The scope of responsibility of the Executive Committee spans the activities of the NCAA. So, as chair of the Executive Committee I led the search committee - a sub-group of the Executive Committee - that led to the hiring of Mark Emmert as the president of the NCAA. The appointment of the new president had the concurrence of the full Executive Committee. I also provided input into the re-opening of discussions with CBS in early 2009 that resulted in the new 14 year contract for March Madness. A sub-set of the Executive Committee reviews salaries and performance for the president of the NCAA and top level members of his/her leadership team. The Executive Committee reviews and approves association-wide budgets and new legislation. The Executive Committee consists of the board chairs for the three divisions, the chair of the President’s Advisory Group, the chair of the Finance Committee, and several other members from the three divisions and is chaired by a president from one of the boards. All of the members of the Executive Committee are presidents or chancellors.
2. What are the top two or three priorities for the Executive Committee?
Except when a search or new contract negotiations are undertaken the primary areas of focus of the executive committee are on association budgets, review and salary recommendations for the president and top staff, and association-wide initiatives such as the current reform effort.
3. Many items were discussed involving reform at the two-day NCAA president’s retreat last year – stipend, simplifying rules, raising academic standards, etc. How do you carry out those reforms and ensure they happen?
President Emmert appointed separate work groups to assess the current state of the world and to make recommendations regarding academic performance standards, stipends and multi-year scholarships, permissible numbers of scholarships, travel abroad, simplifying the rules, enforcement issues, etc. Each of those groups develops proposals to be discussed among the membership and acted upon by the Division I board. We get updates and take votes when appropriate at each quarterly meeting of the Division I board.
4. What are the biggest hurdles?
The biggest challenge is finding the right balance between acting with all deliberate speed to implement change and assuring that changes are appropriately vetted among the membership, configured for effectiveness, and scheduled for orderly implementation. At the personal level, the biggest challenge is to attend to these important matters and still do my day job.
5. Change is clearly nothing new in college athletics, but I think it’s fair to say that the age of digital media has been as impactful on college sports as anything in history. As a result, do you feel like presidents/chancellors are as equipped or have the resources they need to manage athletic departments? If not, what changes can be made?
People, not technology, define behavior which is or is not appropriate. We need to stay focused on individual integrity, accountability, and acceptance of shared responsibility to make certain that the student–athlete intercollegiate athletic experience is as safe, rewarding and life enriching as possible. Occasionally, we learn that someone has found a new way to use new technologies to pursue inappropriate behavior but the problems always begin and end with individual behavior. That is where we have to always keep our attention. We need rules and enforcement but we also need to nurture a culture of honesty, integrity, accountability and shared responsibility for the competition and our student–athletes.
6. Almost all leaders in college sports state that academics are the top priority for institutions. What are some programs/initiatives that exist for student-athletes that support those efforts?
Most people do not realize that only about 5% of the entire budget for the NCAA goes toward administrative costs. This includes management of championships in some 88 sports, training programs for referees, internship programs for student-athletes, financial audits, investment portfolio management, and much more. The vast majority of the budget goes to specific student and program scholarship support and to the conferences for distribution to the membership. Approximately 70-75% of all of the revenue received by the NCAA goes back to the membership. Most of that is used for scholarships, academic support services and other efforts that yield higher graduation rates for student-athletes than for students in general.
7. I believe you would agree that there is nothing wrong with a student-athlete wanting to become a professional. How do you help student-athletes figure out if they are good enough? How do you help student-athletes that are good enough get to the next level?
There is no substitute for coaches who care deeply about the academic and life success of their student-athletes as well as their competitive success in athletics. Student-athletes in basketball and football in all three divisions have incredibly inflated opinions of their prospects of “going pro." The first place for them to get a reality check on the stiffness of the competition and their own prospects is with their coaches. Most coaches are wonderful teachers and mentors to our student-athletes and they have a tremendous impact on the student’s ability to make wise choices regarding competition and their academic goals. In the hands of the wrong individual, someone who is willing to promote his/her own career at the expense of what is best for the student-athlete, that influence can be terribly harmful. So, we have to hold coaches accountable for their actions and the actions of their assistant coaches with regard to the integrity of competition and the support of student-athletes making wise choices.
8. I understand the implications and challenges of making student-athletes paid employees of an institution, and I also know your background is in economics. So I must ask, why shouldn’t student-athletes be allowed to seek their fair market value (endorsements) outside of the school like we see with Olympians?
Any student-athlete can choose to “go pro” and get endorsements if that is what he/she wants. No one is forced to go to college if they have a different path to success. The amateur model in college sports is very important to maintaining any hope that the focus is first on academic success and then on athletic success, which is where it belongs for the vast majority of student-athlete participants. The availability of scholarships, academic counseling and tutoring for student-athletes provides them with a great opportunity for a successful 40 or 50 year career. Most professional sports careers last 5-10 years and few fortunes are made.
