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
College Sports’ Bait and Switch-By Dr. Gerald Gurney and Dr. Richard M. Southall Originally published August 9, 2012 Last month, the NCAA announced its latest team Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores, highlighting the institutions whose four-year averages fell below the 900 threshold score. Among the offending teams was notably the University of Connecticut, which will be ineligible for the ... Read more
Professors Must Speak Out: Colleges Can No Longer Afford Athletics as Usual-By Dr. Gerald Gurney and Jerome C. Weber Originally published April 5, 2010 Basketball fans will focus tonight on the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s men’s championship game, but amid the excitement of such competition, attention must be paid to how big-time college sports still operate in ways counter to higher education’s aims. Although the NCAA ... Read more
Stop Lowering the Bar for College Athletes-By Dr. Gerald Gurney Originally published April 10, 2011 For nearly 50 years, the NCAA has debated its minimum academic requirements for first-year students who hope to compete in big-time college sports. In its various attempts to ensure an acceptable level of precollegiate learning and skill competencies, the NCAA has vacillated between lowering and raising ... Read more
Academic Fraud, Athletes and Faculty Responsibility-By Dr. Gerald Gurney and Mary Willingham Originally published July 18, 2014 The National Collegiate Athletic Association rarely admits to the need to revisit an infractions case, and particularly one that strikes at the core of academic integrity issues. So when the NCAA announced an unusual and embarrassing return to the University of North Carolina ... Read more
The NCAA’s Miraculous Graduation Rate!-By Dr. Allen Sack and Dr. Gerald Gurney Originally published May 6, 2019 During the weeks-long buildup to college football’s biggest bowl games last December, it was hard not to notice that many of the teams ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 were having a lot more success on the gridiron than their players ... 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
Guidelines for Academic Integrity in Athletics-Recent academic scandals related to the intercollegiate athletics programs at a number of the nation’s most prestigious institutions of higher education reveal the absence of policy and practice that would ensure the primacy of academic study and the maintenance of academic integrity by institutions of higher education. The Drake Group believes that each of the ... Read more
UNC tolerated cheating, says insider Mary Willingham-As a reading specialist at UNC-Chapel Hill, Mary Willingham met athletes who told her they had never read a book and didn’t know what a paragraph was. She said she saw diagnostic tests that showed they were unable to do college-level work. But many of those athletes stayed eligible to play sports, she said, because ... Read more
Sport, Race, Activism, and Social Change: The Impact of Dr. Harry Edwards’ Scholarship and Service-Dr. Fritz Polite, a clinical professor of sport management at the University of Tennessee (Knoxville) and his co-editor Dr. Billy Hawkins from the University of Georgia have completed a book titled Sport, Race, Activism, and Social Change: The Impact of Dr. Harry Edwards’ Scholarship and Service (University Readers: Cognella Publishers, 2011). According to Polite, a ... Read more
In Basketball, Troubles Spill Off the Court-From the New York Times By Peter Applebome BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — It’s not like there’s not enough going on at the cottage originally built as housing for shoe company workers. The two parakeets chirp. There’s a birth coming any day for the pregnancy and delivery counseling practice. There are classes to prepare for, a dissertation ... Read more
Academic Freedom and Athletics-Appalachian State University did not violate the academic freedom of a tenured professor who was placed on paid leave after students complained about disparaging remarks they said the professor had made on college athletes and about a film she had showed on pornography, the university’s chancellor has concluded. The chancellor this month rejected a faculty ... Read more
How Colleges Cope with a Perfect Storm-How Colleges Cope with a Perfect Storm Among other things, schools must confront sports related academic corruption, sexual abuse and serious drinking problems. By Frank G. Splitt, 10-03-18 Download as PDF Introduction – Though our nation’s sports-and-money driven colleges and universities are still considered to be the envy of the world, this exalted stature raises a ... 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
“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: 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
College Sports Reform: A View of the Likely End Game Via Four Related Commentaries-It’s Time to Expose the Big Lie Congress has been reluctant to strip the NCAA and its member universities of their tax-exempt status and so help limit the seemingly uncontrolled growth of professionalized big-time college sports entertainment. »Read more
An Open Letter to the President-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
Fighting Academic Fraud-Cheating scandals such as the one at the University of North Carolina are not limited to a few rogue universities. On the contrary, some violations of academic integrity are to be expected in any school that requires athletes to give so much time and attention to sports that an army of tutors and academic support ... 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
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
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
Why the NCAA and the Knight Commission Miss the Seamy Side of College Sports-Since it is in the financial interest of conference commissioners, the NCAA and its member schools—presidents, trustees, ADs, coaches, and boosters—to portray athletes as legitimate, degree-seeking students, they are likely be quite forceful in the use of their influence and powers of intimidation to getwhat they want. What they want is the very best athletes—no ... Read more
The Unheralded Crisis in Higher Education-Standing in sharp contrast to the public’s reaction to the financial meltdown, oil drilling accidents and the like, the lack of public reaction to the reported cheating and academic corruption scandals at schools supporting big-time football and men’s basketball programs is stunning. The academic mission at many schools has been hijacked by the professional college ... Read more
The NCAA and Its New President: An Afterword-By all accounts, Emmert is a pragmatist who is unquestionably capable of making his predecessor, the late Myles Brand, and the NCAA’s school-president apologists appear as comparative lightweights. »Read more
