When trying to identify even a scintilla of logic in the Darnell Autry affair, one’s first impulse is to accuse NCAA enforcers of a knee-jerk reaction.
But that would be only half true, because these people surely are not a bunch of knees.
So, perhaps it’s April Anxiety following March Madness, particularly after the men’s basketball tournament that fills so many administrative pockets with money earned by athletes dribbling for free produced disappointing TV numbers.
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Or, maybe the NCAA wants to shift attention from another problem area such as the University of Southern California, where there’s an investigation about a phantom class where jocks are awarded A’s just for wearing their letter jackets.
Or, consider the timing. When it comes to preaching hypocrisy for profit, the NCAA is usually in a photo finish with those Olympic windbags. But the Summer Games from Atlanta are right around the corner, so it’s advantage to the internationally infamous Dukes of Dandruff.
Whatever the twisted reasoning, NCAA gumshoes have landed feet first on the chest of Autry, a Northwestern running back who has been offered a cameo role in a supernatural thriller to be filmed in Italy this summer.
Autry, a sophomore theater major, seeks to gain knowledge, and that’s all. He would not be paid. But the NCAA, itself somewhat of a supernatural outfit, refused permission. That would be against the rules, and if the NCAA can lean on anything, it’s that thick rule book.
If there’s ever a paper shortage in America, blame it on NCAA shufflers, which still doesn’t mean they can see the forest through the trees.
Fortunately, Autry chose to sue the NCAA and Wednesday, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Thomas P. Durkin decided that Autry can partake in “The 18th Angel,” which is about a widowed professor who moves to Italy with his daughter. There they encounter the devil.
Please stand by for a holy response from the NCAA. An appeal is possible. More likely is pompous gobbledygook. In the theater of enlightenment and common sense, the NCAA is a short-subject film.
The NCAA can operate a farm system for the NBA and NFL, collect billions of dollars for selling players and games to the public, share none of it with the young men and women who are the product, but shame on a Darnell Autry, who fits the very definition of what a student-athlete should be.
“The issue is whether you are going to carve out individual exceptions to specific regulations agreed to by over 1,200 universities,” said Bedell Tippins, an NCAA legal beagle. “If you allow a very piecemeal fragmentation, then at the end of the day, what do you have left?”
What you have is a perverse message. Darnell Autry, you play football for us now, and worry about what might constitute the rest of your life later. We own you.
So, that’s what the college experience is about. Northwestern is supporting Autry because Northwestern is above it all, but the NCAA threatens him with loss of eligibility. This is a private matter, and the NCAA has precedent on its side.
But you have to like the idea of Autry testing the NCAA. May he run to daylight through this bureaucracy. Who polices the keystone cops? The NCAA can say it doesn’t want to open up a can of worms, yet it’s already mismanaging a sewer that is intercollegiate sports.
Gary Barnett, the Wildcats’ coach, says he doesn’t want a Rose Bowl title by forfeit. He needn’t worry. Of the 25 mercenaries in that bogus USC course, 24 got A’s and one poor soul whose uniform number shall remain unlisted, a B-minus.
But that doesn’t seem to energize the NCAA as much as preventing Autry from pursuing vocational training during his off-season without compensation. Maybe he should carry a gun, beat up a girlfriend, and cheat on his exams between drug arrests.
Then, the NCAA could look the other way.