9. Would you say that DI football and men’s basketball student athletes are fairly compensated?
They have the option of going directly to the pros or going forward with their educational pursuits with absolute clarity regarding the trade-offs. So, how does one imagine they are being treated unfairly?
10. As I understand it, the underlying foundation of college athletics is similar to golf in that the intention is for institutions to call “penalties” on themselves. However, isn’t that the perfect system for someone to cheat? Does the system need to evolve or change?
The NCAA is an association of member schools and just as colleges have an honor system there is an expectation that members accept the responsibility to behave with integrity and to hold themselves accountable for a high standard of ethical behavior. But, there are means of identifying inappropriate behavior. Many minor, and much fewer major violations, are self-reported. Having said that, we are working to streamline the rules to eliminate nuisance rules and we are seeking to speed up and increase the severity of penalties associated with egregious and serious violations.
11. Couldn’t one make an ethical argument that a recruit could result in millions of dollars to an institution that will benefit many in the form of scholarships and funding for other sports, so giving that recruit improper benefits is worth it?
I would hope we all understand the concept of fairness, honesty, and integrity in competition. Those principles matter whether the contest is in the playground or the largest arena. Values and principles are not susceptible to redefinition by dollars involved. I have never been a supporter of situational ethics.
12. Back in August of 2010 you did a Q&A with The Oregonian. They asked you about the next big issues you wanted to tackle in college athletics and you mentioned three items: making financial data more transparent, raising the bar on academics, and increasing diversity in leadership positions. It’s only been a year and a half, but do you feel like you’ve been able to make headway on these issues?
By “you” I assume you are asking about the NCAA. I accomplish very little on my own. We have made good progress with the availability of the financial dashboard indicators for individual schools. I hope that one day we can provide all schools with access to all financial data for public and private universities. Remarkable progress is being made with respect to academic standards. There are now academic performance requirements to participate in all post-season competition including March Madness and the BCS Bowl games. Seven teams that were in the men’s basketball tournament last year would not have been eligible under the new rules. There are also tougher standards for transfers and freshman eligibility based on academic performance. We are making progress with regard to diversity in intercollegiate sports but we need to pick up the pace.
13. I’m not sure if you had the opportunity to read the article written by Taylor Branch for The Atlantic entitled The Shame of College Sports, but here’s and excerpt:
“Slavery analogies should be used carefully. College athletes are not slaves. Yet to survey the scene—corporations and universities enriching themselves on the backs of uncompensated young men, whose status as “student-athletes” deprives them of the right to due process guaranteed by the Constitution—is to catch an unmistakable whiff of the plantation. Perhaps a more apt metaphor is colonialism: college sports, as overseen by the NCAA, is a system imposed by well-meaning paternalists and rationalized with hoary sentiments about caring for the well-being of the colonized. But it is, nonetheless, unjust. The NCAA, in its zealous defense of bogus principles, sometimes destroys the dreams of innocent young athletes.”
This is obviously a serious accusation, and I’m curious what your response is to this sentiment or to the article in general?
This is great writing that is totally misinformed. No one is forced to go to college and get an education. A number of athletes “go pro” immediately after high school or after only one year of college in basketball. While there are ridiculous salaries for some coaches that grab the headlines in Division I, most coaches are not paid at that rate in Division I and certainly not in Division II or Division III, where the overwhelming majority of the 400,000 or so student-athletes compete. Furthermore, at schools like mine there are 500 student-athletes, half of whom are women, participating in 17 sports. They are having a wonderful learning experience and getting degrees at a higher rate than the general student population. They bond with each other and their schools on and off the competitive court or field and other students, alumni and fans have great shared experiences that bind them all together into wonderfully supportive communities. Inter-collegiate athletics is not just about money and not a money-making proposition at almost all Division I, II, and III schools. The NCAA uses the resources it receives from media contracts to support student-athletes in the classroom and through healthy and fair competition. The notion that the NCAA is some looming dark force is absurd.
14. What is your opinion about conference realignment and what have been the positive and negative impacts of the PAC 12 expanding?
A lot of conference re-alignment has been associated with positioning groups of schools to be eligible as BCS football automatic qualifiers and/or to garner better media contracts the next time around. The Pac-12 is quite satisfied with its current membership and is not looking at further expansion. All of our members are excellent academic institutions. We share all revenue equally and we enjoy working with each other. We have good media contracts and we are launching seven new Pac-12 networks this summer. The Pac-12 has won almost twice as many NCAA championships as any other conference. We also have a wonderful partnership with the Big 10 that we hope to expand upon. We are very proud of the student-athletes who represent our schools.
15. Is it possible we are in the “New Coke” era of college athletics? Meaning, there is such a big push to grow and expand that we have forgotten what got us here – strong regional rivalries.
I cannot speak for others but the Pac-12 is very aware of the importance of our traditional rivalries and you will find that reflected in our competitive schedules in all sports. We are not seeking expansion for its own sake and I know of several conversations among the Pac-12 CEOs in which our decisions felt right despite leaving money on the table. I have a great group of colleagues to work with and I think we have our collective values right.
