article_snippet.sent: (CNN)After years of making the case that the education of athletes is paramount, NCAA NCAA now says NCAA has no legal responsibility to make sure education is actually delivered.
article_snippet.sent: On its website, the NCAA prominently states, "It's our commitment -- and our responsibility -- to give young people opportunities to learn, play and succeed.
article_snippet.sent: And later, NCAA says that "in the collegiate model of sports, the young men and women competing on the field or court are students first, athletes second.
article_snippet.sent: But NCAA NCAA is taking a very different position in response to a lawsuit filed by former University of North Carolina athletes.
article_snippet.sent: In its response, NCAA NCAA says NCAA has no legal responsibility "to ensure the academic integrity of the courses offered to student-athletes at NCAA member institutions.
article_snippet.sent: Even with pages of online information about academic standards, and even though NCAA NCAA has established a system of academic eligibility and accountability that NCAA boasts of regularly, NCAA attorneys wrote in this court filing that "NCAA did not assume a duty to ensure the quality of the education of student-athletes," and "NCAA does not have 'direct, day-to-day, operational control' " over member institutions like UNC.
article_snippet.sent: NCAA NCAA referred calls for comment to an online statement, which read in part: .
article_snippet.sent: NCAA believes that the lawsuit misunderstands NCAA's role with respect to NCAA member schools and ignores the myriad steps NCAA has taken to assist student-athletes in being equipped to excel both in the classroom and on the playing field.
article_snippet.sent: This case is troubling for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that the law does not and has never required NCAA NCAA to ensure that every student-athlete is actually taking full advantage of the academic and athletic opportunities provided to every student-athlete," said Donald Remy, NCAA chief legal officer.
article_snippet.sent: In NCAA response to the lawsuit, NCAA also likened NCAA role to that of the American Bar Association or American Medical Association, and said that those entities are not sued every time a lawyer or doctor acts inappropriately.
article_snippet.sent: NCAA's claim that it's hands-off when it comes to athletics seems to be a direct contradiction of what the organization has been repeating for years, not just in the rhetoric on the organization website, but in speeches by the organization president, Mark Emmert, and in court defending the organization from numerous lawsuits over paying athletes.
article_snippet.sent: For example, before it lost a case filed by former UCLA player Ed O'Bannon, suing for the right of athletes to make money off athletes images and likenesses, NCAA stood on the pillar of amateurism, insisting that college athletes are paid with an education.
article_snippet.sent: That's the defense NCAA is now using in another class action filed by big-time sports attorney Jeffrey Kessler, seeking to make college sports a free market where athletes are paid salaries based on athletes value.
article_snippet.sent: In response, NCAA said that what sets college sports apart from pros is education:
article_snippet.sent: Consistent with "NCAA commitment to amateurism, member institutions conduct member institutions athletics programs for students who choose to participate in intercollegiate athletics as a part of member institutions educational experience and in accordance with NCAA bylaws.
article_snippet.sent: This startling inconsistency is unfortunately all too symptomatic of NCAA's shifting rhetoric and faltering commitment to NCAA college athletes.
article_snippet.sent: NCAA President Mark Emmert has repeatedly proposed that 'What we live for is the education of our athletes,' but NCAANCAA's record tells a far different story.
article_snippet.sent: But Rick Burton, professor of sport management at Syracuse University, said it's not realistic to think that NCAA NCAA would regulate every professor and every course an athlete might take at each university across the country.
article_snippet.sent: I understand, I think, where NCAA NCAA is coming from.
article_snippet.sent: We would not let NCAA NCAA come in and tell We how to run We chemistry department at Syracuse University," he said.
article_snippet.sent: It sounds like someone is trying to say NCAA NCAA should have been supervising that department at the University of North Carolina, and there's no logic to that," he said.
article_snippet.sent: The people who are saying NCAA NCAA should be held accountable for academics at every school are just looking for an opportunity to throw rocks at NCAA.
article_snippet.sent: This is reminiscent of another NCAA reversal.
article_snippet.sent: The NCAA, which was founded a century ago to protect athletes from "dangerous and exploitive athletic practices," now says The NCAA, which was founded a century ago to protect athletes from "dangerous and exploitive athletic practices does not enforce health and safety rules.
article_snippet.sent: In fact, in response to a lawsuit filed by the family of a player who died in 2011, NCAA NCAA wrote: NCAA NCAA denies that NCAA has a legal duty to protect student-athletes.
article_snippet.sent: A CNN investigation found that NCAA NCAA has failed to open investigations in several cases where safety rules allegedly were broken.
article_snippet.sent: the NCAA has failed to open investigations in several cases where safety rules allegedly were broken has also fallen behind in imposing rules for concussions -- far behind even the NFL.
article_snippet.sent: Ramogi Huma, president of the National College Players Association, and a leading thorn in NCAA's side for decades, said this latest backpedaling from NCAA leaves him wondering why NCAA exists at all.
article_snippet.sent: There's nothing left NCAA NCAA can claim NCAA does that is beneficial to college athletes or society.
article_snippet.sent: One has to wonder what does NCAA NCAA do if NCAA doesn't protect players?
article_snippet.sent: If NCAA doesn't play a role in the education of college athletics?
article_snippet.sent: NCAA begs the question of why does NCAA NCAA exist -- and why does NCAA have a tax exemption.
highlights_snippet.sent: In response to lawsuit, NCAA says NCAA doesn't control quality of education for student-athletes .
  