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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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