NCAA president Mark Emmert, the face of college athletics, has confrmed he will take stand Thursday in the O’Bannon vs. the NCAA anti-trust trail in an Oakland Federal courthouse.
Emmett’s attempts at reforming the organization have made him a lightning rod for controversy ever since took the job in 2010. He blew up Penn State’s football program in 2012 with severe sanctions in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal and has faced gale force winds blowing in his direction from the blockbuster legal action that seeks benefits and pay for players and a successful attempt by Northwestern football players to form a union.
Emmert has tried to soften the blows with several efforts to modify the rules and give the high resource schools more autonomy in decision making. But none have been implimented yet.
Emmert will attempt to prop up the NCAA’s contention that paying players would separate athletes from normal students on campus and turn college athletics in a money grab while making higher education a secondary priority.
The plaintiffs argue that the NCAA should allow them to sell their names, images and likenesses for profit, which would then be ditributed to them upon graduation.
Emmert is pushing a doctrine of amatuerism. His testimony is expected to provide fireworks during cross examination from players’ lawyer Bill Isaacson. In a 2012 deposition for a different case, Emmert sparred with lead O’Bannon attorney Michael Hausfeld, whose questions prompted 65 objections from the NCAA legal team. Isaacson would ordinarily be limited to the subjects raised by NCAA lead attorney Glenn Pomerantz in his questions to Emmert, but according to USA Today, Judge Claudia Wilken, who will decide this case, ruled earlier that Isaacson would be permitted to ask Emmert about anything, including his reform efforts.
Emmert’s testimony is expected to last more than one day.
