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NCAA president Mark Emmert on Thursday said college sports' governing body would stop selling individual jerseys and other team-related memorabilia on its website, calling the practice a "mistake" and admitting others might view it as hypocritical.
The NCAA's decision comes on the heels of ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas exposing the controversial enterprise on Twitter earlier this week. Bilas criticized the NCAA for selling jerseys of popular college basketball and football players on its ShopNCAAsports.com website.
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In the national office, we can certainly recognize why that could be seen as hypocritical, and indeed I think the business of having the NCAA selling those kinds of goods is a mistake, and we're going to exit that business immediately. It's not something that's core to what the NCAA is about, and it probably never should have been in the business.
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-- NCAA president Mark Emmert on why jersey, memorabilia sales will stop
Bilas typed the names of Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel, Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd, South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney and other high-profile players into the NCAA site's search function and received back matching jerseys. The NCAA disabled the search function after Bilas exposed the results.
"In the national office, we can certainly recognize why that could be seen as hypocritical, and indeed I think the business of having the NCAA selling those kinds of goods is a mistake, and we're going to exit that business immediately," Emmert said. "It's not something that's core to what the NCAA is about, and it probably never should have been in the business."
Mark Lewis, the NCAA executive vice president of championships and alliances, confirmed the site will stop selling team and player merchandise.
The NCAA's decision comes on the heels of ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas exposing the controversial enterprise on Twitter earlier this week. Bilas criticized the NCAA for selling jerseys of popular college basketball and football players on its ShopNCAAsports.com website.
“
In the national office, we can certainly recognize why that could be seen as hypocritical, and indeed I think the business of having the NCAA selling those kinds of goods is a mistake, and we're going to exit that business immediately. It's not something that's core to what the NCAA is about, and it probably never should have been in the business.
”
-- NCAA president Mark Emmert on why jersey, memorabilia sales will stop
Bilas typed the names of Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel, Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd, South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney and other high-profile players into the NCAA site's search function and received back matching jerseys. The NCAA disabled the search function after Bilas exposed the results.
"In the national office, we can certainly recognize why that could be seen as hypocritical, and indeed I think the business of having the NCAA selling those kinds of goods is a mistake, and we're going to exit that business immediately," Emmert said. "It's not something that's core to what the NCAA is about, and it probably never should have been in the business."
Mark Lewis, the NCAA executive vice president of championships and alliances, confirmed the site will stop selling team and player merchandise.
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