Emmert: Next NCAA prez needs ‘lot of patience’
LAS VEGAS — Outgoing NCAA president Mark Emmert had some advice for his replacement in his first public appearance since announcing in April that he was stepping down from position he has held for the past 12 years.
“The job requires a lot of patience. And it requires a lot of tolerance for ambiguity, and it’s got a lot of moving parts because of the scale of the enterprise,” Emmert said Wednesday during an appearance at the Sports Business Journal’s Intercollegiate Athletics Forum. “But that just means you got to stay as focused as you can on what really counts. And that’s doing the right thing by the athletes.”
Emmert, 69, has kept a low profile during this lame-duck period as the NCAA’s leader. His tenure is set to end June 30, but the search for his successor is expected to be completed by the NCAA convention the second week of January.
He will leave the NCAA, which has more than 1,100 member schools that serve half a million college athletes, as it is in the process of a sweeping reorganization and attempt to decentralize the regulation of college athletics.
Major college sports is transitioning into a new era where athletes can be paid endorsers, while enforcement of rules regarding name, image and likeness has been flimsy. The games have never been more valuable media content, but the NCAA is still fighting to keep from paying the athletes like employees.
Emmert has led the NCAA through a tumultuous time when it has been battered by antitrust lawsuits and threatened by politicians. Last year’s unanimous ruling on NIL by the Supreme Court left the NCAA exposed to further legal attacks and pivoting to deregulation.
“Mark walked … in at one of — if not the most challenging time for intercollegiate athletics and has continued to lead well,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said. “I think you have to take a step back and look at how the NCAA is continuing to function as a priority and how it’s continuing to adapt, and you can make plenty of observations: ‘Well, it hasn’t done this. It hasn’t done that.’ That true in any endeavor.”
Despite all the uncertainty, Emmert said leading the NCAA is still a desirable opportunity.
“I guess I’ll confess to a little bit of envy to whoever winds up stepping in next because they get to continue to shape that amazing American institution,” he said.
Emmert called college sports a “public trust” and conceded the job was even bigger than he thought it would be when took over in 2010. Emmert had previously served as the president at the University of Washington and LSU.
Even with that experience in higher education, Emmert admitted the governance of college sports — a representative democracy with limited power for the person sitting at the top — was complicated.
Chris Howard, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Arizona State, called Emmert “a good leader” who had a challenging role.
“It’s a different type of leadership that’s much different than that stern hand that we think we associate with leadership,” said Howard, a former college football player at Air Force who previously was president at Robert Morris.
Emmert has faced plenty of criticism as he became the face of an increasing unpopular entity.
“I think it’s in a lot of ways inappropriate to have an administrator be the face of the NCAA,” Emmert said. “The athletes are the face of the NCAA.”
Emmert, who made $2.9 million in 2021, said the only time the criticism bothered him was when he was accused of not caring about the athletes and prioritizing generating revenue.
“That’s painful. It’s offensive,” he said. “It means somebody’s not spent two minutes trying to figure out you know who this guy is and what he’s done all his life.”
Emmert said it was fair to say the NCAA should have acted sooner on name, image and likeness, but the association’s ability to create guidelines was overrun by state laws and other challenges.
“And the legal environment right now really constrains any national entity from saying, ‘Yeah, here’s how we’re going to manage this and control it,'” he said.
He called, again, for Congress to create federal NIL legislation.
“The job requires a lot of patience. And it requires a lot of tolerance for ambiguity, and it’s got a lot of moving parts because of the scale of the enterprise. But that just means you got to stay as focused as you can on what really counts. And that’s doing the right thing by the athletes.”
Mark Emmert
Emmert said he did not regret going outside the NCAA’s normal enforcement process to punish Penn State‘s football program in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse case in 2014. The NCAA was sued for the penalties and sanctions against Penn State, and eventually many of them were rolled back.
“In retrospect, it would have been useful to do that a little more slowly, probably,” Emmert said. “And maybe some of the anxiety would have died down, but I don’t second guess that one as much as people think.”
Emmert said he has played no role in choosing the next NCAA president beyond helping the board of governors create a job description.
“I’ve just loved 12 years of working in this space. I think college sports is one of the most consequential things that goes on in the country,” Emmert said. “And I hope people always recognize that we’re talking about changing a half a million people’s lives on an annual basis. There’s very few enterprises that do that.”
