“There’s an environment of panic that’s been created,†the Notre Dame athletic director, Jack Swarbrick, said. “Everyone is moving so fast that you lose the broader perspective. Your assumption about the rest of the industry is that the moves are going to create wholesale change, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.†. . . . . . .
With more realignment seemingly to come — the boards of the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas each met on Monday to discuss possible moves — the
National Collegiate Athletic Association is powerless to oversee the process, the way a commissioner would in professional sports. The result has been an every-man-for-himself mentality among college presidents. Swarbrick said that colleges were moving so fast because of an atmosphere of “panic.†Notre Dame is an independent in football, with its own lucrative TV contract, but is a member of the Big East in other sports.
“What is lost in all of this is that the presidents — the very people tasked with enforcing the N.C.A.A.’s and the Knight Commission’s principle of ‘presidential control’ of college athletics — have proven to all that they are incapable of fulfilling their mandate,†Princeton’s athletic director, Gary Walters, said, referring to a watchdog group for college athletics. “The hypocrisy is almost tangible.†. . . .