NEW ORLEANS — Mike Krzyzewski is leaving college coaching at some point in the next few days, but Duke’s Hall of Fame coach has plenty of opinions about where the sport — the industry that’s been his life’s work — is heading.
For the second day in a row, Krzyzewski used his Final Four news conference to discuss the NCAA’s changing landscape and its leadership structure.
“I think we’re all frustrated,” Krzyzewski said, one day ahead of Duke’s Final Four showdown with rival North Carolina. “And that’s good, because if you’re frustrated it means then all constituents want change.”
Frequently over the past few years, including the 10 months since he announced he would retire following this basketball season, the 75-year-old Krzyzewski has criticized a lack of leadership as the NCAA goes through what can only be described as a constitutional crisis.
State legislatures around the country passed laws allowing college athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness, which previously violated NCAA amateurism rules. In response, the NCAA hurriedly changed its bylaws last July so such arrangements wouldn’t impact a player’s eligibility.
Coach K has questions
On Thursday, Krzyzewski’s Final Four news conference preceded NCAA president Mark Emmert’s annual meeting with reporters at the event where he discusses the state of college sports.
Asked if he would stick around to hear Emmert’s thoughts, Krzyzewski said he had a team to coach. But he did share questions he would ask Emmert.
“I think the very first one is, where are we going? And who is going to be in charge?” Krzyzewski said. “Not that I’m saying that he shouldn’t be. But what are we doing? What are we doing to make sure we’re taking care of all divisions that are under your roof — men, women, all sports, those that make money and those that just make men and women out of people. And probably that’s more important than the other, but you have to do that.
“So there’s balance. And we’re understanding that everyone cannot be treated the same. That doesn’t mean that everyone’s not treated fairly. And it’s a new day that should have been a new day decades ago. So we’ve got a lot to make up for.”
That last comment is one that Krzyzewski has frequently trotted out. He said changes should have been made the NCAA incrementally over the past 30 years that would have been easier to digest. Instead, the organization is going through massive changes all at once, including NIL but also the new transfer rules which allow, in most cases, players to change schools without sitting out a season of competition.
Mark Emmert responds
A new constitution was drawn up last year and approved earlier this year.
“That’s nerve-racking and angst-filled, but it’s also very exciting,” Emmert said. “And I think it’s going to provide some key opportunities for students. And at the end of the day that’s the single most important thing here.”
Emmert was then asked about Krzyzewski’s question — Where are we going? — and provided an answer.
“We’re at a place of a huge disjuncture, if you will, around college sports,” Emmert said. “This is just my opinion, we have a relatively short window of time during which the schools, especially in Division I, need to decide what they want — and this is where Congress needs to come in as well — what they want the relationship between student-athletes and their schools to be, what the governance structures can be currently in the legal environment, and similarly how the rules and structures at a national level, at a divisional level, at a conference level, can be made and should be made.”
A 1969 West Point graduate who retired from his Army commission in 1974 as a captain, Krzyzewski suggested the NCAA fall back on the military’s approach to handling issues, which isn’t so much top down.
“A squad leader takes care of what’s happening in the squad,” Krzyzewski said. “A company commander takes care — the general doesn’t take care of all of those things because then that general is covered with minutia. It’s not minutia at the squad level because it can end up being something big.
“I hope I make a little bit of sense. I’m not blasting anybody. I’m saying, come on, do this the right way, though. And I don’t see it happening that way. And the only way you do that is to understand the people on the ground.
“You have got to listen to the coaches of each of these sports. They represent the players. OK? And know what’s happening. Otherwise, you have absent congressmen who never know what the hell’s happening in their district.”
