There are a number of jobs in America that some might deem undesirable, and one of those jobs is President of the NCAA. That’s usually because anyone holding an administrative job tends to get attacked from all sides. Mark Emmert has that job now, but his time is almost up. Emmert took the job in 2010 and his tenure was anything but smooth. He had to deal with the Jerry Sandusky/Penn State sex scandal in the early stages of his administration, dealt with accusations of gender inequity during the 2022 NCAA Division One women’s basketball tournament, and ruined the spirit of competition by allowing transgender athlete Lia Thomas to compete in the 2022 NCAA Division One womens swimming national championships. Emmert did, however, oversee the expansion of the NCAA Division One mens and womens basketball tournaments from 64 teams to 68 teams, the college football playoff era, and the new era of name image and likeness (NIL), which opened the door for athletes to profit off of their name. Emmert, who was given a contract extension last year, is being forced out due to the mounting controversies. This begs the question: was it all worth it in the end.
In order to understand why Mark Emmert’s time as President of the NCAA was controversial and ultimately ended in flaming defeat, we have to examine the various scandals that he was engulfed in throughout his administrative career prior to taking over the top job of college athletics. It started at Montana State University. Emmert was hired by Montana State to work as Vice President of Academic Affairs in 1991. He held this position until 1995. In 1993, the Montana State University athletics department was hit with sanctions by the NCAA against its mens basketball program for what was described as lack of institutional control. Though the sanctions were related to NCAA violations that occurred prior to Emmert’s arrival in Boseman. There were other improprieties committed by the Montana State athletics department throughout his tenure, but Emmert had his name cleared by the NCAA because his role with the university was unaffiliated with the athletics department and they deemed that he had no knowledge of any misdeeds taking place. Still, trouble found a way to follow Emmert everywhere he went. He started working for the University of Connecticut in 1995, and held that position until 1999. He secured a $1 billion funding project that would go towards improving campus facilities, but more than $100 million of those funds were mismanaged. Emmert was not held accountable for that, as the discovery of mismanagement was found in 2005, six years after his departure from the university. Emmert’s next job was at LSU where he was chancellor of the university. He was responsible for hiring Nick Saban as head coach of the football program. LSU won the BCS National Championship Game in 2003 under Saban’s leadership. Accusations of academic fraud within the football program eventually led to Emmert’s forced departure. For the first time in his career, Emmert finally faced consequences for his ineptitude.
Prior to taking over as head of the NCAA, Mark Emmert worked for the University of Washington from 2004 to 2010. His tenure there was a success. He helped bring in billions of dollars of research and fundings. He left Washington in 2010 to become the President of the NCAA.
Mark Emmert was appointed President of the NCAA on April 27, 2010. He began his official duties on November 1, 2010. Emmert’s first challenge as the NCAA President came in 2012 when he had to deal with the Penn State/Jerry Sandusky sex scandal. The scandal involved Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant coach to football Head Coach Joe Paterno, who had been accused of sexually assaulting children over multiple decades of employment at the university, and Paterno’s and top university officials’ efforts to cover-up Sandusky’s criminal misdeeds. Though the FBI was the one spearheading the investigation into Penn State, Emmert’s role was to levy punishment based on the FBI’s findings. After a months-long investigation that ultimately led to Paterno’s termination, multiple resignations from top university officials, and Sandusky’s arrest and eventual conviction, Emmert decided to place Penn State on a 4-year bowl ban, vacate 111 wins from Joe Paterno’s overall head coaching record, and loss of scholarships. Though viewed as harsh sanctions, some people believed that Emmert didn’t go far enough. Many believed that the NCAA should have given the Penn State football program the so-called “death penalty”, which is the act of the NCAA shutting down an athletic program, typically a one or two year sentence, but Emmert ultimately decided against that move. Emmert seemed to have asserted himself as a mr. tough guy. Unfortunately, the sanctions that the NCAA levied against Penn State did not hold up, as the football program had its bowl ban reversed after only two years. Subsequently, Paterno’s 111 wins were restored, bringing his career win total back to 409 and top of the list for most wins all-time for a Division One FBS head coach. Penn State’s scholarships were also restored. This reversal meant that Emmert ultimately did not accomplish anything in his handling of the Penn State/Jerry Sandusky sex scandal. This wouldn’t be the only failure of leadership for Emmert in his 12 years in charge of the NCAA.
