations, to broadcast their recommendations.

The news seems to have started to leak out about the recommendations, and some folks who focus on helping recruits get noticed aren’t pleased, saying it’s not beneficial for the players.

What’s glaring in the face of the NBA and College Basketball, is the one-and-done rule. With Villanova winning back-to-back NCAA championships with a roster not full of one-and-done players. Both the NBA Commish Adam Silver and Emmert have more than hinted that this rule will go away. I agree wholeheartedly and hope this happens this week. But then the NBA has to change its rule.

Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com reports Silver met with the National Basketball Players Association and discussed changing the NBA’s eligible draft age from 19 years old or one year removed from the date of their high school graduation.

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The NCAA Commission on College Basketball says they will live stream their recommendations on Wednesday, April 25 at 8 am. EST. So basically the NCAA feels only folks on the East Coast and ESPN will be interested in this broadcast because the rest of us will have to get up at 5 am to catch it. Brace yourselves, the recommendations will hopefully be helpful, but either way, there is sure to be much discussion on the broadcast.