NEW ORLEANS — Take a good look at NCAA enforcement as Final Four week begins. This may be its last stand.
Big Brother’s oversight can’t endure because it almost assuredly won’t. Part of what’s being evaluated at the ongoing NCAA Transformation Committee meetings is an evaluation of the laborious, unfair enforcement process. At least that’s the way it is perceived to a large swath of the membership who’ve had enough.
Congress certainly agrees. On Tuesday, the NCAA Accountability Act of 2021 was released. The bipartisan bill would limit investigations to eight months and cut the statute of limitations from four years to two years.
Even if the bill fails, there is still a real possibility the schools themselves take over the process by the end of the summer. Perhaps the divisions (I, II, III) have different sets of rules. Perhaps the conferences police themselves.
The hope is the process gets streamlined. It could become more complicated, but it won’t be the same. And either way, it must be better.
Whatever happens, there will be fewer rules, not more. Name, image and likeness legislation has provided a glimpse of what paying players looks like. What used to be below the table is now (mostly) an accepted part of doing business.
So, take a good look. No. 1-seed Kansas is both a Final Four favorite and a poster child this week. Bill Self, already a hall-of-fame coach, is gunning for his second national championship. The NCAA is gunning for him and his program. The Jayhawks have been charged with five Level I violations, one levied against him directly for allegedly violating the coaches’ responsibility bylaw.
Self and KU have maintained — from the beginning – that they disagree with a large portion of the NCAA’s…
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