Twenty-four hours after being quoted saying he had “new information” on the O.J. Mayo case and would launch an investigation, NCAA President Myles Brand did an about face.
“No, I think the headline there was mistaken,” Brand said Wednesday on ESPN Radio. “What I said and what I’ll repeat is that we’ll review all the new information that’s come up through ESPN. We don’t have any additional information or anything of the kind. In fact, we’re going to look into that, as we would in any case. It’s not about the Mayo case. Any time information is presented to us, we’ll look at at, and that’s what we’re doing now. We’ll review it.”
Brand, who has come down on the culture of summer basketball but has probably never been to a summer event in his life, added that he planned to take “several of our enforcement people” and ask them to “focus (their) energies on basketball. You have to be able to gain the knowledge through attending events, networking, knowing who to talk to. It’s a challenging environment, moreso than the other sports and we need you to concentrate on this area.”
The other bombshell Brand dropped with Mike Tirico and Scott Van Pelt was that only six Division I programs are operating in the black. Brand made this statement in the context of arguing that it was unfeasible to pay student-athletes a stipend.
“Frankly, I think it’s a non-starter, that whole proposal (to pay student-athletes),” Brand said. “There are only six schools that are actually operating in the black in all of intercollegiate athletics. Six schools operating in the black over the last five years in intercollegiate athletics.
“Everyone’s subsidizing intercollegiate athletics. They don’t always admit it, but everyone’s subsidizing intercollegiate athletics, except for a very small handful.”
