NC legislature wants to take over state athletic assoc.

I read the article but can some explain to me what the main reasoning is for legislature to take over state athletics?

And can probably sprinkle in a heavy dose of power as well.

The NCHSAA was mishandling money big time and throwing down some sanctions that were pretty ridiculous. Last I heard, the NCHSAA will remain but the state will audit them and have input. They are also forcing private schools out of public school ball which I think is great. It needed to happen, too much unfair advantage. Hopefully the powers that be don't ruin it.

Wouldn't it be simpler to forbid the public schools to belong to the association, and to set up one of their own?

So here's the skinny:
1. This is a the case of a few members of the legislature who are unhappy primarily with the current director over their own personal and political disagreements
2. The NCHSAA has a lot of money. It hasn't been mismanaged, it isn't missing. Money hasn't been spent on questionable items. It just hasn't been spent. They have a lot of it. Politicians are using "money" to make it sound like someone's being dishonest. They aren't.
3. People always complain about these associations. I do myself. There is another thread on here about Georgia. Politicians again trying to use that without actually solving complaints.
4. One powerful politician doesn't like it because a team in his district was kept out of the playoffs because they violated a rule about how many players during a season can engage in a fight (like it or not, the rule has really limited fights).
5. Some are angry over cheerleaders and a Trump sign and the action the director took on that.
6. Some of them are unhappy over Covid protocols.
7. The director is an African-American woman. Some see her as arrogant and difficult to deal with. (You can take 5, 6 and 7 anyway you want, but this action is largely coming from very red areas of NC.)
8. Many believe it would go away if she did. She was near retirement. She'll probably hang on to fight this.
9. They reportedly have their own good old boy they want to put in charge.
10. The ADs, coaches association, principals---name any school group--and they all support NCHSAA and oppose this attempt to dismantle it..
11. I can't imagine anything worse than politicians in charge of high school sports

There are a few other background things which I'm not at liberty to post about since it was shown me in confidence.  Some of it ties together the political parts of this and others outside the legislature who are involved.  

I'm going to disagree with that last part - "the rules they agreed upon were broken by themselves" - that's not really how they NCHSAA operates. Or atleast, in practice - that's not really how it operates. 

See the NCHSAA says everything is agreed upon by "The Membership" O.k., but the people who actually interact with the rules and punishment are not "The Membership" that votes on them. Big picture, "The Membership" means principals - who change constantly, are often uninvolved / unqualified / uninterested in Athletics. They sent out a simple survey asking principals to vote to add a new classification and they could barely get enough responses. 

So the idea that the are rules that are "agreed upon" is silly. Most of the people who vote on the rules don't have the same position in 2-3 years. Athletic Directors in NC are only slightly more stable year to year. 

The biggest issue I have (and others, besides the greedy money thing which is a lot) is that the punishments don't fit the crime and there is no appeals. Every season we have teams kicked out of the playoffs for paperwork. In multiple sports. Suspend coaches. Fine schools. Punish the ADs (which is where almost all of the paperwork issues stem from). Instead, the NCHSAA just bans the team from the playoffs, poof - season over. There's no appeal.

This isn't a rare thing, every year has teams removed in multiple sports for simple eligibility issues - usually because of the AD not filing out eligibility correctly. It's almost always self-reported and innocent mistakes. 

The argument they give is "the rules are the rules" - but yet we have an entire legal system built on judges interpreting cases, arbitration, mediation and all sorts of context involving unique situations. If all that matters is "the rules are the rules", what do we even need an association for anyway? They don't provide any services to school. They don't investigate anything, nobody has ever heard of them actually stopping a transfer or ineligible player except by self-report... they make a bracket for each sport? Ok, find a software program and save everybody a lot of time and energy. 

Not at all. I was just addressing why changing the NCHSAA has support. The characterization that it’s a bunch of greedy politicians with political motives (re: money, race and trans issues) is not the full story. 

Like most things I hope they find a middle ground. The NCHSAA has no oversight, but plays around with (what is ultimately) tax payer money. I think they can and should have oversight by the DPI that they do not currently have. I think that being directly under the General Assembly could potentially be worse than the current status quo. However, as a football coach, it’s possible that going under the GA will be worse for sports as a whole, but offer some benefits to football.

It ain't the full story---but it's a bunch of greedy politicians that have personal agendas--not all are around race and transgender.  But if you want to pretend that a local school being kept out of the playoffs, race, transgender and the Trump sign had nothing to do with any of this, go ahead.   Some of us know about the emails that went from some of these guys to some of the money guys in NC politics who got involved because of those issues--not to help high school sports.   That's why the legislature is involved.  Period.  

Again, the state coaches, ADs, principals and superintendants ALL are opposed to what the legislature is doing.  

The other stuff that coaches complain about  is what made them think they could get away with fulfilling their agendas.  They're not in this to help kids or schools.  You're sadly mistaken if you think that's what's at play here.

Just what playing around have they done other than not spending the money---much of which is locked down and can't be spent?  They gave back over $4 million to schools last year.  Should they have been doing that?  Yep.  But they did that BEFORE this nonsense started.  They didn't steal it.  They didn't misspend it.  They didn't waste it.   

So, are you in the small minority who thinks they should be dissolved? 
If not, it's up to the membership to fix it---not the legislature.  (and just who in DPI do you think knows diddly squat about high school sports? They struggle with curriculum issues--although they DO have some level of control over NCHSAA).

Can they do better?  Sure they can.  Lots better in a lot of areas.  But not by letting these guys take it over.  

  

Relax fellas...I mean who can name anything the govt screwed up, local-state or federal.  It's gonna work out just swell.

And I loudly and continuously called them out over the lacrosse mess.  There are all sorts of problems that need to be addressed--but not by this crowd of politicians.   The best example IS a politician wanting to take them down because a team in his district didn't make the playoffs.  

None of these politicians give a crap about the lacrosse mess.  None of them is going to fix the charter/private mess.  None of them is going to get NCHSAA to listen to coaches associations--and none of them are going to, either.

Perhaps we actually agree---there are things that need to be fixed but these clowns aren't the ones to do it.