LEXINGTON, Ky. _ I disagree with those labeling the Commission on College Basketball's 60-page report a big, fat nothingburger. There's good stuff in there concerning NBA draft policies, access to agents and stronger penalties for rules violators.
The problem with the report, released Wednesday, is that it punts on the two biggest issues affecting the college game _ the one-and-done rule and the reluctance to compensate student athletes for being the primary participants in a big business endeavor that makes millions of dollars for institutions, coaches, administrators and, yes, the NCAA.
While the commission, headed by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, recommends an end to the NBA's age requirement rule that birthed college hoops' "one-and-done" dilemma, it's an NBA rule. The NCAA has little or nothing to do with it.
Rice's answer is for the two sides to work together, but the NBA will do what is in the NBA's best interest. Commissioner Adam Silver has said he wants the rule changed or altered, but he needs approval from the league's players' association. So far, no agreement has been reached.
Then there's the issue of paying the players, a burning topic the commission ignored. Never mind this is the No. 1 issue at the root of the problem. High school prospects and their families are taking money under the table because (a) it's offered, (b) they see everyone else in the sport making money and (c) they face restrictions from playing professionally.
Until something is done to realistically address that core issue, nothing is going to get fixed. Not really.
That's not to say the commission's report is without merit, however. The tone of what it does recommend _ with regard to things that can actually get done _ implores the NCAA to both get tough and get real.
The "get tough" part applies to coaches and their employers. No more show-cause penalties or wrist-slapping suspensions for coaches who break the rules. Instead, the commission recommends lifetime bans for high-level violations _ there's your one-and-done _ and a minimum of one-year suspensions for lesser infractions. Same goes for the schools. The commission recommends increasing one- or two-year postseason bans to five years as well as greater financial penalties. Hit schools where they hurt, right in the wallet.
It also recommends taking investigations out of the hands of the NCAA, a long overdue idea that would address the basic conflict of a club investigating and punishing its own members. That never works.
It also seems to want to "get tough" with the run-amok sideshow that is AAU basketball, yet offers few specifics about how to accomplish that, other than a vague certification process. Tell us more.
The "get real" part pertains to the draft and agents. The commission recommends allowing players not selected in the NBA draft the option of returning to school, a common sense approach Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr recently endorsed. The commission also recommends allowing players access to agents so they can make better career and financial decisions. That is another common sense idea the NCAA has long resisted in the name of amateurism.
And amateurism is the central issue here, one the NCAA continues to cling to at all costs, a stubborn, out-of-touch stance that led to the embarrassing corruption exposed in the FBI investigation. You know, the investigation which produced the embarrassing headlines which prompted NCAA President Mark Emmert to form the Commission on College Basketball in the first place.
Just as modern college sports are more big business than college sports, modern student-athletes are more employees than student-athletes. To still believe otherwise is to ignore the amazing amounts of money made off student-athletes by everyone but, yes, the student-athletes.
As long as that continues, nothing else matters _ not reforms, not recommendations, not even rule changes on issues in need of change.
So the Rice Commission's report is a start, but only a start. If it stops at what we read and heard Wednesday, the NCAA will have failed. Again.