Texas State officials have informed the Sun Belt Conference that they are expecting an offer from the Pac-12 in the near future, sources told ESPN.
The talks between Texas State and the Pac-12 have intensified in the last 24 hours, per ESPN sources, although a formal offer from the Pac-12 to Texas State has yet to be delivered.
A formal offer is anticipated in the near future, per sources, as Texas State is in talks to join the league for the 2026-27 school year.
It’d be the next step in the courtship, which may not formally conclude until Monday because of the process required. To formally accept an offer upon receipt, Texas State would need to call a board of regents meeting, which requires 72 hours of notice to convene, per state of Texas open meeting laws.
Pac-12 officials have also alerted the Sun Belt of the talks with Texas State, per sources. Texas State has been the heavy favorite to join the league for months.
That anticipation has increased this week because Texas State’s exit fee to join the Pac-12 for 2026 doubles from $5 million to $10 million on July 1. For formal board approval and to avoid the buyout, Texas State’s invitation would have to come late this week.
Texas State would become the league’s eighth football member, which the Pac-12 needs as a minimum to operate as an FBS conference. (There’d be nine overall, including Gonzaga.)
The Pac-12’s football membership for 2026 consists of Oregon State, Washington State, Boise State, San Diego State, Colorado State, Utah State and Fresno State. Gonzaga doesn’t sponsor football but also will be in the league.
Texas State is a school of 40,000 students that gives the Pac-12 a presence in the football-rich state of Texas. It joined the WAC in 2012 under coach Dennis Franchione and entered the Sun Belt a year later.
Texas State held a verbal offer in the fall to join the Mountain West but ultimately turned that down.
The Bobcats are coming off back-to-back bowl wins and an eight-win season under coach GJ Kinne.
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Eli Lederman
After a series of high-profile whiffs in the 2026 quarterback class, Oregon landed one of the cycle’s fastest-rising prospects on Wednesday with a commitment from three-star passer Bryson Beaver.
Beaver, a 6-foot-3 recruit from Murrieta, California, initially committed to Boise State on April 19. But amid fresh interest from a series of major Power 4 programs including Alabama, Ole Miss and Oregon, Beaver pulled his pledge from the Broncos and reopened his recruitment earlier this month on June 12. He took unofficial trips to Alabama and Ole Miss days later, and Beaver drew new offers from Auburn and LSU on Monday in the wake of a standout performance at the Elite 11 Finals — the nation’s premier high school passing camp — from June 17-19.
His commitment to the Ducks follows an official visit to Oregon this past weekend, closing a rapid, 13-day re-recruitment.
“The last few weeks have been a blessing-I’ve had some great conversations with amazing coaches from top programs, and I’m super thankful for the interest I’ve received,” Beaver wrote on social media.
Beaver joins Oregon as the 10th commit in the Ducks’ incoming recruiting class, and his pledge closes the program’s protracted pursuit of a 2026 quarterback in recent months.
Oregon appeared settled at the position in the cycle after four-star passer Jonas Williams (No. 155 overall) committed to the program last August. But Williams’ flip to USC six months later on Feb. 21 forced the Ducks to renew their efforts in the 2026 quarterback market this spring, setting the stage for several near-misses before Beaver’s commitment on Wednesday.
Oregon spent early spring engaged in a neck-and-neck battle with Georgia for No. 1 quarterback prospect Jared Curtis (No. 5 in the 2026 ESPN), who ultimately committed to the Bulldogs on May 5 following visits with both programs. On Tuesday, the Ducks finished second for a top quarterback once again, this time losing out on four-star BYU pledge Ryder Lyons (No. 49). Two-sport star Matt Ponatoski, who is expected to be selected in next month’s MLB draft, is another quarterback prospect the Ducks actively recruited in recent weeks.
Beaver, a strong-armed passer who threw for 3,214 yards and 33 touchdowns as a junior last fall, will arrive on campus next year alongside a pair of ESPN 300 pass catchers.
Five-star Kendre’ Harrison, ESPN’s No. 1 tight end in 2026, has been committed to Oregon since Nov. 2024. Wide receiver Messiah Hampton ( No. 193 overall) became the program’s most recent top-300 addition on offense earlier this month.
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