Friday, March 13

Emmert & NCAA Board Blow Call on Tournaments

Mark Emmert and the NCAA again rushed to judgment in penalizing athletes and harming communities

by
Ray Blehar
March 13, 2020, 1:25 PM EDT, Updated March 14, 8:30 AM EDT

Yesterday morning, notpsu.blogspot.com opined that the NCAA and conferences should suspend play until the nation overcomes the coronavirus pandemic and then resume play later in the year.   That solution would not have endangered the health of the athletes and would have allowed for communities to reap the financial benefits of hosting the tournament.

However, instead of a suspension, Mark Emmert and the Board of Governors decided to cancel the remaining winter athletic seasons and spring championships.

The move is reminiscent of Emmert's and the Executive Board's rush to judgment in penalizing Penn State Athletics based on highly questionable data furnished by former FBI Director Louis Freeh.

Given the time frame of the decision, this was a knee jerk reaction.  Emmert and the NCAA Board did even less research on this issue that it did in the PSU case.

In that case, former Executive Committee Chair Ed Ray admitted to not reading the Freeh Report and emails (obtained in the Corman case) revealed his decisions were driven by media reports and reader comments.  As a result of the Corman litigation, the NCAA reversed some of its decisions, notably the restoration of wins for the PSU football program.

Thursday, March 12

NCAA, B1G, & Others Should Suspend Tourneys Right Now

Emmert's and Warren's decisions to continue play in nearly empty arenas is unsafe (and greedy)

by
Ray Blehar

March 12, 2020, 10:20 AM EDT, Updated 11:00 AM & 1:26 PM EDT; Updated March 13, 2020, 12:45 PM EDT

Last night, the National Basketball Association (NBA) suspended play after it was learned that Utah Jazz's Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus. 

The league really had no choice, given that it takes approximately two weeks to develop symptoms and in that time frame the Jazz played (and possibly infected) the Boston Celtics, Washington Wizards, Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Knicks, Detroit Pistons, and Toronto Raptors.

All of those teams and players are possibly infected and so are their opponents from the last two weeks.

The NBA was absolutely, 100 percent correct to shut it down and wait until the virus subsides to resume play.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the Big Ten and the NCAA who have decided to take the risk that no athletes are infected and to continue play in nearly empty arenas.