The Binghamton Basketball Scandal: A Lesson for Presidents-President DeFleur could very well serve as the poster person for presidents beleaguered with problems and issues surrounding their professional sports entertainment businesses. The Binghamton scandal shows what can happen if someone blows the whistle on cover-up behavior by their institution—misleading, lying, and withholding facts to not only protect its NCAA franchised businesses, but protect related jobs ... Read more
NCAA March Madness Tournament Eligibility: On Factoring in Academics-A close examination of the NCAA’s rule changes over the past 50 years or so will show that these changes have not been to support or reinforce their stated purpose and principle of amateurism, but rather have been to increase their market size and revenues by professionalizing their big-time football and men’s basketball programs at ... 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
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
Academic Integrity is Not a Moneymaker-Unfortunately, too many authors focus on students as the violators of academic integrity—missing the greatest and most consequential violators of academic integrity: the colleges and universities that support big-time football and men’s basketball programs. These schools appear to have an even vaguer sense of what is meant by academic integrity. They have learned long ago that ... Read more
Taxpayer-Supported, Full-time Jobs for College Athlete Entertainers-We live at a time when everyone seems to know about wrongdoing in the world but no one is willing to admit it, let alone do something about it. For the past few decades, government and school officials have known, or should have known, that college athletes have full-time jobs in the college sports entertainment ... Read more
A Common Sense Approach to Recruiting Academically Disadvantaged Athletes-Increased television exposure allows previously lower-level competitors to recruit against traditional football powers. Also, NCAA limits on the number of football scholarships have created greater parity among the big-time football programs each of which is competing for ‘food’ in the form of talented recruits as they strive to swim in the ocean of money generated ... 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
Reported Graduation Rates and Academic Progress Reports: Another View from the Sidelines-Without transparency, accountability, and independent oversight, there is no way of knowing what really goes on at these centers. Reported improved academic performance is problematic. Put another way, there is no basis for knowing how much of the reported improvement in academic performance of college athletes is verifiable – in the sense that quality degrees ... 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
On the Faculty Role in College Sports Oversight: An Afterword-Aside from federal intervention, there is no way that university and college presidents, governing boards, and/or faculty members can be motivated to do whatever is necessary to eliminate academic corruption in college sports. Put another way, these parties cannot be educated and/or embarrassed to do the right thing, no matter how logical it seems to ... Read more
On the Faculty Role in College Sports Oversight-Valuable insights applicable to subsequent reform campaigns and the faculty role in college sports oversight were obtained via experience in the 1990s with projects related to environmental and national information infrastructure initiatives. For example, the campaign for systemic engineering education reform was the first to build on this experience. In turn, this campaign helped guide ... Read more
Academic Corruption in Big-Time College Sports Demands Federal Intervention in Accreditation-Breaches of academic integrity exist at multiple levels in America’s higher education enterprise where integrity can be compromised by schools intent on winning at any cost. Rubber-stamp accreditation by weak, or, intimidated accreditation organizations make the breaching task a no-brainer for big-name schools. »Read more
Privacy Rules Must be Tempered by Common Sense-Simply put, college presidents and administrators live in fear of violating the privacy provisions of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). It is also ironic that FERPA is the very same act the NCAA and its member schools abuse for their own benefit — using the act to shield from public view the academic ... Read more
The Academic Performance of College Athletes: No Doubt Worse Than Reported-In a nutshell, like graduation rates, the NCAA’s member institutions self assess and report graduation rates and academic progress rates without independent oversight. As Walter Byers, who served as NCAA executive director from 1951 to 1987, said when speaking of a college’s reporting on the necessary progress that has been made on the rehabilitation of ... 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
Easing Athletes’ Academic Path: A Step Down a Slippery Slope?-What’s next in the vast array of tactics used by schools to compete at the highest levels of big-time college sports? Leading the way in this latest workaround, is a school tarnished by a well known men’s basketball scandal in the late 1990s in which sports officials engaged in academic fraud to try to help ... Read more
Employing Academically Unqualified College Athletes-Unfortunately, the demand for academically qualified athletes, especially for the superb athletes, far exceeds the supply. Thus, in order to stay competitive in a win-at-any-cost environment, schools are forced recruit and employ superb athletes who are not only academically unqualified, but also unlikely to have a desire to obtain a legitimate education. They simply want ... Read more
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
Who Accredits Alternative Education Programs for Athletes?-They are quick to appeal to the privacy provisions of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) to avoid disclosure of any information that could prove damming or embarrassing, especially in the case of the academic performance of the athletes in their money-making sports programs. »Read more
The Student-Athlete: An NCAA False Claim-According to Walter Byers, who served as NCAA executive director from 1951 to 1987, the term ‘student-athlete’ was coined by the NCAA in the 1950s to counter the threat that its newly implemented play-for-pay, grant-in-aid athletic scholarship policy could result in NCAA athletes being considered paid employees by Workers Compensation Boards and the courts. The ... 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
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
A Statement on Academic Retaliation-Frank Splitt presents a first person commentary on how he was retaliated against after writing an article critical of intercollegiate athletics. »Read the full article
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
