Power play

That was some white flag the NCAA seemed to wave the other day, conceding it can no longer pass off  high-end college buckets as this wholesome amateur enterprise whose only goal is to help earnest young men earn a college education.

No, sir. It is bidness, is what it is, an entirely corporate enterprise driven by corporate imperatives. And so at last the NCAA came out with its hands up, unveiling a sweeping set of future rule changes that will properly reflect that reality.

Hey, kid! You want an agent? You can have one now!

Wanna enter the NBA draft, go to the combine and still come back to college basketball if it doesn't work out? You can do that, too!

Wanna come back and finish your education on our dime, as long as you do it within 10 years? No probs! We got your lecture hall seat all warmed up!

And so on, and so on. What a grand sea change this is, what sweet surrender at last to common sense.

Except ...

Well, except it's not really a surrender at all. It's a power play is what it is.

Those sweeping rule changes are the NCAA's attempt to control aspects of college basketball last fall's FBI investigation revealed it wasn't yet controlling, and don't be fooled into thinking otherwise. Yes, "elite" players will be able to hire agents, but only agents certified by the NCAA, and only players ranked as "elite" by USA Basketball (which has already said it's not on board with doing this). A provision that extends the number of approved high school events through June, and limits apparel companies to one sponsored event in July, is an attempt to wrest control of a kid's summers from the AAU. And letting ex-players come back for their degrees on the colleges' dime, and letting underclassmen come back who opt to test the NBA draft waters?

What's that except a way to entice and hang onto marketable properties a bit longer?

This is not to say  the rule changes proposed by the NCAA are entirely self-serving. They're not. Any proposed rule that can cut into the influence of the AAU and its shady apparel-company street agents should be applauded, for instance. And who could argue against not slamming the door on young men who opt to chase that NBA unicorn? Or allowing them to avail themselves of a free education?

Nothing wrong on its face with any of that. The problem is the nature of college buckets itself, which isn't going to change. High-end basketball institutions, after all, still operate under the same parameters as any professional business, and are just as susceptible to corruption. They still maintain devil's pacts with the same apparel companies whose influence the NCAA is trying to lessen in the summertime. Which means the same black-market dynamic the FBI exposed is going to continue, if perhaps in a different form.

When the product is as lucrative as high-end NCAA buckets, there will always be people looking to game the system. Different rules just mean different rules to find a way around. Not designated as "elite" enough to hire an NCAA-approved agent? Lemme take care of that for ya, kid. I'll pass some money under the table to bump up your status a bit; you pay me back by signing with this apparel company I just happen to represent. Deal?

And so it will go.