This blog is set up for the HHP 126, HHP 157, HHP 420, and HHP 428 courses along with other Sports Students as a way to communicate with fellow classmates and faculty members
The University of New Haven has begun the ambitious process of becoming an NCAA Division 1 (D1) school. Director of Athletics and Recreation at the university, Sheahon Zenger, said that this movement is necessary for growth and will "provide more opportunities and a better experience for both student-athletes and the student body."
The process of becoming a D1 school is not one that occurs overnight but may take three or four years to complete.
Of the NCAA's three divisions, D1 is the most competitive for its athletes and schools. Member institutions must sponsor at least seven sports for both men and women, as well as additional scheduling criteria. Schools with football teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) have to meet attendance and the minimum financial aid award range requirements.
In 2029, there is an expected enrollment cliff among colleges; because of the declining U.S. birth rate post-2008 recession, fewer students will be attending institutions of higher education. According to the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPAHR), northeast universities are expected to lose more than 11% of their overall enrollment. By being a D1 school, the university will attract a greater number of athletes and students.
Zenger said that the priority in becoming a D1 school is to "find the right conference to fit in," and to "enhance the student experience while also maintaining the integrity of the university's athletics."
The university's athletic department is nationally recognized for its excellence and seeks to continuously improve. This includes the vision of the Peterson Performance Center, the first athletic facility to be built on campus since 1969. The Center will feature a full strength and conditioning center and a new locker room for the football team. The Department of Athletics and Recreation has already announced that women's rugby will be offered as a varsity sport in fall of 2021 to begin competing in spring of 2022. This is the third varsity sport added since 2017, following field hockey and e-sports.
Strengthening the university's athletics department and elevating the overall student experience is paramount to Zenger and the entire administration, "I do college. I love college. And I want every student at this university to love college too."
The real 'March Madness' is the organization's work to deprive athletes of more educational resources.
By the end of the day Tuesday, the Final Four in both the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments will be set. On Wednesday the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in NCAA v. Alston. Amateurism will be on trial before the high court of the United States. Justices will consider if the current compensation for athletes — grants in aid up to the full cost of attendance — represents an artificial restraint and violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Former football and basketball college athletes led by the former West Virginia running back Shawne Alston are the plaintiffs. The NCAA petitioned the Supreme Court to review the lower courts' (narrower) ruling that athletes in these sports should be permitted to receive additional compensation from colleges, but only if the benefits are tied to education.
What this means is the National Collegiate Athletic Association, a membership organization representing hundreds of institutions of higher education and committed to an educational model of sport, will be arguing against permitting colleges to increase spending on education for athletes in football and men's and women's basketball. The NCAA's rebuttal brief to the Supreme Court argues that "these new allowances [up to $6,000 in academic or graduation awards or incentives] are indistinguishable from professional salaries … [this] is pay-for-play, pure and simple."
The athletes in question make up the core of higher ed's entertainment enterprise. Their performances, broadcast nationally on TV, also sell the idea of college to prospective students and their families. The demands and expectations placed on them mirror those of NFL, NBA, and WNBA players. But to the NCAA, admitting that these athletes face more challenges in balancing their academic and athletic roles and responsibilities might cause the whole amateurism house of cards to collapse.
To make matters even more ironic, the NCAA is using funds generated by March Madness to fight this case all the way to the nation's highest court. The upshot of all this? Collegiate basketball players are laboring to fund the legal argument that they should not be entitled to more educational benefits.
Those of us who work in higher ed must not ignore this farcical state of affairs. If you work at an institution that competes in the NCAA, as I do, the NCAA is making this argument on behalf of our colleges. Compounding the absurdity and injustice of the situation, about half of the athletes in those Division I sports are Black. These athletes' performances are the main generators of the billions of dollars that flow through American college sports each year.
They are not, however, graduating at the same rates as are their mostly white peers in non-revenue-generating sports. Take the nation's top 65 colleges that make up the Power Five conferences — the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC. According to 2018 research by Shaun Harper, director of the University of Southern California's Race and Equity Center, Black men made up 2.4 percent of the undergraduate population at these colleges but 55 percent of their football teams and 56 percent of their men's basketball teams. Such athletes have only a 55-percent graduation rate, compared with 69 percent for all athletes and 76 percent for all students. These are significant, inexcusable graduation gaps.
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And so Alston should be a great corrective — a step to remedy a situation in which our colleges are currently failing. By fighting Alston, the NCAA and its member institutions — our colleges — are committing to continue to undervalue Black students.
Unlike colleges' increased spending on athletes' academic-performance centers and tutors, giving athletes money they could directly spend on education would empower them and open doors. In addition to improving educational outcomes, increasing such benefits would enhance the comparatively inferior academic experiences of revenue-sport athletes. A football player who had not previously considered a semester or spring-break study-abroad trip because of cost concerns or a culture that discourages missing practice might now feel empowered to sign up. A basketball player who aspires to become a doctor could spend the funds on the relevant additional coursework, test prep, and medical-school applications.
