BSU's Kustra takes aim at NCAA reform

Boise State president Bob Kustra has never been one to shy away from giving his opinion on the direction of college football. In an op-ed you can find here that was submitted to USA Today, Kustra gives a blistering report on the direction college sports have taken recently under the guidance of the NCAA.

Kustra takes issue with the NCAA leadership and how it has failed to control the decision-making process at the Division 1 level. Squarely in his cross-hairs is the influence the BCS has wielded in the NCAA decision-making process, and how little has changed with the demise of the BCS system.  That void was quickly replaced by the so-called “high resource” five conferences who are now pulling the strings. He points out that two of the P5 conferences are the ones who seem to be calling the shots for the others

There is “grab for money and power” according to Kustra, who does not mince his words.  That grab is cloaked in the fabric those conferences are wrapping around the welfare of helping the student-athletes, such as being able to pay them beyond the scholarship.

The Boise State president notes that he sides with former NCAA President Myles Brand who termed the “arms race” in Division 1 athletic budgets as the alarming direction that amateur athletics is taking. While this lurch toward commercialism in athletics is troubling, Kustra also finds it just as upsetting that his fellow university presidents are so easy to fall in line behind the powerful conference commissioners who seek to control NCAA reforms.

Kustra sums up his opinions by saying it is time for the NCAA to step up as an organization and put a stop to the arms race, take a stand for fiscal responsibility, and regain its the control of intercollegiate athletics.