Brand may be president, but money's still the boss in NCAA

Just more than a week has passed since the surprising announcement that Myles Brand will be the next president of the NCAA. The muscle-twitch, knee-jerk reaction to a Brand name taking over NCAA headquarters was: "Gee, Bob Knight must be throwing furniture."

But the choice of the Indiana president to move up the road from Bloomington to Indianapolis speaks volumes about the current state of confusion in college sports, particularly football.

For more than 10 years, college presidents have rattled their executive washroom keys and threatened to take control of college sports. The Knight Commission report issued in 1991 called on the men and women in charge of the major institutions of higher learning to put the emphasis on "student" in student-athlete, the NCAA's stubborn terminology for "player."

So here's what we've seen happen in the past decade: The NCAA Tournament television contract has ballooned to $6 billion, college football's postseason has morphed into a grab-the-money, everybody-start-a-bowl free-for-all, the $1 million coach in college basketball and the $2 million coach in college football.

In what now suspiciously sounds like a campaign speech, Brand addressed The National Press Club in January 2001. Basking in the glow of being The Man Who Fired Bob Knight, Brand verbally wrung his hands over the athletic "arms race" (bigger, better facilities; higher coaches' salaries). He said that college sports were becoming "a threat to the academic integrity" of universities.

"We are not sports franchises," Brand said. "I do not want to turn off the game. I just want to lower the volume."

Football makes and spends most of the money in those I-A athletic departments. Programs that are successful and want to remain successful know you have to spend money to make money. At Iowa State, for instance, they're almost as proud of the new indoor practice facility as they are of a Top 10 ranking. And don't for a second assume that the two aren't related.

The NCAA's control over college football is minimal. Specifically, it does not control money. That cash is in the hands of the Bowl Championship Series commissioners. And if the NCAA boss starts talking about reducing football budgets, that's like trying to unring a bell.

By naming Brand as the fourth person to run the NCAA, the presidents have one of their own in charge. However, almost any proposal to slow, much less cut back, the "arms race" smacks of hypocrisy.

When it comes to controlling college sports, presidents have flunked the final.

Wendell Barnhouse covers college sports for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram