If there is one thing that the NCAA has gladly embraced since a federal corruption case rocked its world last September, it’s its role as the victim.

Victim. Victim. Victim. Poor old college sports, just a sad-sap victim.

In order for the fraud case to work, the U.S. Attorney’s office needed someone to be a victim of fraud. That meant labeling the colleges as victims of fraud based on the breaking of NCAA rules.

It’s tenuous. Earlier this month Kansas was deemed a victim of Adidas even as Kansas continued to finalize a nearly $200 million contract extension with Adidas. As a general rule, victims of fraud don’t look to extend business relationships with the perpetrator of said fraud.

But victims. Yes, everyone is a victim.

Well, the NCAA’s “independent” commission, chaired by Condoleezza Rice, certainly went all in on this concept when crafting its 60-page report that was released Wednesday morning. Empowered with trying to clean up a sport that hasn’t been able to operate within the NCAA’s framework of amateurism since, well, ever, the Rice Commission saw the demons everywhere but where they actually exist … in that rulebook that’s causing all the trouble.

“Some agents, summer coaches, and other third parties act as intermediaries and facilitators,” the report states. “In other words, the environment surrounding college basketball is a toxic mix of perverse incentives to cheat.”

View photos Condoleezza Rice’s commission on college basketball reform surely meant well, but it didn’t address the real problem facing the sport. (AP file photo) More

It’s all the environment, not the coaches and schools.

The report was like compliance office bingo. It went on and on, tagging all the bad guys. Shoe and apparel companies. Non-scholastic event organizers. AAU coaches. Agents. Intermediaries. It’s a good thing the commission had 12 people on it, they needed that many fingers to point.

Remember when this all used to be the fault of (insert inner city) high school coaches? Or Sonny Vaccaro? Or George Raveling? Or Myron Piggie? Or Worldwide Wes? Or whatever boogeyman they could sell to the public as tarnishing their pristine (and quite pretend) world. Well, all of the aforementioned aren’t involved here and the band is somehow still playing.

The commission’s centerpiece proposal is the abolishment of the NBA’s one-and-done. Getting rid of it is a good idea, but let’s not get carried away with the impact. Does anyone want to claim, with a straight face, that there was no “corruption” in college basketball pre-2005, when high school kids could go straight to the pros?

Almost nothing has changed between then and now, including the NCAA saying it’s all the fault of AAU coaches, agents and shoe companies.

Quite incredibly, the report dubs amateurism and the current college model as “a promise” and some kind of “trust.”

“Any policy or action that violates this trust is morally wrong,” the commission stated.

Someone wrote that? It suggests amateurism is a core principal of right or wrong (thou shalt not kill) rather than a concept invented in 1800s England so rich guys could rig the system and prevent the working class from beating them in sailing or polo.

With that as a guiding principle, it’s little surprise this report does nothing and will do nothing because it doesn’t address the basic issue – our nation engages in capitalism and NCAA rules are the papier-mache dam trying to stop its flood waters. Rather than look at about 100 years of failure and agree this is pointless, the commission wants to add more paper and then lots of investigators to punish the water.

There is little doubt the commission spent lots of time listening and debating. These are good people, but they come from the same establishment background. There are modest and well-meaning efforts at cracking NCAA entrenchment – namely allowing players greater access to agents, letting undrafted players maintain college eligibility and professionally diversifying key NCAA boards.

Other than that, it’s a tripling down on the enforcement of amateurism even though it is amateurism that is the only thing deeming otherwise reasonable behavior as “troubled.”

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