Has Higher Education Lost Its Mind?
By Dr. Donna Lopiano and Dr. Andrew Zimbalist Originally published June 13, 2020 On June 12, the University of Houston suspended all athlete workouts when six players tested positive for COVID, less than two weeks after June 1 when college fall sports teams were allowed to return campus for supposedly voluntary summer workouts. Why the rush? As […]
Theater of the Absurd and the Immoral: College Football 2020
By Dr. Donna Lopiano and Dr. Andrew Zimbalist Originally published June 28, 2020 College coaches, faced with justifying why they were bringing fall sports athletes back to campus for voluntary on-campus workouts in June when the U.S. pandemic was not close to being under control, came up with some pretty compelling storylines. They argued and […]
College Sports’ Bait and Switch
By Dr. Gerald Gurney and Dr. Richard M. Southall Originally published August 9, 2012 Last month, the NCAA announced its latest team Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores, highlighting the institutions whose four-year averages fell below the 900 threshold score. Among the offending teams was notably the University of Connecticut, which will be ineligible for the […]
Excessive and Exploitative Demands
By Dr. Allen Sack and Dr. Gerald Gurney Originally published March 22, 2016 Since 2006, the National Collegiate Athletic Association has been carefully studying the time commitments of college athletes. The findings indicate that those participating in revenue-producing sports at the most competitive levels exceed the 40-hour-per-week limit set for actual workers by the Fair […]
Professors Must Speak Out: Colleges Can No Longer Afford Athletics as Usual
By Dr. Gerald Gurney and Jerome C. Weber Originally published April 5, 2010 Basketball fans will focus tonight on the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s men’s championship game, but amid the excitement of such competition, attention must be paid to how big-time college sports still operate in ways counter to higher education’s aims. Although the NCAA […]
A Better Way to Measure Coaches’ Wins and Losses
By Dr. Gerald Gurney and Jerome C. Weber Originally published October 24, 2008 College athletics, especially men’s basketball and football, enjoy a unique and central role in American higher education. They bring great visibility to their institutions. Yet while college sports excite and electrify millions with performance and spectacle, their positive attributes have become increasingly […]
Stop Lowering the Bar for College Athletes
By Dr. Gerald Gurney Originally published April 10, 2011 For nearly 50 years, the NCAA has debated its minimum academic requirements for first-year students who hope to compete in big-time college sports. In its various attempts to ensure an acceptable level of precollegiate learning and skill competencies, the NCAA has vacillated between lowering and raising […]
It’s Time for the NCAA to Get It Right
By Christian S. Dennie and Dr. Gerald Gurney Originally published January 8, 2012 The NCAA has experienced a tumultuous year and an erosion of public confidence in its ability to control intercollegiate athletics on many levels. Against a backdrop of public outcry and allegations of major rules violations and cover-ups, the NCAA’s president, Mark Emmert, […]
Academic Fraud, Athletes and Faculty Responsibility
By Dr. Gerald Gurney and Mary Willingham Originally published July 18, 2014 The National Collegiate Athletic Association rarely admits to the need to revisit an infractions case, and particularly one that strikes at the core of academic integrity issues. So when the NCAA announced an unusual and embarrassing return to the University of North Carolina […]
Rutgers’ Athletics Deficit Reveals the Hidden Caste in the College Sports Hierarchy
By Dr. Andrew Zimbalist Originally published August 16, 2020 The Rutgers athletics department should be required to hang a sign outside its front office: DANGER, KEEP OUT. It has been running growing financial deficits since 2003; piled up hundreds of millions of dollars in debt; been upgraded to the Big Ten, where its football team is […]
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