The NCAA is locked into serious legal challenges on a number of fronts but the most immediate threat to the organization has been unfolding in a Los Angeles courthouse the past few weeks. That’s the site of the latest lawsuit against the group, brought about by former USC assistant coach Todd McNair as part of his defamation case over a show cause he was handed by the Committee on Infractions eight years ago.
Despite numerous flaws in both the process and conclusion in punishing both the coach and the school, NCAA President Mark Emmert went on the defensive as part of a video deposition in the case in some of his most notable comments about the case in years.
“I have seen nothing that has convinced me that the Committee on Infractions or the appeals committee should have found any other answer in that case,” Emmert said, according to ESPN. “I don’t see anything that has convinced me that they erred in making that finding.”
The deposition was taped in Indianapolis last month after a long back-and-forth between lawyers from the NCAA and McNair over even interviewing Emmert. While he did add that there were issues involving a staffer sending emails to COI members, the testimony was otherwise straightforward for the man who took over the NCAA not long before the USC case came to a head. The Trojans were docked 30 scholarships and underwent a two-year bowl ban after being charged with a lack of institutional control while McNair served a one-year show cause.
The video was played in front of the jury this week as part of the trial that should wrap up sometime in the middle of May. McNair is slated to follow-up Emmert by taking the stand starting on Thursday afternoon as part of his nearly decade-long quest to clear his name.