Fifty years ago, I entered the University of Tennessee-Knoxville as a freshman scholarship runner on its high-profile track team. The NCAA held athletes to a strict amateur code in which … Continue reading “The Sea Changes at the NCAA”
To the editor: Paying college athletes? Aren’t they already paid? (This really should come as no surprise.) They’re paid in full-ride scholarships, tutoring, national & international travel, and free access … Continue reading “Letter to the Editor: Paying college athletes?”
The fight to protect student-athletes’ rights has been a long uphill battle. The injustices that college athletes suffer at the hands of their academic institutions are many, including a shameless … Continue reading “Drake Group President: Congress Must Protect Student-Athletes’ Rights”
As we move into 2020, it is important to assess where we are with the uniquely American phenomenon of elite, commercialized college sports. Often, what is claimed about college sports … Continue reading “A Path Forward for Reforming College Sports”
If a university ignores potential conflicts of interests between athletics and academics, it imperils itself. Athletics departments that lack academic oversight signal misplaced priorities and pose a risk of becoming … Continue reading “Athletics Department Oversight of Academics: A Scandal Waiting to Happen”
Veteran Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews writes mostly about K-12 education, but he is also interested in the results for students after they’ve graduated and enrolled in college. He’s also a self-professed college football freak, looking forward to the first-ever playoff series for the national title.
I take a look at three reform-minded athletics reports and find a few (very few) good ideas.
Declining by Degrees: Higher Education at Risk Edited by Richard H. Hersh and John Merrow Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, 244 pages, $24.95 Books critical of higher education in America used to … Continue reading “Declining by Degrees: Higher Education at Risk”