NCAA names new prez--surprise pick

[HouWarrior]

INDIANAPOLIS -- University of Washington president Mark A. Emmert became the NCAA's new chief executive on Tuesday, ending the search that began in November.

Emmert succeeds Myles Brand, who died last September from pancreatic cancer. Brand was the first ex-university president to lead college sports' largest governing body and the first chief executive to die in office. Jim Isch has served as interim president since Sept. 22 and will continue to do so for the next several months.

Emmert will begin his duties Nov. 1. NCAA officials said Emmert was given a five-year contract.

It was a surprise choice.

The early front-runners were University of Hartford president Walter Harrison, Georgia president Michael Adams and NCAA executive Bernard Franklin.

But the NCAA decided to go in a different direction, opting for a man they thought could deliver the organization's message effectively in any venue.

Executive committee chairman Ed Ray, the Oregon president who knew Emmert from his days at Washington, said the initial list of nearly 100 candidates was whittled to 32, then to a handful of finalists who were interviewed Tuesday afternoon.

At about 5 p.m. central time, Ray called Emmert and offered him the job.

Emmert became Washington's 30th president in June 2004. He is one of the highest-paid public college presidents in the nation. He came to Seattle from LSU, where he was chancellor.



He also has a passion for sports.

In an interview with The Associated Press this month, Emmert said Washington's performance in the NCAA basketball tournaments was one of the highlights of his year.[/color]
"That was a pleasure and a delight to watch," he said.[/color][/color][/color]

When asked about suggestions by some that participation the NCAA tournament should include an academic requirement, Emmert bragged about the academic abilities of Washington's student-athletes. He said most of the university's athletes outperform the rest of the student body academically.

Emmert has been a master at building alumni support and fundraising. During his tenure, the university completed its most successful fundraising campaign in history, raising more than $2.68 billion.

[PJDunn]

Emmert was definitely more of an AD than University President.  He is quite the money man and completely supports the utter disconnect between college athletics and academics so he is a great choice for the NCAA job,

[damuts222]

He obviously doesn't know the academic situation of his student athletes. Wasn't Washington on the list of schools that wouldn't have made the NCAA tourney given the graduation rates of their basketball players?

[PJDunn]

Yup...29% graduation rate.  The graduation rate of the football team is in a freefall and all this looks great if you compare it to his tenure at LSU.  This hire just confirms what we all know...the NCAAs is just about the money.

[LON]

Was he around during Neuheisel (sp?) and Jerramy "It's not rape unless it's anal" Stevens?

If so, this hire is baffling.

[HouWarrior]

Yup...29% graduation rate.  The graduation rate of the football team is in a freefall and all this looks great if you compare it to his tenure at LSU.  This hire just confirms what we all know...the NCAAs is just about the money.

For sure-- his first take on tying tournament participation to Grad rate is a bs political spin, belying he's not likely to support such a tie any time soon (and the Washingtons, LSU's and Marylands of the world dont have to worry about grad/tourney bid tie ins;

ESPN: ".......Meanwhile, Education Secretary Arne Duncan has called on the NCAA to link academic performance to team eligibility in the postseason tourney.

Emmert agrees with the sentiment, not the approach.

"The broader issue is making sure that every institution has appropriate graduation rates regardless of whether they compete in the tournament," he said. "I think at the end of the day, Secretary Duncan had the right idea but probably the wrong metric. We need to make sure that we get high quality performance in the classroom as well as on the field."

"right idea/wrong metric" === (translation) nice thought, Arne / but dont you dare touch my billion$ principal source of NCAA $, by bringing up academic tie ins