Oliver Luck spent the end of last week driving from Indianapolis to Morgantown. One of his sons, Addison, is finishing his senior year at Morgantown High.
If you don't know, there is athletic skill throughout the Luck family. Addison is blessed with the ability to play soccer for the defending state champion Mohigans. If all goes smoothly, he'll play the sport next season for Yale.
The Ivy League school is one his father oversees in regard to athletics. Ditto Stanford, where Andrew Luck, now the celebrated quarterback of the NFL's Indianapolis Colts, and Mary Ellen Luck, a former volleyball player, attended school.
In the big picture, the father also oversees athletics at West Virginia University and Marshall. Ditto at the University of Charleston, West Virginia State and hundreds of others.
You see all are tucked in the fold of the NCAA and Oliver Luck, the former WVU athletic director, is the organization's vice president of regulatory affairs these days.
"There are four divisions at the NCAA," Luck explained. "One is the division that puts on championships. I do not oversee that. The other three are regulatory divisions and I oversee those. One is enforcement. I'm sort of the 'top cop.' The second is in eligibility, the old clearinghouse, which deals with academic qualifications and amateurism. And the third is AMA or academic and membership affairs. That has to do with waivers, interpretations, legislation and bylaws. There are about 150 to 200 people in three groups that report to me."
At WVU, Luck was always in the spotlight. He responded by getting the Mountaineers in the Big 12, building a baseball stadium and, yes, hiring football coach Dana Holgorsen. But in his role with the NCAA, the heat is intensified. Luck knows that. And, apparently, NCAA president Mark Emmert hired Luck because he's confident the man can handle it.
"Act like a duck," Luck recently said. "Be calm on the surface, but paddle like hell underneath."
The former Mountaineer quarterback, it seems, is always paddling. Or pedaling. ("Indy's a nice little town," he said. "It's on the banks of the White River. Right now I'm living downtown. I could ride my bike to work or walk.")
Whatever the mode of transportation, however, Luck gets where he wants to go. His name has again popped up as a candidate for the University of Texas athletic director job. Luck received his law degree at the school.
"I'm not going to comment," he told the Gazette-Mail of the possibility. "I decided I'm not going to [comment] when my name pops up on jobs."
Luck has much more leverage now, though, than he did the last time, when UT passed over him for Steve Patterson. Luck is now basically the No. 2 man at the NCAA. Emmert is turning 63 in December. It goes without saying Luck could soon be in charge.
Also, Luck seems to enjoy his current position. On Tuesday he's at Texas A&M debating basketball analyst Jay Bilas over the idea of paying college athletes.
"If an invitation is from a campus, I like to accept," Luck said. "The schools are our membership. Jay's feelings are pretty well known on the subject. I just don't feel the same way. No administrator I run into feels the way he does. I respect Jay, but I think it's pre-programmed we'll agree to disagree."
Issues. Luck was a football player, but now he wrestles with issues like cost of attendance, the Ed O'Bannon case and more.
"It's a lot different than doing the day-to-day stuff of an athletic director," Luck said. "It's all policy related. As an AD, it's all personnel related. Now it's 'What's the proper policy we should have on X?'
"It's like the issue of fantasy sports. Is it gambling? What's the pulse of our membership? What do student-athletes think? We have dozens of issues. It's policy driven and so different. Intellectually, it's challenging, but what I don't like is there's less contact with athletes and constituents."
Luck recently warned student-athletes they'd lose their scholarships if caught playing fantasy sports.
"I'm a regulator," he said. "Technology always moves faster than regulators... We're trying to decide if [fantasy sports] is better, worse or the same as the old-school betting with a bookie. Sometimes you have to take your own belief out of it."
As an example, Luck pointed to his decision to allow beer sales at WVU's Puskar Stadium.
"Right now I'm asking members about our policy against selling beer at Final Fours, baseball championships, etc.," he said. "Some of our schools sell beer at their schools, yet we have a policy against it in championships."
Luck said he's looking at academic requirements, including the "2.3 [grade-point average] or take a knee" campaign and sliding scales in regard to ACT and SAT standards.
"You have to monitor it and make sure it's not discriminatory," Luck said. "We serve inner-city kids. One thing I've learned at the NCAA is you have to recognize differences of missions. At West Virginia, for instance, you're serving Appalachia. You have Harvard and MIT. You have religious affiliations. Some have open admissions. It's a challenge."
If you're wondering, by the way, yes, Luck, a die-hard Mountaineer, keeps tabs of his alma mater. He won't comment, however, on the current state of the football program.
"I was at the Maryland game," he said. "That's the only game I've been back to, but I see bits and pieces of games. I'm just a Mountaineer fan now."
Luck said he was on the field for the Maryland game, but will stay out of WVU's spotlight and business unless asked for help.
"I told Shane [Lyons, current WVU AD] when he got the job to call if he needed anything," Luck said. "But I also told him I'd stay out of his business. It was the same with Eddie [Pastilong, former WVU AD]. He told me, 'You know where I live.'"
These days, it's Indy for Luck. He walks or rides to work. His wife Kathy sticks in Morgantown until Addison is finished at MHS. And, yes, Luck gets to hang with son Andrew at times.
"We'll try to have dinner once a week," Oliver said. "He's busy during the season, but I get to see him more than when I was in Morgantown, which is nice."
Both, however, have plates that truly overflow these days.