A savior for football ...Studying the latest effort of the NCAA NCAA abbr. National Collegiate Athletic Association to restore morality to the administration of intercollegiate athletics, we must confess wonderment over some of the ways in which it intends to hold its members accountable for the enforcement of the rules. Forgive us if we don't quote chapter and verse quote chapter and verse - [by analogy with the mainstream phrase] To cite a relevant excerpt from an appropriate bible. "I don't care if "rn" gets it wrong; "Followup-To: poster" is explicitly permitted by RFC 1036. I'll quote chapter and verse if you don't believe me. . We have used up our credulity cre·du·li·ty n. A disposition to believe too readily. [Middle English credulite, from Old French, from Latin cr about enforcement, idealism, soul-searching, and most of the other bromides that go with reform. We used to believe that whenever large groups of intelligent and basically idealistic people cannot get a handle on their problems, it might be because the problems are unsolvable or the group doesn't want them cleaned up. That's cynicism, of course, which is no solution for anything. We love college sport and have respect for the administrators who run it. But as we sit around waiting for everyone to wake up and sing, we have to wonder: Is there another way to handle the never-ending problems of college sport? Probably not. But a thought does occur to us. Remember the incredible blight that befell Major League Baseball "MLB" and "Major Leagues" redirect here. For other uses, see MLB (disambiguation) and Major Leagues (disambiguation). Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball. in 1919-20? A whole team selling out a World Series. There was no question about their guilt, but the courts somehow found a way to find them innocent. Baseball was imperiled. It had lost the trust of the public. Two things happened simultaneously: A player named Babe Ruth started hitting home runs by the bushel bushel: see English units of measurement. , and the owners came up with a new kind of executive, an iron-fisted judge who would run everything and make any kind of decision he deemed necessary. His word was law. He had power over everything. And it worked. Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis brought in the law and Babe Ruth brought in the fans. They saved baseball. Could a commissioner do a similar job in college football? We can name at least one person who could (if he were still alive). He was a professional educator, a writer, a man of the world, a historian, a lifetime baseball fan, a man everyone liked and trusted, and a moralist mor·al·ist n. 1. A teacher or student of morals and moral problems. 2. One who follows a system of moral principles. 3. One who is unduly concerned with the morals of others. . And he had proved himself in a tragically truncated career as commissioner of baseball The Commissioner of Baseball is the chief executive of Major League Baseball.[1] Under the direction of the Commissioner, the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball hires and maintains the sport's umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, and television contracts. . [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] His name was Bartlett Giamatti. Find such a man. Give him the responsibility. With the support of the coaches and college presidents, he'd be able to clean house in 15 minutes. On a clear day, maybe 10 minutes. |
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