American higher ed has been working unbelievably hard to not do the right thing.
When students enjoy the power and resources to make their own educational choices, they get excited about learning. And considering that coaches and administrators earn bonuses for teams' academic performances, exactly why shouldn't the athletes who are doing that performing also benefit?
All of this — the racially disparate educational experiences and the refusal to consider spending more on the athletes' educations in a way that gives the money directly to them — carries a damning message. It suggests colleges do not care about the academic outcomes of their Black star athletes, regardless of what they say on brochures or recruiting trips. The NCAA's fight in the Alston case only brings this revenue-first, mission-second thinking into sharper focus.
That March Madness is happening, as planned, in March, in the midst of a deadly pandemic, when everyone participating in a May or June tournament could have theoretically been fully vaccinated, showcases the NCAA's callousness. Sure, the lucrative branding benefits from the typical March timing (notably, the NCAA withheld that branding from its women's tournament), but this prioritizing of fan and media-market interest over athlete health fits a familiar refrain.
This is an entertainment industry, and the NCAA and its member colleges have long enjoyed having it both ways: They celebrate the educational benefits of participation in college sports (you know those ads, "Just about all of us go pro in something other than sports!"), and then administer college sports in a ruthlessly professional manner. Moreover, the advertising elides the professional reality of big-time college sports: NCAA data suggest that more than half of draft-eligible Division I men's basketball players do in fact turn professional (the vast majority of them internationally or in the NBA's G-League), as do 21 percent of Division I women's basketball players.
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A central line of the NCAA's argument in Alston is that if college sports are indistinguishable from professional sports, fans will no longer care to watch. If you have tuned in to the tournaments this month, you most certainly have seen a wide array of corporate sponsors and advertisements. CBS and Turner Sports pay about $800 million annually for the broadcast rights to the men's tournament. Michigan State University recently sold the presenting rights to its men's basketball team, and announced that it would now be called the "Michigan State Spartans presented by Rocket Mortgage." That corporate sponsors like Rocket Mortgage are increasingly appearing as team sponsors — and in increasingly absurd ways — doesn't seem to bother the association.
Over just the last 20 years, college-sports revenue has gone from roughly $4 billion a year to $14 billion a year. The result has been coaching-salary escalations, athletics-department administrative bloating, and the newest wave of the competitive facilities arms race. If the status quo prevails, and the industry remains predicated on "amateurism," we may run out of places for all that money to go. We've already seen athletics departments build lazy rivers, indoor slides, airline-designed sleep pods in locker rooms, and flight simulators. What on earth could be next?
How do the NCAA and its colleges justify this line of argument? NCAA lawyers have long pointed to a passage in Justice John Paul Stevens's Board of Regents decision, in 1984, that busted the NCAA's TV monopoly, allowing colleges and conferences to negotiate (and enjoy the revenues of) their own TV contracts. In the passage (one that many legal scholars and the plaintiffs consider to be dicta), Stevens wrote that NCAA colleges should be able to uphold the "revered tradition of amateurism in college sports" that makes it distinctive from professional sports. Stevens continued: "In order to preserve the character and quality of the 'product,' athletes must not be paid, must be required to attend class, and the like."
Stevens, writing in 1984, could not have anticipated that by 2021 we would have colleges with annual sports revenues over $200 million and coaches making $10 million a year. But the NCAA's legal team has ignored that shift and pivoted to an implausible argument against increased athlete compensation based on fans' interest, which supposedly would fade if athletes were paid.
American higher ed has been working unbelievably hard to not do the right thing. As the Alston argument's coincidence with March Madness highlights, we use disproportionately Black football and basketball teams to sell our universities to mostly white prospective students, and then fight any increase in benefits to those very same athletes, whose equal educational opportunities we work to deny. It's time to end this unfair system; and while admirably brave athletes have been calling it out in Indianapolis and San Antonio with the #NotNCAAProperty tag, it shouldn't be left to athletes to demand a better deal. Educators must step up and call out a system that clearly could better serve athletes. With our varied academic expertise, we are also the thinkers who could be working to build a better model.
Oregon State president F. King Alexander resigns for role in Les Miles saga
Oregon State University president F. King Alexander has resigned amid backlash related to his role in the sexual misconduct saga at Louisiana State University, where he previously served as president.
The OSU board of trustees met and accepted his resignation Tuesday. The move is effective as of April 1. Last week, the board voted to place Alexander on probation.
"When the Board of Trustees adjourned last week, we believed it was possible for President Alexander to repair the broken confidence and trust in his ability to lead OSU," board chair Rani Borkar said in a statement. "After listening to and hearing important input from diverse members of our community and reflecting on our own values and experiences, we now know that rebuilding trust is no longer possible."
