NCAA Reform - The Drake Group Education Fund

Webinar #13: 2022 Sack Symposium Proceedings: The Drake Group National Awards “A Vision for the Future” - Included in this program are the presentations of national awards to Sedona Prince, University of Oregon basketball player and journalism students who have excelled in investigative reporting on intercollegiate athletics. Allen Sack, Co-Founder of The Drake Group delivers a keynote address. In the midst of the current governance, NIL and athlete exploitation chaos, can a ... Read more
Follow-Up Notes: Webinar #8 “The Disintegration of the NCAA: The Price of Rejecting National Governance” - FOLLOW UP NOTES
Webinar #8 – The Disintegration of the NCAA - Following decades of enormous legal fees challenging rules restraining college athlete employment, facing hundreds of concussion-related lawsuits, and then suffering an adverse June 2022 Alston U.S. Supreme Court decision that eviscerated its college athlete eligibility system built on control through use of “amateur status” regulations, the organization appeared to freeze based on fear of future ... Read more
Jan 18th, 2022 Press Release: Faustian Bargain at NCAA Convention - On January 20, 2022, the 1,082 member institutions of the NCAA will have another opportunity to demonstrate their willingness to enter another “Faustian bargain” – a deal with the devil at the price of one’s soul. If approved, the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) will operate with little or no restraint. It will retain voting control ... Read more
Webinar #6 FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS – Keeping Everything We Love About Collegiate Sport While Fixing Its Failed Governance Structure - A regular feature of our webinar series is “Follow-Up Notes/Q&As” which provides a link to the recorded webinar, answers to questions from the audience that panelists did not have the time to address (prepared by Drake Group experts), and information on previous and next webinars. This edition covers audience questions related to panelists’ discussion of ... Read more
Webinar #6 – Fixing the Failed Collegiate Athletics Governance Structure - The NCAA has been frozen with indecision since the June U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting its “amateur status” rules. Fearful of legal responsibility, the organization is pursuing a constitutional convention restructure that reeks of throwing its conference and institutional members under the litigation bus. College athletics has lost its way because of a failure of governance – ... Read more
The NCAA Is Playing The Ball In The Wrong Court - The Drake Group President-Elect Andrew Zimbalist and Drake Board of Directors member Julie Sommer wield a mighty pen with a timely critique of the NCAA’s efforts in the courts to protect its profits – revenues derived from the labor of talented, hard-working—and disproportionately Black—college athletes, especially those playing in the women’s and men’s Final Four ... Read more
Moran Legislation is Another NCAA Reform Proposal that Deserves a Closer Look - The Moran Bill permits intercollegiate athletes to monetize their names, images, and likenesses (NILs), and at its core is similar to recent proposals put forth by Senators Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CN). The bill also mirrors many of The Drake Group’s proposals, including broad NIL rights for college athletes ... Read more
Federal NIL Legislation Chart - A side-by-side comparison of legislation filed in the 116th and 117th Congress to date on the issue of college athlete compensation for their independent monetization of the use of their names, images, and likenesses.
The Drake Group Strongly Supports “College Athletes Bill of Rights” Introduced in the 117th Congress - On August 3, 2022, U.S. Senators Cory Booker, Richard Blumenthal, Brian Schatz, Ron Wyden, and Alex Padilla re-introduced the “College Athletes Bill of Rights” legislation aimed at advancing justice and opportunity for college athletes. “The College Athletes Bill of Rights bill is long overdue and extremely important,” said Andrew Zimbalist, President of The Drake Group. “It protects college athletes’ rights ... Read more
Failing to Confront the “Elephants in the Room” – The Drake Group Comments on the Knight Commission Proposal to Transform the NCAA D-I Model - On December 3, 2020, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics issued a formal report, “Transforming the NCAA D-I Model: Recommendation for Change” in which the Knight Commission called for a “reset” of college athletics, urging Presidents and Chancellors to play their rightful leadership role in demanding such reform. Unfortunately, The Drake Group believes the proposed ... Read more
Drake Group Calls for Congress to Enact College Athlete Protections: A Legislative Proposal - On August 3, 2020, U.S. Senators Cory Booker, Richard Blumenthal, Christopher Murphy, Kirsten Gillibrand, Ron Wyden, Mazie Hirono, and Kamala Harris issued a “College Athletes Bill of Rights” statement that sought to advance justice and opportunity for college athletes and promised future legislation to realize their position. On August 13, they were joined by Senators ... Read more
