Collegiate Athletics Reform: Looking to the Future

Home / Archives for January 2011

Collegiate Athletics Reform: Looking to the Future

Although faculty and faculty organizations, such as the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics (COIA) and The Drake Group (TDG), do not have vested interests in maintaining the status quo, occupy the moral high-ground, and have repeatedly advanced compelling arguments as well as strategies for reform, they do not have the wherewithal—financial resources and unified leadership—requisite to … Read more

NCAA President Emmert Holds to the Cartel’s Party Line

Emmert appears to be holding to the NCAA’s party line that has been characterized by frequent mention of mythical “student-athletes,” the denial of its responsibility for the professionalization of big-time collegiate athletics—with its emphasis on revenue generation that not only fosters corruption but also compromises academic integrity—and the use of wealth and power to maintain … Read more

Collegiate Athletics Reform: Signs of Hope

On February 8, 2011, Allen Sack and Ramogi Huma, a former UCLA football player and president of the National College Players Association, testified at a potentially transformative Connecticut legislative hearing on Athletic Scholarships and Medical Expenses. »Read more

The Efficacy of Paying for College Sports

The often-repeated arguments in defense of the high (and escalating) costs of commercialized collegiate athletics are well known—mostly based on either faulty empirical evidence or logical error. »Read more

Football’s dangerous – and for what?

A study found football players who had never suffered a concussion performed worse on basic memory tests as the season progressed. This newly discovered category of cognitive impairment presents a dilemma because the finding suggests athletes may suffer a form of brain injury that is difficult to diagnose and consequently could keep on playing even … Read more

Caveat Emptor and Prospective College Athletes

Absent federal and/or state, Bills of Rights for prospective college athletes, Truth in Recruiting legislation, or NCAA Transparency and Accountability Acts, unwitting recruits face quadruple jeopardy, i. e., double-double jeopardy, when they buy into the recruitment packages proffered by NCAA member colleges and universities. This exploitation is especially hard on the academically disadvantaged. How might this be? … Read more

Collegiate Athletics Reform: A Lesson Learned

The Secretary is seemingly unaware of the fact that NCAA’s highly-touted APR is not a realistic measure of academic progress. In light of the intrinsic defects of the APR and the historic failure of the APR process to promote academic reforms, as well as the lack of reform-leadership abilities of school presidents, it is almost … Read more

Collegiate Athletics Reform: What Now

One would think that stories keyed to the devastating impact of collateral damage to our nation’s education system and its students would cause public outrage and thus go viral—not so in a culture that apparently values sports and entertainment above academics and learning. So what’s up with collegiate athletics reform? »Read more

“Confidence Men”…On Wall Stree and College Campuses

Many ways. It involves one of America’s biggest business sectors—higher education. Many of America’s colleges and universities are experiencing serious troubles with proliferating scandals in their professional sports entertainment businesses that are led by their own brand of fat-cat confidence men—NCAA, BCS Conference, and school officials, as well as very wealthy boosters and trustees. »Read … Read more

Collegiate Athletics Reform: When Will We Ever Learn?

There is no meaningful oversight of the NCAA cartel (the NCAA and its member institutions) as it is not only self-reporting and self-regulating, but self-enforcing as well. Furthermore, the cheating and corruption that enables the cartel to maintain its tax-exempt status—while fielding professional teams with their conferences serving as the minor leagues for the NFL and … Read more