An independent investigation released earlier this month into allegations of sexual misconduct at LSU found a "serious institutional failure" and detailed systemic failures by LSU to appropriately report incidents of athletics-related sexual misconduct and abuse.
Former LSU athletic director Joe Alleva recommended in 2013 that Les Miles be fired as head coach of the football program after accusations of inappropriate behavior with female student workers, according to the report, which revealed that Alexander knew of the allegations against Miles when he was hired as president in 2013.
Alexander left LSU at the end of 2019 and started in his role at OSU in July 2020.
After Alexander was placed on probation last week, calls for his termination escalated, including a vote from the OSU faculty senate on Thursday asking for Alexander and several members of the board of trustees to resign.
According to the investigative report, which was handled by Husch Blackwell, Alleva sent an email on June 21, 2013, to LSU's legal counsel and Alexander. Alleva wrote, "one more time I want us to think about which scenario is worse for LSU. Explaining why we let him go or explaining why we let him stay."
According to the Corvallis Gazette-Times, Alexander has said that he was advised by attorneys not to fire Miles and that he was unable to dismiss him because the LSU governing board had made the decision to retain Miles before Alexander took office.
Social media posts showed stark disparities between women's and men's equipment.
March 20, 2021, 6:03 PM
• 6 min read
Following criticism over the disparity between men's and women's training facilities during March Madness, the NCAA revealed an upgraded weight room Saturday for female basketball players competing in the Division I tournament.
"The weight room has arrived!" the NCAA Women's Basketball account tweeted Saturday afternoon. "Let's gooooo."
NCAA officials apologized Friday after images and video surfaced on social media this week showing the stark differences between the women's and men's weight room facilities in Texas and Indiana, respectively.
The women's tournament weight room appeared to consist of a single set of dumbbells and some yoga mats, while the men's more-lavish tournament weight room was stocked with rows of weights and training equipment.
Lynn Holzman, the NCAA's vice president of women's basketball, promised to have improvements in place by Saturday morning.
"We fell short this year," Holzman said during a press briefing Friday.
"I've experienced when you don't have something that's the same," said Holzman, a former college basketball player. "This is also why it hit such a nerve with me. ... There's an accountability aspect as the conversation moves forward that is front of mind."
The new weight room, located inside the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, features more weights, as well as socially distanced squat racks, resistance bands and exercise balls. Areas near the center's practice courts also have exercise bikes, treadmills, rowing machines and other equipment.
University of Oregon forward Sedona Prince, who helped spotlight the disparity in the weight rooms in a viral social media video, posted an update from the new facility Saturday afternoon.
"Guess what guys? We got a weight room, yeah!" Prince said in a TikTok video that included several of her teammates cheering. "Thank you NCAA for listening to us."
Some of the new equipment was already ordered or was going to be assembled just for the Sweet 16 teams, according to ESPN. NCAA officials also accepted equipment offers from companies made over social media, ESPN reported.
The weight room controversy has touched on larger issues of inequality in women's college basketball, from the difference in the number of Division I teams that compete in the women's (64) versus the men's (68) tournaments, to social media branding that focuses on the men's games.
"Women's basketball is a popular sport whose stock and presence continues to rise on a global level," South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley said in a statement Friday night. "[It is time] for the NCAA leadership to reevaluate the value they place on women."
Dharma Kotecha was on spring break when she learned her college, Ohio's Urbana University, was closing for good.
Kotecha, who moved to the US from the UK to play soccer at a collegiate level, was in her freshman year at the school, a year that the COVID-19 pandemic had already disrupted.
She was devastated. She didn't even have a chance to say goodbye to her teammates.
"We were on spring break at the time so before we left it was a quick goodbye to my friends thinking I would see them again in a week's time, but for most, I haven't seen them in person since," she told Insider.
But Kotecha wasn't alone.
Data compiled by Higher Ed Dive shows that least 10 nonprofit colleges closed last year, and at least four others have plans to shutter by 2022.
Mike Reilly, the executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, told Insider that the pandemic has caused a further strain on already-struggling institutions.
The closures are severely impacting students, as well - the AACRAO said in a report in October that a growing number of students are being left with "incomplete educations and many questions about their academic plans and personal finances."
One soccer player transferred to another college after Urbana University closed. Then that school closed, too.
Kotecha's school, Urbana University, which is a branch of Franklin University in Urbana, Ohio, that specialized in liberal arts education, closed in May 2020, just weeks after announcing it would shutter.
Local reporting from the time said Urbana closed due to challenges brought on by the pandemic and years of low enrollment.
"I was very shocked and upset," Kotecha said.
She said students were given little notice and she had to scramble to find plans for her sophomore year.