NCAA Reform Goes Wrong - By Gerald Gurney and Dr. Richard M. Southall Originally published February 14, 2013 A decade has passed since the National Collegiate Athletic Association rolled out its academic reform package. In that time, there is strong evidence that the reforms designed to open access to higher education to more athletes and punishing coaches and institutions failing ... Read more
Reflections, 2016-21: A Sequel to an Odyssey of Reform Initiatives, 1986-2015. - Reflections, 2016-21: A Sequel to an Odyssey of Reform Initiatives, 1986-2015. Dr. Frank Splitt, Longtime Drake Group Member and Recipient of the Robert Maynard Hutchins Award has posted a sequel to his 1986-2015 Odyssey of Reform Initiatives. A prolific and nationally respected voice advocating for intercollegiate athletics reform, this new collection of writings continues to ... Read more
College Athlete Health and Protection from Physical and Psychological Harm - The Drake Group has released a position statement today that proposes an educational alternative to “athlete employees.” Drake Group President Gerald Gurney, stated, “Intercollegiate athletics is at a crossroads on the issue of paying college athletes. Should collegiate athletics be a mini-version of the NFL and NBA? See Drake's Position Statement for a viable alternative.
Why the NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR) and the Graduation Success Rate (GSR) should be Abandoned and Replaced with More Effective Academic Metrics - The Drake Group released a position statement that is highly critical of the NCAA’s Division I Academic Metrics. Drake Group President Gerald Gurney argues that “Academic integrity in intercollegiate athletics requires a system of checks and balances, transparent academic metrics and safeguards that ensure that learning occurs, not just that athletic eligibility is maintained.”
Drake Group Urges NCAA Division I Presidents to Support the Establishment of a Presidential Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics - Listing eleven current conditions that threaten the financial stability of college athletics programs and the academic integrity of higher education institutions, The Drake Group issued a request to NCAA Division I college and university presidents and chancellors to support H.R. 2731 (a bi-partisan bill currently before Congress) that would mandate the appointment of a Presidential ... Read more
If I was an FBS athletic director, my top worries in 2017 would be… - Check out a blog by a member of The Drake Group, listing the top issues that NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision athletic directors should be worrying about. Read more.
Congress Granting a Conditional Limited Antitrust Exemption to the NCAA and Its Member Institutions - Absent an antitrust exemption, which only the Congress can provide, the NCAA will continue to be the target of antitrust lawsuits whenever it tries to implement educationally defensible reforms that have commercial consequences.
Ridpath Provides Insider’s View of NCAA - B. David Ridpath, President Elect of the Drake Group, first contacted the Drake Group in 2004 during his ongoing battle with Marshall University over NCAA violations in the athletic department. Ridpath, in his new book titled Tainted Glory, documents his experiences as an assistant compliance director at Marshall. Former New York Times columnist, Robert Lipsyte ... Read more
Don’t Reform NCAA – Replace It - By Dr. Donna Lopiano and Dr. Gerald Gurney Originally published September 11, 2014 Three weeks after a trial over the NCAA’s use of college athletes’ likenesses ended this summer, U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller’s Commerce Committee began hearings on the welfare of athletes and included testimony from NCAA President Mark Emmert. Amid the senators’ skepticism and ... Read more
Establishment of a Congressional Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics Reform - The Drake Group urges Congress and the general public to understand the need for comprehensive federal reform legislation that goes beyond the current singular focus on college athlete name, image, and likeness rights or a slight nod to athlete health and protection. There is a clear need for an independent Congressional Commission that examines the ... Read more
After Penn State Scandal, Congress Should Make NCAA put Students, Education First - In light of the scandal at Penn State, which reveals how big-time college sports often overwhelm the core values of higher education, Congress should closely examine whether the NCAA is running a not-for-profit enterprise or a commercial entertainment empire. Follow this link to read the Christian Science Monitor article
Real Scholarships Need to Make a Comeback - I have always believed that colleges and universities that treat athletes like employees should have to pay them and provide other employment benefits. Under common law, an employee is a person who performs services for another under a contract of hire, subject to the Follow this link to read the US News and World Report ... Read more
How to Save the NCAA from Itself - Big-time college football has changed significantly since I played decades ago. Millions of dollars rain down from ticket sales, luxury suites, media rights, corporate sponsorships, and sales of licensed apparel. Conferences are realigned to penetrate new target markets. These changes, however, raise serious questions about the future of sport in higher education. Follow this link ... Read more
