The NCAA First Real Response To The Basketball Scandal

As fallout from the college basketball scandal continues to roil the sport, the NCAA has made an initial move towards change and it’s a fairly traditional American response: appoint a committee.

And as the Duke chronicle points out, it’s one that Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski has, or could have, a fair amount of influence over.

The members:

• Condoleeza Rice (chair)
• Mary Sue Coleman (President Association of American Universities)
• Gen. Martin Dempsey
• Mark Emmert (NCAA president)
• Jeremy Foley (former Florida A.D.)
• Jefferey Hathaway (Hofstra A.D.)
• Grant Hill (Duke and NBA legend)
• Rev. John Jenkins (Notre Dame president)
• Mike Montgomery (former Stanford & Cal coach)
• Bud Peterson (Georgia Tech president)
• David Robinson (Naval Academy grad & NBA legend)
• Kathryn Ruemmler (Former White House Counsel)
• Gene Smith (Ohio State A.D.)
• John Thompson (former Georgetown coach)

Well you can say this: it’s a smart group and a number of these people are well known for their character and integrity.

Members like Hill, Robinson, Dempsey and Montgomery are universally respected. Dr. Rice is a political figure and will get some of the recent polarization but we don’t think anyone seriously disputes her intelligence. She’s a very formidable leader. Our only question is her awareness of college basketball. She’s famous for her love of football - she is from Alabama after all - and her stated career goal is to be the commissioner of the NFL.

But as we said, she’s a brilliant woman and while she can’t mind-meld the experiences of those who coached and played, she’ll know the material inside out by the time the committee issues its report. And having an outsider as chair is probably a very smart move on the NCAA’s part because the game needs a look from a fresh set of eyes.

Dempsey had a brilliant military career and as we’ve seen with Duke basketball, there are many elements of the military culture which can be useful in the civilian world.

We didn’t realize that he was now a professor at Duke.

And while Robinson grew to fame as a basketball player, he’s an incredibly smart man.

We don't know much about the other members, but those guys should have a solid and useful presence.