DES MOINES — Iowa State’s endowed director of athletics Jamie Pollard didn’t hold back.
He rarely does, of course.
But Pollard was asked on Monday an the first stop of the Tailgate Tour about the growing gap between the SEC and Big Ten bloc of the Power Four/Power Five greater whole and, boy, he got fired up.
Here’s the full question from The Des Moines Register’s Travis Hines and Pollard’s response, in Q & A form (below), plus a follow-up. For background, the “CSC” is the College Sports Commission, which was created in the wake of the House Settlement reached last summer that “allows participating institutions to share revenue directly with student-athletes.”
Q: “What are your thoughts on how the CSC is holding up, and what it’s going to look like going forward?”
A: “You know, it’s frustrating, because collectively the four conferences created the CSC, and we spent a lot of money. The core commissioners spent a lot of money creating the CSC, and so then to have two of the conferences not want to adhere to it is perplexing to me, because then it’s like, well, why did we spend the money? If you didn’t want rules, then why did you create this entity? That’s what’s frustrating to me, the same people that say they want rules only want rules if they don’t apply to them.”
Follow-up Q: “How tenable is that going forward if the Big Ten and SEC don’t want to play by the same rules as everyone else, or the ones that they agreed to initially?”
A: “I said it three years ago, let ‘em break away. I would turn it around and say we should break away from them. Let them go, but they have to go in all their sports and see how fun it is to play baseball and softball and track when it’s just the (34) of you. That’s what I think we should do, but I’m one person, and that’s probably a little more draconian, but that’s how I feel about it. Let’s quit talking about it, quit threatening, go do it. But if you’re going to do it, you don’t get to just do it in football and then keep all your other sports with us. No, take them all, see how fun it is.”
Second follow-up Q: “Is there any appetite for that elsewhere, or is that a Jamie Pollard opinion?”
A: “I’ve seen, actually, you know, when you watch, you look at the ticker that comes out, there’s more and more people starting to say that, so maybe there’ll be (a) groundswell to make that happen, but I’ll just say it’s getting tiring, because it’s like Groundhog Day. Every single day is the same thing, if you don’t want rules, then don’t have rules, but it’s a membership organization, and the membership says there’s rules.”
All right, then. Suffice it to say college athletics is mired in a massive mess that’s rooted in greed (of course). Without rules, chaos reigns. Without some semblance of equality among the member institutions, the whole enterprise could come crashing down. Maybe it should. There’s a lot of rot at the core of it. But there’s also a lot of good remaining at the roots. It’s a big club, as the late, great comedian George Carlin once said, “and we ain’t in it.” I just get to cover it, for which I’m grateful because of the many good parts. I’ve seen many young student-athletes blossom into great men and women. I’ve seen NIL serve both players and hurting communities. I’ve also seen self-serving power players willing to sell out everything for ever-growing money and power; short-sighted in their pursuits, leaving destruction in their wake.
Surely saner (and more caring) heads will prevail, though, right? Right? RIGHT?!?!?
Stay tuned. I always appreciate Pollard’s straight talk, even as it often generates controversy. See the full interview below.
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