The Big Five Power Grab: The Real Threat to College Sports - It is hard to see the forest for the trees in college sports these days. Antitrust lawsuits and the debate over whether college athletes should be compensated as employees have obscured that fact that only a small group of highly commercialized athletic programs are controlling the NCAA. Follow this link to read the Chronicle of ... Read more
Drake Group Questions NCAA Division I Governance Restructure - During the summer of 2014, the NCAA considered a proposal to give the five richest conferences (Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and Southeastern Conference) within the Football Bowl Subdivision of Division I legislative autonomy. In response, the Drake Group, a national organization of college faculty and others released a position statement that ... Read more
Collegiate Athletics Reform: A Call for Federal Intervention - The American public’s seemingly unbounded love of college sports entertainment at any cost can be readily exploited by skilled marketing professionals to the long-term detriment of the integrity and health of higher education in America. The incremental cost of such exploitation to build an ever bigger college sports entertainment enterprise amounts to the cost of ... Read more
Collegiate Athletics Reform: A Collection of References from the National Catholic Reporter - As suggested in “Telling the truth on campus,” the presidents of our Catholic colleges and universities could be moved to solicit advice from their faculty and others on the place of the value-distorting, sports entertainment business in their schools. They might even go so far as to provide independently verifiable evidence that their athletes are ... Read more
Collegiate Athletics Reform: Ever More Likely Up to the Courts - “Washington should stop subsidizing millionaires,” Obama said in his State of the Union address—no doubt unaware of tax subsidies for numerous millionaire coaches and NCAA cartel as well as conference officials. »Read more
Collegiate Athletics Reform: Trilogy III - It is my view that the probability of an academic body emerging to rein in the runaway college sports entertainment industry is extremely low. Academic officials will most likely avoid taking on the powerful NCAA cartel and their governing boards so will continue to deal with related problems by looking the other way—muddling through will ... Read more
“Academically Adrift” in a Sea of Sports and Mediocrity - At many state universities and more than a few private ones, head football and basketball coaches earn millions and their assistants hundreds of thousands for running semiprofessional teams. Few of these teams earn much money for the universities that sponsor them, and some brutally exploit their players. »Read more
Collegiate Athletics Reform: Do-nothing feds complicit in reckless endangerment of institutions of higher education - Question: What can be requested of a congressional representative that will almost assure no response? Answer: Consideration of the tax-exempt status of the NCAA cartel’s entertainment businesses to help curtail its reckless endangerment of America’s institutions of higher education. »Read more
Collegiate Athletics Reform: Trilogy IV - Most likely the public is unaware of its sports-entertainment induced coma that effectively inhibit critical thinking and discussion of issues. There will be no complaint from government officials. From a political point of view it is much better to have the public discuss football and basketball games than it is to have it troubling these officials ... Read more
College Sports Reform: It’s Time to Expose the Big Lie - Stripping the NCAA cartel (the NCAA and its member colleges and universities) of its tax-exempt status by the Congress would certainly help limit the seemingly uncontrolled growth of professionalized big-time college sports entertainment by putting a break on what appears to be a runaway financial train. However, this stripping would require a great deal of ... Read more
Collegiate Athletics Reform: The Tainted Glory of College Sports - No doubt, Ridpath’s book will be considered by NCAA , college, and government officials as well as media supporters and other defenders of the status quo, as just the latest in a very long list of revelatory books on the corrupt college sports entertainment business – books they seem to believe are akin to attacks ... Read more
Collegiate Sports Reform: On Taxing College Sports Related Revenues - University athletics benefit from in what can be likened to a stealth entitlement. Donors can usually write off gifts for athletic facilities and the right-to-purchase tickets. For example, federal tax revenues are lost because more than 1,000 university sports departments are eligible to extort deductible gifts as a condition for ticket sales. »Read more
Collegiate Sports Reform: The Likely End Game - Simply stated, the big lie is that, for the most part, college athletes at big-time schools are counterfeit amateurs—passed off as legitimate students.[6] The objective is to create the illusion that NCAA and conference operations fit the academic mission of the participating schools. These athletes generate billions of dollars for said untaxed business operations—a tax ... Read more
