The challenge before us is to get academics-over-athletics priorities re-established at America’s colleges and universities that are held captive to the NCAA’s commercial interests in its sports entertainment businesses. Such interests appear to be first and foremost to the NCAA, not the interests of college athletes and American taxpayers. Simply stated, the NCAA has a … Read more
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
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
The Drake Group (TDG), whose mission is to defend academic integrity in higher education from the corrosive aspects of commercialized college sports, found, in response to the recently released report by the Independent Commission on College Basketball chaired by Dr. Condoleezza Rice, that the Commission got some things right, but missed the mark on several … Read more
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
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
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
The often-repeated arguments in defense of the high (and escalating) costs of commercialized collegiate athletics are well known—mostly based on either faulty empirical evidence or logical error. »Read more
A study found football players who had never suffered a concussion performed worse on basic memory tests as the season progressed. This newly discovered category of cognitive impairment presents a dilemma because the finding suggests athletes may suffer a form of brain injury that is difficult to diagnose and consequently could keep on playing even … Read more
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