WASHINGTON, DC - Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s voice rose. “Will you commit?” he kept asking. “Will you commit?”
Blumenthal wasn’t getting the answer he wanted. The Connecticut lawmaker’s question, directed toward one of the NCAA’s most prominent leaders, Ohio State president emeritus Michael Drake, was fairly straightforward: Will you, the chairman of the all-powerful NCAA Board of Governors, require athletic departments to disclose the number of positive virus cases among their athletes?
Drake tiptoed.
“That’s a HIPAA issue,” he claimed at first.
“I think that will be difficult,” he then said.
“I don’t know,” he later added, “that I have the authority.