A Developing American Tragedy in Higher Education - Over the years, it has been a given that higher education in America is the envy of the world. However, Murray Sperber’s 2000 book, Beer and Circus: How Big-Time College Sports Is Crippling Undergraduate Education provided deep insights into the debilitating impact of big time collegiate athletics programs on the overall quality of education at the ... Read more
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
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
Athletics Reform: A Trilogy - The American public does not seem to care about the lack of government intervention so long as it is entertained 24/7. For the most part, the public has developed a belief system about collegiate athletics that does not square with the facts. »Read more
Collegiate Athletics Reform: Lessons from the Penn State Redux - Unfortunately, most, if not all, governing boards are populated with very wealthy boosters whose donations buy power to corrupt by compromising their school’s integrity and core academic values so as to enable it to compete at the highest level in the murky world of big-time collegiate athletics. This corruption thrives in the dark where creative ... Read more
Collegiate Athletics Reform: Answer for The Chronicle - Over the years, the NCAA has not only made a number of rule changes that have emphasized athletics over academics so as to move their big-time football and men’s basketball programs to professional levels suitable for Unfortunately, until the Penn State scandal, scant heed has been paid to the mounting evidence of greed, corruption, and ... Read more
College Athletics Reform: Lessons from Penn State - The aim of the cover-ups is to protect the school’s reputation/image and legacy, its money-making and prestige enhancing athletics program, as well as to conceal bad judgments by school officials, neutralize material witnesses, and protect perpetrators. Cover-ups of non-sex-related scandals are relatively easy to execute since the events don’t generate the collateral damage and attention-getting headlines ... Read more
Truth, Justice, and Reform in Collegiate Athletics - NCAA President Mark Emmert said the NCAA has to resist the impulse to act hastily. “You’re dealing with young people’s careers and education. You’re dealing with institutional reputations. You’re dealing with a process that is, by its very nature, complicated, we have to get it right.” »Read more
Death Puts Focus on College Athletics - Since deadly football violence triggered President Theodore Roosevelt’s intervention back in 1905, it seems that the immediate and long-term collateral damage related to the nether world of the athletics entertainment businesses at America’s colleges and universities has never exceeded the acceptance threshold of the general public or government officials. »Read more
Collegiate Athletic Reform…It’s a Long and Lonely Journey - It’s really all about making big money in the near term—money for the promoters, schools, conferences, and everyone involved.6 There are, however, notable exceptions—exploited counterfeit-amateur athletes.7 Many of these athlete-entertainers, so-called ‘student-athletes,’ do not have learning outcomes commensurate with a bona fide college education and have only a very remote chance of making it to ... Read more
Scoreboard, Baby Notwithstanding, Things Do Not Bode Well for College Sports Reform in Washington - The latter question is likely on the minds of the Drakes as well as other reform-minded organizations and individuals. Will Secretary Duncan provide the leadership to change America’s dysfunctional system of higher education the mission of which has been hijacked by the sports entertainment industry, or, will he continue to flag problems but only provide ... Read more
The NCAA and Its New President: Great Expectations - 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
The NCAA Cartel: Enveloped by a Perfect Storm? - 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
Reclaiming Academic Primacy and Integrity in Higher Education - 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
Sports in America: Facing Up to Global Realities - 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: Why It Needs Fixing - 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
Faculty Action at UC-Berkeley Warrants Emulation - 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
On Reforming College Sports and Curbing Profligate Spending - 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
Don’t Give Up on College Sports Reform - Big-time football and basketball will not likely change any time soon—witness current discussions as to whether athletes in these money sports deserve to be paid given the substantial funds the sponsoring universities derive from their athletic prowess. The best higher education can hope for is that eventually universities will cut loose their programs in football and ... Read more
Why Congress has yet to Curtail the NCAA Cartel’s Tax Breaks, Exemptions Historically Tied to Amateur Athletics - One might ask why Senators and other members of the U.S. Congress are not working on provisions to pare back the unjustified tax breaks that the cartel—the National Collegiate Athletic Association and its member colleges and universities—as well as its supporters have come to accept as entitlements. All of the cartel members are nonprofits that don’t ... Read more
