Ideas are off the Mark

Let's get to the gist of this message right off the bat: Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is absolutely, positively, wrong.
His beliefs are misguided.
And he has a lot of money. (That's not a bad thing, necessarily, unless you combine it with the first two "qualities" -- for lack of a better term -- and then it's like a match in the hands of an arsonist.)
Responding to an e-mail question for a national newspaper early last week, Cuban was quoted: "I could care less about the welfare of the NCAA [basketball] game. ... The NCAA has established an environment where agents come in and mislead kids into thinking they can play in the NBA, and then when they can't, the kids are stuck with no place to go ... and the NCAA is completely responsible."
Cuban added, that if he was allowed, he would fund a college team with the understanding that all the players would be educated and given the opportunity to assess their NBA potential.
(While he's at it, why doesn't Cuban provide his potential players with parties and escorts ... oh, wait. That's already being done at Colorado and elsewhere.)
Right problem, wrong answer
In all seriousness, I'm not debating that there's a problem, a serious one, with the college game, be it football or basketball, the two cash cows that support virtually every athletic department in the country.
And, like Cuban, I believe there needs to be some major reforms made.
That's where our paths diverge.
Cuban's idea of a solution is to throw money at the problem. So, let me get this straight: the problem is caused by all the money that's generated and can be made; therefore, to fix the problem, let's, um, spend money.
Secondly, a fact that Cuban seems to want to overlook is that less than two percent of all the college basketball players in any given season will ever step foot on a court in an NBA uniform. He prefers to look only at the 100 or so highest-profile programs and ignore the hundreds of others that, while they may not compete on national television every weekend, quietly go about the mandate of graduating their players.
Late this week, the NCAA board of directors approved a series of measures that will tie scholarships and tournament revenue to graduation rates.
I don't believe this is the perfect solution, but for now it's a good start. Making schools ineligible for bowl games and the NCAA tournament, and the resulting moneys that could be lost, should be the next logical step.
Dumbing down
Also, Cuban's position seems to settling for the lowest common denominator, that is, to basically "dumb down" the entire NCAA.
He prefers to accept the problems facing college athletics as being unfixable, and rather than force those at the so-called bottom of the barrel to improve their record, accept the implication that the institutions that have followed the rules and maintained a standard of academic and athletic excellence would forsake that for the opportunity to send a small percentage of its athletes to the next level.
Unfortunately, Mark Cuban is the epitomy of his generation -- he has a quick fix-it kind of attitude, believing nothing can't be made better simply by tossing some greenbacks at it.
His sound-bite mentality is perfect for the sports talk radio shows he likes to frequent. His diatribes seem to make perfect sense for the moment, but by the end of the next commercial break you've forgotten everything he said.
Cuban, it was reported, was angered by another early exit by his team in the NBA playoffs. It was speculated he'll make a major overhaul of the team in the off-season to better compete with the league's elite teams.
What Cuban and those like him continually fail to realize is that quick fixes almost always lead to quick fizzes.
Cuban would be well advised to study those in his sport that have been successful over time. Rather than opt for the fast rise and often faster fall, they've built championship programs through diligent, hard work, and patience.
Reforming college athletics must be done likewise.
XRob Todor is sports editor of The Vindicator. Write to him at todor@vindy.com.