U.S. Senate Committe on Commerce letter to Mark Emmert.

[Carl Spackler]

May 5, 2014

This one has a little more teeth.

http://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/pdf/050514LetterCommiteelettertoNCAAonexploitation.pdf


What I predict happening here, is that Emmert is going to try to blame everyone else possible for the issues at hand, and the most convenient targets will be the commissioners of the P5 conferences.

 

[Carl Spackler]

What's really interesting to me, is that had I not - by chance - found the text to the U.S. House letter released yesterday in the USA Today - today, I wouldn't have known that this letter - requested specifically - "copies of all current agreements to which the NCAA is a party regarding the transmission rights to NCAA content" and based on the situation around the unionization of football players at Northwestern........

I wouldn't have known this letter was sent out by the U.S. Senate nearly 3 weeks ago.

Gee - I wonder why the worldwide leader/Disney isn't highly publicizing this stuff. I can predict something based on previous patterns of behaviour, and that prediction is that if Emmert is going to get his feet held to the fire, he's probably going to do what he can to deflect responsibility and blame others for everything wrong.

 

[The Funster]

Yeah, I have to say that letter has a little more force behind it than the more recent one linked in the other thread.

 

[Fishy]

Yeah, but so what?

If anything, they'll just jack up the costs of a scholarship in the name of "protecting the student-athlete" and nothing more. This is nothing but more bad news.

Someone in the other thread said they're coming for the conferences.

If you think the senators of Missouri, New Jersey and West Virginia are looking to upset that apple cart and piss off their constituents...you're not thinking.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Yeah, but so what?

If anything, they'll just jack up the costs of a scholarship in the name of "protecting the student-athlete" and nothing more. This is nothing but more bad news.

Someone in the other thread said they're coming for the conferences.

If you think the senators of Missouri, New Jersey and West Virginia are looking to upset that apple cart and piss off their constituents...you're not thinking.

Do you think the schools really have that much political muscle? Look at some of the corporations that the Senate has gone after. Do you think Senators are afraid of a few overpaid dorks sitting in an ivory tower somewhere?

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Yeah, but so what?

If anything, they'll just jack up the costs of a scholarship in the name of "protecting the student-athlete" and nothing more. This is nothing but more bad news.

Someone in the other thread said they're coming for the conferences.

If you think the senators of Missouri, New Jersey and West Virginia are looking to upset that apple cart and piss off their constituents...you're not thinking.

In either letter the only revenue mentioned was the BB tourney.
The missing elephant in the room was any mention of the huge TV football money disparity.
If anything this is part of the effort to undermine any NCAA resistance to the P5 move.

 

[Fishy]

You are purely deranged.

Next time you see a sporting event, look in the stands - those things sitting there are called 'voters'. Jay Rockefeller will do nothing that causes West Virginia or the Big 12 any harm.

Nope....they'll try to get some PR points by dinging the ever unpopular NCAA, but it means nothing, so you can drop the fantasies of a huge government intervention that sweeps us back onto a level playing field.

 

[Carl Spackler]

In either letter the only revenue mentioned was the BB tourney.
The missing elephant in the room was any mention of the huge TV football money disparity.
If anything this is part of the effort to undermine any NCAA resistance to the P5 move.

Bingo. The senate letter, is very clear though, and requests all broadcast transmission contracts for NCAA parties, and when the NCAA comes back with their response, the absence of the television revenue contracts around football will be conspicuous, and tie that to the Northwestern players union - that is the basis for the letter - there will be major inconsistency.

The interesting thing, is that I do believe that the only precedent out there, should this thing proceed to any actual action, would be to deregulate NCAA control over basketball television revenue, essentially the same way NCAA control over football television revenue was deregulated in the 1980s. That would make the move for the P5 conferences very easy to autonomous control, if not separation entirely from the NCAA.

I think, actually, that would be a good thing for UCONN going forward.

 

[The Funster]

Look, this is all in response to the pushback from "student athletes" on the NCAA. It's a serious problem. College athletics is not about the "student athlete", it's about the money. We all know it. The P5 breakaway was yet another attempt to hide a bad motivation (we want more money for less schools) behind a good, albeit, false one (we want to help the "student athlete"). It's about time they got called on it.

 

[AZHuskiePop]

You are purely deranged.

Next time you see a sporting event, look in the stands - those things sitting there are called 'voters'. Jay Rockefeller will do nothing that causes West Virginia or the Big 12 any harm.

Nope....they'll try to get some PR points by dinging the ever unpopular NCAA, but it means nothing, so you can drop the fantasies of a huge government intervention that sweeps us back onto a level playing field.

You are purely deranged.

Next time you see a sporting event, look in the stands - those things sitting there are called 'voters'. Jay Rockefeller will do nothing that causes West Virginia or the Big 12 any harm.

Nope....they'll try to get some PR points by dinging the ever unpopular NCAA, but it means nothing, so you can drop the fantasies of a huge government intervention that sweeps us back onto a level playing field.

"Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean their not out to get us."
I actually was agreeing with you plus adding my own UConn Paranoia to the mix.
Actually there is a pro labor flavor to both letter signees. The house letter is from minority party reps in an institution where the minority has no voice. Just a get me on the record too letter. The Senate letter comes from two pro labor Senators from States with P5 teams.
I know the prevailing opinion on the Board is anything that diminishes the NCAA is good. In the school of problem solving I adhere to ,the negative effect of any change must be thoroughly examined before that change is implemented. In other words be careful what you wish for.

 

[Fishy]

I meant that Nelson was deranged, AZ.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I meant that Nelson was deranged, AZ.