How About FIPSE Proposals for College Sports Reform? - Big-time college football and men’s basketball programs ought to be a target for future FIPSE (Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education) college sports reform proposals. These programs have become a cauldron of profligate spending and corruption driven by the college sports entertainment industry. They not only threaten the integrity and the preeminent global position ... Read more
College Leaders Again Urged to Consider Solutions for Sports Mess: Likely to No Avail Unless… - R. Gerald Turner, co-chairman of the Knight Commission and president of Southern Methodist University, said “The recession is accelerating the need to make hard choices about college athletics, but the fundamental problems will not abate when the economy improves…. Through innovative solutions, we can take measures to reign in everincreasing athletics spending and preserve all that ... Read more
America’s Failing Education System: It Can Still be Fixed - In his classic 2000 book, Beer and Circus: How Big-Time College Sports Is Crippling Undergraduate Education, Murray Sperber coined the term beer-and circus—a take off on the political, bread-and-games strategy of early Roman emperors aimed at distracting the populaces from foreign and domestic policy failures—saying it is the best description he has found for the ... Read more
Cleaning Up the Mess in College Sports Demands More Than Policy Statements - Doug Lederman opened a recent Inside Higher Ed news report by saying what has been obvious for many years (if not decades), to wit: Members of college and university governing boards interfere inappropriately “in the hiring of coaches and other decisions, emphasizing sports to the exclusion of other, arguably more central, institutional matters.” »Read more
The Brutal Truth About College Sports: Who Will Tell the President? - The open letter to the president addressed the challenge to get academics over athletics priorities re-established at America’s colleges and universities that are held captive to the NCAA’s commercial interests—asking for assistance from the executive branch of government to see that compliance to federal requirements for the NCAA’s tax exemptions are enforced. »Read more
Reclaiming Academic Primary in Higher Education: New Hope for the Future - Notwithstanding the fact that NCAA Bylaws stipulate that intercollegiate sports are to be subordinate to the academic mission of their member schools; professionalized college sports have severely compromised academic integrity and warped the academic missions at our nation’s colleges and universities that support big-time football and men’s basketball programs. In other words, the athletic tail has ... Read more
Big-time College Sports: A Plausible Alternative to Pro Sports? - Perhaps even more important to the plausibility of bigtime college sports as an alternative to pro sports are the related financial advantages of operating from a nonprofit base. The NCAA cartel could continue with its successful amateur charade and operate its sports entertainment businesses as nonprofit organizations with minimum payroll expenses though their continuing use of ... Read more
Time to Put Childish Things Aside - Why hasn’t Congress or college presidents and trustees demanded appropriate measures of transparency, accountability, and oversight into the operations of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and a refocus of attention and resources on academics rather than athletics? Why the difficulty? A major reason is there is simply so much money to be made by so ... Read more
College Sports: National Priorities and Unplugged Loopholes - In early 2006, the book, College Athletes for Hire: The Evolution and Legacy of the NCAA’s Amateur Myth, by Allen Sack and Ellen Staurowsky, was recommended to House Committee on Ways & Means staffers. Why? Because it provided a good sense of the magnitude and the ubiquitous nature of the NCAA cartel’s powerful legal and ... Read more
Principles of Amateurism Undermined Long Ago - The NCAA’s bedrock amateurism principles of many years ago — which required colleges and their business partners to treat athletes like other students, and not as commodities — were long ago undermined by unrestrained commercialism and related academic corruption. »Read more
The TAO of College Sport Reform - The Drake Group supports the introduction of strong TAO (transparency, accountability, oversight) measures at the NCAA and in the athletics programs at its member institutions to help restore academic integrity in higher education—reducing the level of academic corruption that enables America’s colleges and universities to pass off athletes who are academically, socially, and/or time disadvantaged, ... Read more
Best Remedy for the College Sports Mess: Transparency, Accountability and Oversight - The NCAA’s continued success at professionalizing big-time college athletics, while thwarting serious reform puts academic corruption and cheating on par with prostitution, illegal gambling, and speeding violations as acceptable forms of social misconduct in America— it’s OK so long as you don’t get caught. »Read more
Time for Accountability - There are striking parallels between the uncontrolled, greed-driven, anything-goes operations and excesses on Wall Street, with its misrepresentation of material assets in the form of disadvantaged financial instruments, and those in the NCAA’s college sports business, with its misrepresentation of material assets in the form of disadvantaged academic instruments — so-called student-athletes. In articles exploring ... Read more