After mishandling the Penn State/Jerry Sandusky sex scandal, Mark Emmert went on to have a seemingly lackluster tenure as the head of the NCAA. He did oversee the expansion of the NCAA mens and womens basketball tournaments from 64 teams to 68, and the formation of the college football playoff, currently a 4-team structure. The playoff will expand to 12 teams starting in 2024. Emmert also guided the NCAA through a new era of college sports with the passage of NIL rules that allow college athletes to benefit from deals involving name, image, and likeness. Success in these areas allowed Emmert to receive a contract extension in 2021. However, Emmert would soon face more scrutiny in 2022 which ultimately resulted in his demise.
March was not a good month for the now departing Mark Emmert. There were major issues that drew the ire of college sports fans. The first and most glaring issue emerged during the NCAA womens basketball tournament. When the female players showed up to their workout rooms, they were disappointed by the lack of workout equipment available to them compared to what the men had. After several players posted videos to their social media accounts, and the videos going viral, Emmert granted them equal access to weight rooms. He also set up a new department within the NCAA that would specifically oversee rule changes and equity for female athletes moving forward. Though, this proved to be a rather divisive move. Supporters said the move was long overdue and that women now have a seat at the table. Critics said that it was unnecessary and is vulnerable to more bureaucracy and corruption. This decision by Emmert was a no-win scenario. It satisfied one group, but ticked-off another. Yet, if he did nothing, it would have reflected more negatively on Emmert’s reputation as a do-nothing leader. This goes back to the earlier point of his job making him vulnerable to being attacked from all sides. The President of the NCAA can never satisfy everyone at once. Though things got worse for Emmert. Emmert made the bizarre decision to open athletic competitions to transgender athletes, when he said that students could compete in competitions based off of their gender identification rather than the gender that was biologically assigned to them at birth. The first beneficiary of this rule change was Lia Thomas, a biological male from the University of Pennsylvania, who had identified as a woman to compete in the NCAA Division One swimming national championships. He went onto win the 500 meter title, stealing it away from second place finisher and biological woman Emma Weyant of the University of Virginia, who was a silver medalist in the 400 meter medley at the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics. This drew the ire of prominent conservative governors Kristi Noem of South Dakota, and Ron Desantis of Florida. The latter of the two, signed legislation in the state of Florida that would restrict athletic competitions to athletes competing in sports based off of biologically assigned gender. Desantis said that, in the state of Florida, boys will compete with boys and girls will compete with girls. Desantis also declared Weyant the official winner of the NCAA Division One Swimming National Championship in the 500 meter race. Emmert’s decision to allow that kind of a monstrosity to occur in the swimming national championships proved to be the final dagger in his career that led to his forced resignation as head of the NCAA despite securing a vote of confidence just one year ago. In a bit of poetic justice, Lia Thomas lost his bid to become the NCAA Ivy League Woman Athlete of the Year. That award went to biological female Sylvie Binder, a fencer from Columbia University.
Now that Emmert is departing from his role as President of the NCAA, we have to go back to the question of whether his tenure was worth it. The answer to that question is a resounding no. First, given his prior administrative mishaps, Emmert should never have been appointed to the top job of college athletics. Second, Emmert’s soft on punishment approach, specifically with regard to the Penn State situation, created an environment where people think anything goes. Third, actively destroying the integrity of sports in regards to gender equity and fair play will set things back for many years to come. He not only failed at every turn, but he trashed the institution of the NCAA on his way out the door. Emmert’s time as President of the NCAA will end in February, 2023.
Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker will take over as NCAA President on March 1, 2023. He has a mess to clean up.
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