While I think the NCAA is a corrupt, inept, unnecessary organization, there are times I actually have some sympathy for President Mark Emmert. Saturday morning wasn’t exactly one of those times. The NCAA chose to announce that it had decided North Carolina State was eliminated from the College World Series at 2:10 AM on the East Coast, when most of the team’s fans and school’s administrators were asleep. It is the absolute peak of cowardice and ineptitude on the part of an organization largely built on those two pillars.
Had they been able to participate as scheduled, the Wolfpack would be forced to play a winner-take-all semifinal against Vanderbilt with just 12 players. Covid protocols and diagnoses had made the rest of the roster unavailable. NC State was willing to play under those conditions. The NCAA was not. The organization ruled the event a no-contest and Vanderbilt punched the first ticket to the championship round.
Back in Raleigh, where I live, Wolfpack fans howled at the injustice. “The NCAA was out for us the whole time!” “The NCAA exists to prop up the SEC!” “ESPN did this!”. This is what instant reaction from the only fan base in the world that I am starting to believe is indeed cursed sounds like.
Did the NCAA screw NC State? Yeah, there is no debate that the advantages of having a fully vaccinated roster were never clearly presented to NC State or anyone else in the tournament. But let’s not absolve NC State’s administration and roster of all responsibility here. They screwed themselves. We’re 16 months into this pandemic. There is no way they can say they didn’t know that unvaccinated players could put their team at a disadvantage.
Fans react in black and white. I have lived in North Carolina and amongst NC State fans long enough to know that despite not having a team that was actually good at anything in most of my lifetime, they believe with all of their heart and soul that the NCAA has put a target on their backs. It is funny, but at the same time, I feel for their fans. If you grew up hearing this and then watched what has happened to teams with “NC State” emblazoned across their chests over and over again, it would be impossible to convince you otherwise.
But you’re not a fan. You’re the media or an entertainer. You can call yourself whatever feels appropriate. You have the ability to think logically about this situation before you react. Do that and you will come to two obvious conclusions: No one is innocent and there are no good guys here.
Ranting and raving on your show on Monday does two things. Neither of them really help. First, it gives you nowhere to take the conversation. Second, it turns the story solely into a college baseball story.
College baseball.
Does that feel like a good content choice?
Ever?
When you introduce nuance into the conversation, you get more avenues to walk down and this becomes bigger than a single incident in a single sport.
NC State being ousted from the College World Series is another example of something I wrote weeks ago. The vaccine conversation IS A SPORTS CONVERSATION NOW! Jon Rahm, NFL protocols, attendance at EURO 2020, there are so many sports stories where we see someone’s decision regarding the vaccine has consequences in the stadium and on the field.
Go back to before the vaccine was widely available. VCU was eliminated from the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Notre Dame was eliminated from the NCAA Ice Hockey Tournament. Rice was eliminated from the NCAA Volleyball Tournament. Countless bowl games were cancelled. All of it was due to Covid-related issues. How was NC State baseball coach Elliott Avent not hammering home the idea that it is important for everyone on the roster to be vaccinated, because this could cost us?
I get that in the aftermath of the decision Avent didn’t want to have a vaccine debate. I get that him saying that he was in no mood to have that conversation right now is no indication of how he feels about the vaccine or his personal vaccination status. But his statements that “I don’t try to indoctrinate my kids with my values or my opinions” and “these are young men that can make their own decisions” are weak.
You’re a coach. This is your team. You can’t rule with an iron fist, but you have to steer the ship and make it clear to your unvaccinated players that they just cost their team the chance to play for a national championship. Saying that is not akin to saying that Avent is a bad guy or that the NC State school seal is now the official logo of the anti-vaccination movement.
Look, for all I know, maybe that happened in private. Elliott has been in that role for a long time. I have interacted with him several times. He is a good guy and a smart guy. I can’t imagine that it hasn’t dawned on him that this was totally preventable.
Now, on the other side of the fence, let’s put the NCAA under the microscope. Do you want to talk about a bad PR month? This is an organization that just had a US Supreme Court Justice say its entire business model is essentially illegal. It was not at all prepared for states making their own laws regarding players being compensated for the use of their name, image, and likeness, despite the fact that many of these bills were passed months ago. Now, in the middle of the night, it decided to give the boot to the best underdog story in the College World Series.
To make matters worse for the NCAA, it was absolutely embarrassed by the Douglas County Health Department. The NCAA tried to throw the health department under the bus. The official story is that Douglas County said NC State had to go and there was nothing the NCAA could do about it. The health department was quick to say that was not true.
How anyone can argue that this organization shouldn’t be burned to the ground is beyond me. Everyday the NCAA does something new that is indefensible. If, by now, you haven’t realized that players in all NCAA sports are exploited at the whim of university presidents across the country, who clearly know their decisions are indefensible, then you are a moron and a bad person.
Look at that! We just did a little topic tree action and now have turned a story where all you can really do is go to the phones into multiple conversations. Bruce Gilbert must be beaming!
Present this topic with some rage if you want. That is a totally valid way to talk about this story if it is relevant to your audience, but rage only offers one conversation. Thinking a little deeper has now gotten us to a place where we can discuss the role of a coach and the morality of the very existence of the NCAA.
Nuance doesn’t always play well on sports radio, but that is largely because presenting nuance alone isn’t all that interesting. Nuance’s value to sports radio is in the prep process. Stop, breathe, and think a little deeper. That is how new, more interesting topics reveal themselves.
Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
