When it comes to the NCAA, it seems Congress is in a mood.
For years now, college coaches, athletes and administrators have skewered the NCAA for an infractions process they say is unfair, dawdling and lacking transparency.
Turns out, at least two U.S. senators feel the same.
This week, senators Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) and Cory Booker (D., N.J.) will introduce a bipartisan bill, the NCAA Accountability Act of 2021, that establishes strict requirements of the long-maligned NCAA infractions process, overhauling the operation by involving the Department of Justice and the U.S. attorney general.
Bipartisan! Nothing brings our politics together like the NCAA.
The NCAA Accountability Act of 2021 touches on an oft-criticized process: the NCAA’s enforcement of violations through sometimes years-long investigations. The bill creates a set of deadlines to facilitate quicker investigations, shortens the statute of limitations on violations and establishes a new appeals process:
• The bill requires NCAA inquiries to be completed within eight months of a school receiving a notice that an investigation has opened.
• The NCAA, the bill says, cannot investigate violations that were alleged to have happened more than two years before the notice of investigation was sent to a school. The current statute of limitations is four years.
• The bill would prohibit the NCAA from using “confidential sources” as evidence for a decision.
• And a school can appeal punishments by using a three-arbiter panel, different from the NCAA’s current appeals committee.
The proposal also requires the NCAA to submit an annual report of investigations to the U.S. attorney general and each state’s attorney general while also charging the Department of Justice to ensure the governing body of college sports follows the bill’s statutes. Violations will be dealt with severely. The bill authorizes the Department of Justice to fine the NCAA as much as $15 million and to order the removal of any member of the NCAA’s highest governing body, its Board of Governors.
Of course, there’s a likelihood this just encourages the NCAA to throw up its hands on the enforcement process entirely, but I’m not entirely sure that’s a bug.
I just wish somebody had enough of a sense of humor to name the bill after Jerry “The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky they’re going to give Cleveland State another year of probation” Tarkanian.
Get The Picture 
We don’t want universal healthcare! We want congress to fight the NCAA for us!
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It takes a special kind of awful to get republicans and democrats to unite on much of anything these days. Congrats on that accomplishment, NCAA.
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No joke. And they aren’t Rep/Dem bipartisan. Blackburn/Booker are typically pretty far apart. Maybe if it was Cruz/Sanders the gap would be a little wider. The cynic in me also wonders if they filed the bill in an attempt to get some of that sweet NCAA lobby money.
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The cynic is correct.
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The NCAA deserves whatever bad fortune comes its way – and then some – but Blackburn and Booker are just continuing the political tradition of kicking an easy target when it’s down. But maybe I shouldn’t be so cynical. At least this is political posturing I can get behind.
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It beats repeating.. the NCAA is nothing more and nothing less than a front for this countries Universities. It’s actions are not an accident!
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I had to read almost to the end to see where the government would make some money off this.
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So if the NCAA is unwilling to do enforcement anymore then what happens?
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Not much?
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Is it a coincidence that one of the bill sponsors is from Tennessee.
As Jethro Leroy Gibbs would say, Rule #39
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Will Smith is rumored to be new head of enforcement for the NCAA.
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I hope he bitchslaps Urban Meyer (retrospectively). It doesn’t even need to be enforcement – just for general assholeishness.
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Diogenes would waste his time searching through the NCAA and the federal government.
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Getting the federal govt involved in college athletics, I’m sure that is going to make things better. Look at the great job they did with health insurance and pretty much everything else they ever touch.
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Serious question. Since the NCAA lacks subpoena power how can it resolve an investigation in 8 months? Auburn proved that stonewalling can work.
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That was my first thought as well. No subpoena power + 2 year statute of limitations + 8 month investigation/ruling window + no confidential sources (which leads inevitably to less reporting) = zero punishment for serious infractions.
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Other than the civil rights laws in the 60s, is there anything the government has touched that is better for it?
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The Sherman and Clayton Acts, the Clean Air/Water Acts, and land grant universities come to mind as successes.
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The only way that bill makes sense is if you take the position that schools violating NCAA rules have been the victims. Poor Auburn. No…wait. Auburn never got punished.
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I can certainly see why a senator from Tennessee would want to damage the NCAA’s ability to investigate and punish rules infractions, Go Big Orange! But what does Cory Booker care? Is something about to drop at Rutgers? lol
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fuqu’em all..
Play Ball!!
GO DAWGS!!
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For certain schools, the NCAA already has thrown up its hands on the enforcement process entirely.
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The Federal government and the NCAA, what could go wrong? The absolute worst administrative team telling another terrible administrative team how to do things. Nothing good will come of this.
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Of course, there’s a likelihood this just encourages the NCAA to throw up its hands on the enforcement process entirely, but I’m not entirely sure that’s a bug. I would argue we are already there.
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