NCAA President Mark Emmert Says Being a University President Is the ‘Hardest Job in America’

On Wednesday, NCAA President Mark Emmert inexplicably said that being a university president is the “hardest job in America.”

Emmert made his astounding proclamation about college presidents while speaking at the Sports Business Journal Intercollegiate Athletics Forum in Las Vegas on Wednesday, according to several sports journalists.

Mark Emmert: "Being a university president is the hardest job in America." He also emphasizes how athletic director jobs have become much harder since he first became NCAA president.

— Adam Rittenberg (@ESPNRittenberg) December 8, 2021

NCAA president Mark Emmert: “Being a university president is the hardest job in America"

— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) December 8, 2021

Emmert made his comment in connection with the shifting ground underneath college sports and the NCAA now that so many states have passed laws allowing student-athletes to make money off their names and images, not to mention the thorny legal issues surrounding transgender athletes.

In June, Emmert and the NCAA were forced to begin crafting new rules after the courts started ruling that college athletes did have the legal right to make money off their names, faces, sayings, and images.

Until the recent court rulings, Emmert’s group governing college athletics maintained that students could not make money off their names and images.

Still, whatever pressures college presidents are under these days, it seems flat out absurd to pronounce their work “the hardest job in America.”

One would think garbage men, steelworkers, ranchers, teachers, police officers, and a long, long list of other jobs might figure in as just a bit higher on the “tough jobs” list than being a highly paid president of a college or university.

SYCAMORE, PA – APRIL 13: Coal miner Jaden Fredrickson, 26, of Cheat Lake, West Virginia, waits for the arrival of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt who visited the Harvey Mine on April 13, 2017 in Sycamore, Pennsylvania. The Harvey Mine, owned by CNX Coal Resources, is part of the largest underground mining complex in the United States. (Photo by Justin Merriman/Getty Images)

The pay isn’t too shabby either. The median household income in America is just under $80,000 per year. The average university president earns nearly $152,000 per year.

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