I thought that was assumed.

 

[Fairfield 1st]

Yeah, but so what?

If anything, they'll just jack up the costs of a scholarship in the name of "protecting the student-athlete" and nothing more. This is nothing but more bad news.

Someone in the other thread said they're coming for the conferences.

If you think the senators of Missouri, New Jersey and West Virginia are looking to upset that apple cart and piss off their constituents...you're not thinking.

That is my initial reaction as well, but I don' think that the issue has to do with constituents per se.. I agree with other posters that this is being used as leverage by the P5 to get more from the NCAA.. Missou/SEC/ESPN and WV/Big12/FOX.... working together to protect and enhance their content

 

[CL82]

A lot of P5 states on that letterhead.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

You are purely deranged.

Next time you see a sporting event, look in the stands - those things sitting there are called 'voters'. Jay Rockefeller will do nothing that causes West Virginia or the Big 12 any harm.

Nope....they'll try to get some PR points by dinging the ever unpopular NCAA, but it means nothing, so you can drop the fantasies of a huge government intervention that sweeps us back onto a level playing field.

That is not how the law works. Much bigger entities than the P5 have been taken down, and don't think for a second that the 65 schools would all go down with the ship if this situation started to get really ugly. No President could afford treble damages on a loser anti-trust lawsuit and keep his job. And don't think that the Senators from Michigan or Ohio or Texas are going to go to the mattresses so some of the schools in their state could screw other schools in the state. They will just stay out of it. All the G5 schools have voters too.

While this stuff is really, really important to us, there are probably 50k to 100k people in the country that follow this stuff closely, and few of them would get all that angry about some argument over money. Anti-trust laws exist for a reason, and this situation is a clear cut violation of those laws.

Edit: it is also not clear that ESPN, Fox, CBS and NBC would side with the P5. I think their interests are served by the P5 getting broken. The immediate result of the 1984 Oklahoma case was that rights fees went down.

 

[Carl Spackler]

On the front page of the espn.com evil empire web page, among the top story headlines reads - "U.S. Senators putting pressure on Redskins, NFL."

Nary a peep about both the House and Senate inquiries into the NCAA from the self proclaimed world wide leader in sports coverage, that is heavily invested in intercollegiate athletics.

Interesting.

I keep thinking about the Maryland v. ACC - big 10 legal issues. All of the discovery process that would be involved in that.

I would bet anything that the media giants, that have been funding this out of control mess in intercollegiate athletics would like nothing more than all of it to be swept under the rug, rather than have it come to light as to what kind of involvement has actually been going on regarding conference television contracts and NCAA television contracts, adn the Senate Commerce Committee - wants to see copies of all the actual NCAA contracts.

 

[Fishy]

Everyone waiting for the government to come charging in or for the G5 to hire a team of lawyers should just move on.

It is never, ever going to happen.

 

[Yawkey Way]

Everyone waiting for the government to come charging in or for the G5 to hire a team of lawyers should just move on.

It is never, ever going to happen.

Congressional Committees have 50 hearings and investigations going on at any moment in time.

Then they all go to lunch. Then they retire, are replaced, or die. Nothing ever really happens nowadays as a result of Congressional Committees. Ho hum.

Everybody stretch a bit re. Rep E. Cummings musings.. ..then take a good yawn. Its good for the soul.

 

[ZooCougar]

That is not how the law works. Much bigger entities than the P5 have been taken down, and don't think for a second that the 65 schools would all go down with the ship if this situation started to get really ugly. No President could afford treble damages on a loser anti-trust lawsuit and keep his job. And don't think that the Senators from Michigan or Ohio or Texas are going to go to the mattresses so some of the schools in their state could screw other schools in the state. They will just stay out of it. All the G5 schools have voters too.

While this stuff is really, really important to us, there are probably 50k to 100k people in the country that follow this stuff closely, and few of them would get all that angry about some argument over money. Anti-trust laws exist for a reason, and this situation is a clear cut violation of those laws.

Edit: it is also not clear that ESPN, Fox, CBS and NBC would side with the P5. I think their interests are served by the P5 getting broken. The immediate result of the 1984 Oklahoma case was that rights fees went down.

The P5 is not an entity. It's a group of loosely affiliated entities that has groups of less loosely affiliated entities.

Congress can try to go after them, if they are stupid and the P5 will merely counter with the truth that they are following the rules set forth by the NCAA.

 

[CL82]

The P5 is not an entity. It's a group of loosely affiliated entities that has groups of less loosely affiliated entities.

Congress can try to go after them, if they are stupid and the P5 will merely counter with the truth that they are following the rules set forth by the NCAA.

As has been noted above, I think this is less an attack on the P5 and more additional pressure on the NCAA. Whether the goal is to assure the current autonomy bid or to discredit the NCAA enough to create cover for departing schools is unclear, at least to me.

 

[ZooCougar]

As has been noted above, I think this is less an attack on the P5 and more additional pressure on the NCAA. Whether the goal is to assure the current autonomy bid or to discredit the NCAA enough to create cover for departing schools is unclear, at least to me.

I was really addressing the person here who just wants to see the world burn.

 

[Pudge]

Well ...

Great boisterous theory. But Jay Rockefeller isn't running ever again. And, he has spouted off in the last 5 weeks about a whole bunch of formerly "don't touch" issues. I can't give you anything on why Cory Booker would be near this.

But, anyone thinking that this has legs needs to think that we need another Orrin Hatch. And the Boise letter points me to: the Idaho Senators are complete non-entities.