NCAA President Mark Emmert took the witness stand today as the Ed O’Bannon antitrust trial continued. This was a day many had been waiting for as Emmert was asked questions about the structure and role of the NCAA and was asked to defend the position of the NCAA and how it operates. He deflected some questions thrown his way, and he had a couple of mistakes along the way, such as referring to student-athletes as full-time athletes.
Here is a Twitter snapshot of some of the notable Emmert moments, not including the time when the witness chair seemingly collapsed form underneath the NCAA president...Emmert says meaning of amateurism in NCAA “has always been steadfastly that one will not be paid to play their sport.”
— George Schroeder (@GeorgeSchroeder) June 19, 2014
Emmert just fumbled. Said NCAA rules regarding amateurism have changed but never wavered in core of being “full time athlete”
— Mark Schlabach (@Mark_Schlabach) June 19, 2014
Emmert said earlier that it was a core value that a player be “a full-time athlete.” Whoops. Pomerantz has him correct for the record.
— Andy Staples (@Andy_Staples) June 19, 2014
Emmert talks 20 hour rule and says it’s hard to keep “driven” and “competitive” athletes to spend more time on academics.
— Sara Ganim (@sganim) June 19, 2014
Emmert explaining cost of attendance would not be considered paying players, but “expenses incurred through being a student.”
— George Schroeder (@GeorgeSchroeder) June 19, 2014
Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports had some thoughts on Emmert taking the stand as well.
As Forde suggests in the video above, even if the NCAA ends up losing this trial, expect an appeal to be served up in quick fashion. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany is expected to testify on Friday. How conference revenue is distributed between schools should be expected to be one of the main topics. Given the revenue the Big Ten has enjoyed, it would make sense to ask the commissioner what he knows about it.