the BigAmateurism monologues

The NCAA’s infractions and enforcement case against NC State could wind up in litigation, mainly since the NCAA has capriciously denied NC State the right of appeal from the Independent Resolution Panel’s decision. In that scenario, the climate and culture of the NCAA’s infractions and enforcement staff and processes will be under the microscope. This episode discusses the history of the NCAA’s infractions and enforcement apparatus and the climate and culture developed since the 1950s under Walter Byers’ leadership. NCAA member institutions have ceded to the NCAA national office compete authority for enforcement and infractions work with little oversight. The climate and culture of the infractions and enforcement process and staff are a direct product of national office leadership, particularly the NCAA president(s). Only once in the last seventy years has a member institution boldly and publicly challenged the NCAA’s infractions and enforcement authorities. That challenge began in the 1970s through Jerry Tarkanian’s epic war against the NCAA. Tarkanian’s quest for vindication spanned three decades. It produced one of the most consequential NCAA-related US Supreme Court decisions in history. A 5-4 Court held that the NCAA was not required to provide federal due process protections to those subject to its regulatory authority. Tarkanian is still good law, but that was then; this is now. A challenge to the NCAA’s infractions and enforcement authorities will likely be a much different ball game in the post-Alston world. For this reason, the NC State case can disrupt the NCAA’s infractions and enforcement authorities and the assumptions upon which they are built.