The NCAA is failing college football. In August 2020, college sports leaders witnessed the limits of the power that NCAA President Mark Emmert has to control the five most visible Conferences--the ACC, the Big Ten, the Big 12, the Pac-12 and the SEC. In the span of 24 hours, two…
The American Rivers Conference (https://rollrivers.com/index.aspx?path=football) (ARC) was set. The President's Council had been meeting throughout the summer, tracking localized Covid-19 trends, and ensuring their safety protocols were in place. Then, in mid August, the NCAA (https://www.iowastatedaily.com/sports/iowa-state-cyclones-covid-19-ncaa-fall-sports/article_0777b0d0-d73c-11ea-a00c-4f24dc187d53.html) came out with updated "Resocialization Guidelines", and announcing that fall Division III NCAA championships…
A conversation exploring college athletics not from the court, field, or locker room…but from the board room. From the White House to the Big House and everywhere in between, there’s a remarkable amount of chatter about the decisions being made and those making the decisions. But for all we hear…
The Roots of the Big Ten's Disconnectedness Go Back 30 Years. When the Big Ten Conference added Penn State University (https://www.pennlive.com/pennstatefootball/2013/07/welcome_big_ten_penn_state_20.html) in 1990, ADs jumped up and down screaming that the Presidents had made a decision without their input. Back then, the Athletic Directors ran the conference, and could not…
One of the most important things for a college to have is a seal of approval from an outside agency. This agency certifies on a regular basis that, among other things, the college is worthy of Federal Funds, is meeting academic standards, managing its finances appropriately and transparently, and is…
• What questions are facing higher education leaders as they begin to think about college athletics in 2021? • How comfortable are we with the optics of playing college football this fall? How does it reflect on all of higher education? • Are the discussions around creating a "basketball bubble"…
What's it like to lead a University in the middle of a pandemic? Add cuts to state funding and declining enrollment, and you'll get a taste of the challenges my guest has faced. State governments, and state universities are under tremendous financial pressures, causing Presidents in the most recent ACE…
I’m joined today by Tom Farrey (https://www.aspenprojectplay.org/staff#tom-farrey) , Executive Director of the Sports and Society Program. He is best known for his work on college and youth sports reform, with The Nation writing that Tom “has done more than any reporter in the country to educate all of us about…
Welcome to 2021! The Olympic program in 2024 is going to look very different. Of the 32 sports on the Olympic program, only 16 - (exactly HALF) of the 2024 Olympic sports - correlate with an NCAA-sanctioned national championships: athletics (track and field), rowing, basketball, fencing, football (soccer), golf, gymnastics,…
Welcome! Today's podcast will discuss the explosion of journalism focused on college sports, and in particular, the incredible work being done by independent writers in this space. For many, this is a labor of love; for some lucky ones, they are able to make a living out of their entrepreneurial…
So much of what we have talked about (and who we have talked with) involves leadership. Whether it’s in the President’s Office, as a Board member, as a higher ed scholar, or heading up a national education association, navigating the headwinds and occasional rough waters are a part of the…
I was invited to join the Athletic Business (https://www.athleticbusiness.com) podcast to talk about athletics business-go figure. We discuss about the state of the Big Ten, of Olympic Sports survival, conference realignment possibilities, including blowing up the traditional conference model completely. We also discuss the impact that flying is having on…
Let me introduce you to Vaughn College (https://www.vaughn.edu) (NY). It is a unique place to be a college athlete, because one of its main academic majors is aviation. And as you may know, the airlines have been deeply impacted by the current recession. My guest is Dr. Sharon DeVivo (https://www.vaughn.edu/about/presidents-message/)…
Former college President and occasional guest host Scott Flanagan (https://academicsearch.org/our-team/entry/4039/) joins me for a look back at the most remarkable year in college sports history. We talk about Presidential decisions to close campuses and what has changed in letting administrators think they couldn't play basketball in March, but they could…
Duke's Krzyzewskiville--The Most Famous On-Campus Pre-Game Housing In America Duke is famous for “Krzyzewskiville (http://www.campusdestinations.com/duke/destination/112/Krzyzewskiville) ”, where students are known to literally camp out overnight for tickets, all the while to create a frenetic home court advantage for men’s basketball. It's a major part of campus life in Durham, North…
Ahead of a 60 minutes segment (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/college-secondary-sports-covid-19-pandemic-60-minutes-2020-12-03/) on the future of Olympic sports scheduled for Sunday December 6, I talked with KYW Radio's Matt Leon about what Olympic sports bring to college athletic programs. As a former field hockey coach (a sport the US has struggled to be competitive internationally…
Just prior to his January departure, Makan Delrahim (https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/21/trumps-outgoing-antitrust-enforcer-delrahim-explains-the-governments-push-against-b.html) put the finishing touches on the Antitrust Division’s opinion in the Alston v NCAA case (https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca9/19-15566/19-15566-2020-05-18.html) and sent it to the Solicitor General. According to the former Department of Justice antitrust lawyer, the NCAA is approaching uncharted territory in antitrust law,…
I will freely admit I am not a gambler—I’ve spent very little time in my life inside casinos and have only a tangential relationship with understanding the odds in sports betting. So, like any other student, I need to learn more about this industry and its looming impact on college…
Take a look at pictures of the coaches in your athletics program. How many men do you see? How many women? How many people of color? Have you ever asked your athletics director how he/she works to make the staffs more reflective of the athletes in the program? We're joined…
Today I’m joined by Dr. Christine Baugh (https://www.cuanschutz.edu/centers/bioethicshumanities/facultystaff/christine-baugh) , an assistant professor in the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Center for Bioethics and Humanities. Christine’s work focuses on acute and chronic health implications of repetitive brain injury from sport, and the resultant individual, institutional, policy and ethical considerations. She was named…
The United States Military Academies play an important role in developing future leaders. All five of the Academies offer competitive athletic programs. As academic excellence is a cornerstone for each one, I wanted to understand how the Faculty Athletics Representative functions inside the military chain of command. This FAR can…
When Universities decide to “re-classify” their institution’s athletics program, it is a big deal. I’m joined by two higher education leaders who led their institution, Northern Kentucky University (https://nkunorse.com) , from NCAA Division II to Division I. Dr. Jim Votruba (https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/article/why-is-this-man-leaving3/) was the President at NKU from 1997-2012, and recently…
The outcry was fierce and nearly universal (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/19/sports/ncaabasketball/women-ncaa-tournament-weight-room.html) . Women's basketball teams arriving on site in San Antonio to compete for the 2021 NCAA Division I title were appalled at the so called "strength facilities" available to them as compared to the men,--a few yoga mats and dumbbells. The NCAA…
There has been a narrative for quite sometime about campus building and amenities—you know, lazy rivers, climbing walls, fancy cafeterias…the whole 9 yards. I could talk a lot about the amenities boom on the athletics side of campus—the Athlete Villages and gated communities built just for revenue producing athletes. But,…