Dancing Partners: The NCAA and the Knight Commission - It seems that there is no end to the means to which the NCAA and the KCIA will go to defend the NCAA’s big-money turf and the status quo in collegiate athletics. The Kirwan-Turner opinion piece had a clear ring to it—prompting a question: Isn’t the pot calling the kettle black? »Read more
A Trojan Horse Assault on the Ivory Tower - With but few exceptions, America’s colleges and universities are in the process of deteriorating while on their government subsidized quest for sports related revenue ‘gifts’ —compromising their integrity and warping their academic missions along the way. There are no visible means to reverse what appears to be a downward spiral into a pervasive ‘beer and ... Read more
College Sports Reform: Present Status and Future Direction - After some 80 years of failed reform, it appears that America’s sports culture has triumphed over the academic mission of its colleges and universities as well undermined the educational mission of our nation’s high schools. As evidenced by the plethora of scholarly articles and books on college sports reform, there can be little doubt as ... Read more
College Sports Reform: Could Come Sooner Rather Than Later - There is an apparent triumph of America’s sports culture over the academic mission of its colleges and universities as well as to the undermining of the educational mission of our nation’s high schools, and, that unless and until Congress gets involved, America’s system of higher education will continue to be held hostage to the collegiate ... Read more
Unrestrained Growth In Facilities for Athletes: Where is the Outrage? - Sol Gittleman, a former provost at Tufts University, wrote to me with reference to Brad Wolverton’s article, “Rise in Fancy Academic Centers for Athletes Raises Questions of Fairness,” saying: “This would be a joke, if it weren’t for articles that state how public universities are losing out in hiring to the well-heeled privates. So, while ... Read more
College Athletics and Corruption - Corruption is driven by big money and is enabled by cozy relationships that have been cultivated over the years by the NCAA and its member institutions with people and organizations that would normally have been expected to reign in corruption and the out-of-control commercialization of college athletics. The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, the print ... Read more
The U.S. Congress, Higher Education, and College Sports Reform: Signs of Progress, Truth, and Consequences - Almost all untenured faculty members are too busy working to get tenure and are not in a position to challenge administrative policy on intercollegiate athletics. In either case, faculty members who defend academic integrity can be considered subversive25—inviting intimidation and career-threatening retaliation by school administrations. Also, the fear of being ostracized looms large. »Read the ... Read more
Cheating in College Sports Via Performance Enhancing Drugs and Academic Corruption - Those tied to the financial fortunes of the elite level sport colluded for years in the fiction that super-sized bodies are the natural result of good habits, healthy living, and hard training. Sadly, the same could be said of the NCAA and its member institutions about academic corruption and the likely widespread use of PEDs ... Read more
Sports in America: Facing Up to Global Realities - One need only look at big-time (NCAA Div IA) college and university campuses where the building and expansion of football stadiums, basketball arenas, and other athletic facilities reflects the extant values and priorities at these institutions of higher education. This building frenzy is not only symptomatic of the American public’s sports culture, but also of ... Read more
The Rutgers 1000: A Profile in Academic Courage - The formidable task of getting priorities right at Rutgers, and other schools supporting big-time football and men’s basketball programs, must be taken on by others. Reform-minded faculty members in the Rutgers 1000 will likely feel the really heavy weight of their reform lances — risking burnout when they face the defensive efforts of those opposing ... Read more
The Congressional Challenge to the NCAA Cartel’s Tax-Exempt Status - The House Committee on Ways and Means needs to zero in on intercollegiate athletics. A hearing would expose the NCAA’s secretive ways to the light of day. Furthermore, a hearing would call attention to the need for corrective actions that stress transparency (with related academic disclosure), accountability, and oversight – »Read the full article
Reclaiming Academic Primacy in Higher Education - In this 2003 brief with a foreword by Theodore Hesburgh, Frank Splitt discusses a blueprint for faculty driven reform of intercollegiate athletics. »Read the full paper
How About A Congressional Hearing on College Athletics? - The NCAA’s use of the phony collegiate model and ’student-athlete’ term to defend their tax-exempt programs and modus operandi has served the NCAA well in the past, but at great cost to America’s institutions of higher education. This model and terminology have, to various degrees, spawned a culture of academic corruption in colleges and universities ... Read more
