By all accounts, Emmert is a pragmatist who is unquestionably capable of making his predecessor, the late Myles Brand, and the NCAA’s school-president apologists appear as comparative lightweights. »Read more
The University of Washington chief executive, a lifelong academic, vowed to “continue the traditions of academic accountability that we’ve launched” under Brand, “keeping our eye on that ball.”1 So what can the new NCAA president really do beyond “keeping our eye on that ball?’ As his predecessor Myles Brand’s tenure indicates, not much beyond superficial tactics that … Read more
President DeFleur could very well serve as the poster person for presidents beleaguered with problems and issues surrounding their professional sports entertainment businesses. The Binghamton scandal shows what can happen if someone blows the whistle on cover-up behavior by their institution—misleading, lying, and withholding facts to not only protect its NCAA franchised businesses, but protect related jobs … Read more
A close examination of the NCAA’s rule changes over the past 50 years or so will show that these changes have not been to support or reinforce their stated purpose and principle of amateurism, but rather have been to increase their market size and revenues by professionalizing their big-time football and men’s basketball programs at … Read more
Most Americans have been led to believe that sports programs are an extracurricular activity—an integral part of the fabric of the postsecondary education experience. They have also been led to believe that these programs play a significant role in America’s higher education system with beneficial impacts—helping to knit together the disparate supporters of these enterprises … Read more
Like the Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks, the athletics programs at America’s institutions of higher learning can be considered to be precious resources. As we learned from their tireless advocate John Muir, the parks can enrich the life experience of their visitors. Similarly athletic programs can enrich the life experience of college students. Unfortunately, both resources are … Read more
College sports entertainment rules, no matter how negative its impact on America’s education system and how damaging its effect on our nation’s future position on the world stage. The culprits are many and varied, beginning with a sports obsessed public that seems to value sports over education as it craves 24/7 entertainment—a pathological cultural problem. Then there … Read more
The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics was established in 1989 by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Under the strong leadership of its founding cochairs, the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh and Dr. William C. Friday, the Commission set forth to put pressure on the NCAA to clean up its own act before Congress stepped … Read more
This is an opportune time to not only take advantage of the work done by the UC-Berkeley faculty, but also to exploit the fact that many of America’s colleges and universities are now beginning to recognize that their presidents are apparently powerless to curtail out-of-control spending by their athletic departments »Read more
The challenges to meaningful reform have indeed been great. The clarion calls to university presidents, trustees, administrators and faculties have fallen on mostly deaf ears. Faculties responded as best they could but the opposing constituencies are truly powerful; and the perceived monetary and psychic rewards for maintaining the status quo are considered too great to … Read more