Full Video Podcasts

In July, Stanford announced they were dropping 11 Olympic sports, going from 36 to 25 total sports. The Cardinal are the most successful overall Division I athletics program in the last 20 years, yet they have been struggling (https://www.forbes.com/sites/karenweaver/2020/07/09/stanford-dropping-11-sports-is-less-about-covid-19-and-more-about-declining-pac-12-network-revenues/) with keeping up financially with other Power 5 Conferences. The big…

To lighten it up a bit (and hopefully make you smile), I'm joined by my colleague Ross Aikins (https://www.gse.upenn.edu/academics/faculty-directory/aikins/) to do some sports bantering. Ross (who is a public health scholar who loves sports) and I (on a steep learning curve about public health issues) have created a highly sophisticated…

It seems like everyone is talking about money--the money made in college sports in general, and the money that may be lost as a result of this pandemic. With fall football being cancelled in both the Big Ten and the Pac-12, I reached out to Patrick Crakes (https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-crakes/) , currently…

"This may be the most significant development for athlete's economic rights in our lifetime"- Walt Harrison, former chair of the NCAA President's Council. Your athletic program is about to look very different. Simply put, some of your athletes on campus are about to elevate their brand (and their income) while…

Those who have been listening to the podcast for awhile now know that I have interviewed very few people who work inside an athletics department. I do this because there is a gap in our knowledge and understanding of all the different stakeholders whose work is impacted by athletics, and…

This conversation may surprise you. And it might give you insight into why some schools ARE playing sports this fall. Following weeks of announcements from conferences across the nation postponing fall competitions until next spring, the NCAA recently announced that they would not hold championships for Division II or Division…

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…