How About a Quid Pro Quo for Athletes? - Scandals and multi million dollar coaching contracts make for attention-getting headlines and stories. However, the core of the issue surrounding the tax-exempt status of the NCAA cartel and so-called ’student-athletes,’ is this: lacking tangible and verifiable evidence, the government must presently take the word of school administrators that athletes are really students on track to ... Read more
Independent Study Courses for Athletes - As reported, an Auburn University panel has found that independent study courses that gave many athletes major boosts in their averages were apparently quite easy for non-athletes as well. While the report found key flaws in the way the courses were run, it didn’t find special treatment for athletes. Athletic Support (Eligibility) Center staff need ... Read more
What the Secretary of Education Left Out - The power of big-time commercial college sports is especially evident at a major events such as basketball’s March Madness, the football-season-ending football games, homecoming games and the like. It is difficult to not be taken up in the collective euphoria associated with such events. The customs, traditions, and emotions create an effective cover for what’s ... Read more
College Sports Reform: Tempus Fugit - No doubt, many, if not most, members of Congress consider taking on the best monopoly in America to be political suicide — no matter the long term harm to America resulting from the high-jacking of its education system by the college sports entertainment business. We in America have a serious sports addiction problem. Apparently, we ... Read more
College Athletics, Academic Assessment, and the False Claims Act - It would appear that athletic departments and school administrators have developed a new art form – achieving and maintaining eligibility for college athletes pretending to be students. Faculty members willing to game the academic system are all that is needed to gain eligibility and even graduation for these athletes, thus allowing their school to reap ... Read more
Balancing STEMS and Sports: A Question of Values - Frank Splitt questions the “quid pro quo” contributions from boosters and the boom in the leasing of stadium skyboxes by corporations and other big-money contributors as well as extortion-like seat taxes, that are fueling the uncontrolled growth of the big-time college-sports entertainment business. He points out that the federal government weakly enforces its Unrelated Business ... Read more
Presidents Flex Their Muscles to Maintain the Status Quo in Big-Time College Sports - Frank Splitt maintains that presidents cannot stand up to lead an effort to change the status quo in any meaningful way without risking termination driven by a storm of protest about economic impact and assorted tradition-based arguments by trustees/regents, boosters, alumni, and rabid fans. Presidents are pressured by their boards and boosters to approve costly ... Read more
The College Sport Tax Scam Revisited - Frank Splitt questions whether college athletes in big time sports are bona fide students and whether the tax preferences afforded college sports are deserved. »Read the full article
NCAA reform, Academic Integrity Issues and College Sport Tax Preferences: A Collection of Essays - A collection of essays published in national media and authored by Frank Splitt. Articles include: (1) Who Wants to Tackle Biggest Man on Campus?, (2) Sarbanes-Oxley and Disclosure Can Fix Budget Problem, (3) Handwriting on the Wall?, (4) Athletes Who Are Not Real Students, (5) Valuing the Science Course, (6) March Madness will go ... Read more
Truth Telling on Campus - Frank Splitt laments the Notre Dame decision to terminate the employment of head football coach Tyrone Willingham – breaking the university’s long-standing tradition of honoring its contract commitment to their football coach. The termination was accomplished by a small group of trustees and university officials apparently without listening to and taking seriously contrary voices and ... Read more
Are Big Time Sports Good for America? - Frank Splitt agrees with claims that America’s obsession with modern sports is eroding American life and undermining traditional American values essential to the well-being of the nation. Splitt addresses questions such as, “Have sports lost their relevance?”, ” Is sport just mindless entertainment?”, “Is our enormous investment in sports as educational tools appropriate for a ... Read more
Essays and Commentaries on College Sports Reform - A collection of 14 essays on the need for NCAA reform, all published in the national media during the 2004-05 academic year, all as relevant today as they were then,. Author Frank Splitt discusses the following topics: (1) The Economics of College Sports, (2) The Blatant Hypocrisy in Big-time College Sports, (3) Why the ... Read more
The Faculty- Driven Movement to Reform Big-Time College Sports - This 2004 commentary by Frank Splitt is a sequel to his 2003 paper on Reclaiming Academic Primacy in Higher Education »Read the full paper
College Sports Mess Cries for Reform - In this 2004 Daily Herald commentary Frank Splitt discusses athlete behavior, academic fraud and NCAA efforts to control media coverage of the mess in intercollegiate athletics – a reminder that little has changed in the last decade. »Read the full paper