What the president of the NCAA promises, few now believe. What he argues, few now listen to.
What happens when a leader has lost his credibility? The day must come when he faces the reality that he can no longer rule.
Mark Emmert is about there.
His share of the blame for the train wreck at the NCAA is impossible to quantify. Certainly, he does not deserve it all, given the convoluted ways and means of that office. But percentages don't matter. Not at his pay grade.
He is the guy in charge, and if there is an accountability problem with an organization that preaches accountability, where do you go from there? To nowhere good.
There is no more stark example of the NCAA's crumbled credibility than this: In the matter of the case vs. the University of Miami, much of the world is prepared to give Miami a free pass.
Miami.
The charge on the table is a lack of institutional control, which are some of the most dire words that can be said about a school. It involves money and a booster, and haven't we heard about dark doings before in Coral Gables? Oh yes.
Once upon a time, public opinion would have judged the Hurricanes guilty without a second look at the evidence, fair or not. Condemned by past behavior.
Now, it will proclaim them wronged and innocent, no matter the possible infractions. Cleared by the malfeasance of their prosecutor.
Where is the NCAA image today, when Miami is deemed the good guy?
What is happening will not move the nation's emotional meter as much as, say, Bowl Championship Series standings. Any mishaps or controversies in the tournament bracket next month will strike far closer to the public heart.
Yet this is more ominous and far-reaching, for it strikes at the ability to have law and order in the raucous land of
college sport. The NCAA has lived for years with its bureaucratic tangles and byzantine rulebook. What it can't live with is broken trust.
The NCAA purports to be judge and jury. That takes considerable confidence from the masses to pull off. But now it is viewed as the place that campaigns for credibility but can't exercise it. Seeks stricter rules as it plays loose with its own standards. Demands accountability from coaches but dodges it at the highest office.
To be sure, the NCAA often has been misunderstood in its scope and makeup. A fashionable target to explain and rationalize the disappointment and excess of others.
But perception is everything, especially in time of crisis. Most troubling was this week's report into the foul-ups in the Miami investigation -- coming after the Penn State overreach of power, the Cam Newton mess, the Shabazz Muhammad flap. It placed Emmert so far down the list in order of culpability, he was nearly as invisible as the night custodian.
To spare the leader of accountability, to hide him in his high office, will never inspire trust in an organization entrusted with the good of college athletics. It has more the feel of an empire.
There is no need to wantonly fire people in print. It is an easy and often cheap thing to do. And the NCAA is not full of villains, but mostly good people.
But it is growing more difficult to imagine Emmert surviving for long unless he can somehow come up with a U-turn and grow belief in a desert of distrust. And he'd better do it in a hurry.
The issue now is what the NCAA represents. It has to stand for something unquestionably sound, if it is to do the business that
college sport so badly needs it to do. Otherwise, there is no one to enforce the rules, which is scary and dangerous.
The NCAA is good at making money. Credibility is infinitely more dear.