"I was devastated," Kotecha said. "Unfortunately, a few weeks later, my granddad passed away. So, I wasn't in the right head space to study or speak to any more coaches. I made the decision to take a year out, get a job, and be there with my family."
Months later and halfway across the country in Bronxville, New York, Concordia College announced it was closing, too.
The school announced in January that it would be ceasing all operations by fall 2021. Concordia said it would allow students to continue their education at the nearby Iona College through a teach-out program, and it would be selling its campus to Iona.
Chauncey Sterling, a sophomore at Concordia from Wilingboro, New Jersey, will not be going to Iona. Instead, he wants to transfer to a school where he can play basketball, like he has at Concordia.
He told Insider that he and his teammates were caught "completely off guard" by the news of the school closing.
He's looking for a new school to play basketball at next year, but said he is under "intense pressure" to do so as his final semester at Concordia wraps up.
"Knowing that we all have to find a new school, it puts us in a very rough position having to reach out to other schools in the middle of the school year with one semester left," he said.
He said he's nervous about what's to come, especially when plans are still up in the air - but he wants to find a school where he can be successful not only on the court but as a student, too.
"Being mentally strong and staying positive through all kinds of adversity is something that has allowed me to be successful throughout my life," he said. "Always demanding the best of myself and working hard to be successful in every challenge I'm faced with is who I am."
More than 1,200 nonprofit and for-profit higher education campuses have closed in the last five years, displacing nearly half a million students, according to the AACRAO's October 2020 report on closed and merged colleges.
In the solely nonprofit sphere, at least 65 institutions have shuttered or announced plans to shutter since 2016, according to data compiled by Higher Ed Dive.
Colleges across the country have faced even more financial strain over the last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fewer students living in dorms, fewer events on campus, and declining enrollments all play a factor.
"I think the pandemic has accelerated merger discussions and likely created more financial pressure for many colleges," Reilly said. "I think it will ultimately lead to more school closures, particularly if enrollments are slow to recover."
Reilly told Insider that students should start looking for other options as soon as they hear word of a college potentially closing.
"Begin reaching out to other institutions that have similar programs, and make sure to get a head start on what you need to transfer there. Otherwise it's a bit of a rocky ride," he told Insider.
He also encouraged schools to follow AACRAO guidelines when closing.
The guidelines encourage schools to hold on to data from its years as a functioning school, help organize teach-out programs, and support students, both former and current. Some students are also eligible for federal student loan discharges when schools close.
Being athletes, Kotecha and Sterling have the support of coaches and the National Collegiate Athletic Association as they plan what comes next in their education.
Following a gap year, Kotecha will join St. Thomas Aquinas College in Sparkill, New York, where as a sophomore she will continue her Division II soccer career.
"Urbana gave us a choice when they closed. We could continue our major at Franklin University - but that would mean not playing soccer - or they would support us if we transferred to another college," she said. "I am still hurt I wasn't able to continue my college and soccer career at Urbana, but I'm hoping the next three years at STAC will be great."
While Sterling doesn't know where he's going next, he has high hopes of what will come.
"I know that I am capable of overcoming this obstacle, especially since I truly believe that he hardest pressures create the greatest diamonds," Sterling said.
Individual serves the Department of Athletics as the Director for Football Operations. He/she will be responsible for assisting with the daily operations of the football program. The individual will work directly for the Head Football Coach and other staff and coaches in managing responsibilities. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to, working with the various units within the football program to ensure the efficiency of the overall program; maintaining an understanding of the workings of all units within the football program; daily schedule planning and coordinating between the various units; assisting with daily practice responsibilities; planning and coordinating training table meals; assisting with player transportation on and off-campus, coordinating with academic counselors regarding academic monitoring, assisting with NCAA compliance; communication with staff and student-athletes regarding practice and other operations and responsibilities. The incumbent will also be responsible for ensuring that the daily operations and maintenance of the Duratz Football Building are taken care of, and he/she will serve as the University liaison for officials. The individual will work with the Athletic Business Office to secure required Human Resource documents from potential candidates for football program positions. He/she will also be responsible for assisting in the planning and operations of pre-season football camp, team travel, bowl game preparation, and travel—other duties as assigned by the Head Football Coach and Associate Athletic Director Football Administration. Exceptional problem solving and communication skills are required, and excellent judgment as the Head Football Coach will rely on this position to make decisions on his behalf. The Director of Football Operations will report directly to the Head Football Coach.
Requires bachelor's degree. 3-5 years experience.
The University of Pittsburgh is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer and values equality of opportunity, human dignity and diversity. EOE, including disability/vets
Assignment Category Full-time regular
Job Classification Staff.Athletics.III
Campus Pittsburgh
Minimum Education Level Required Baccalaureate
Minimum Experience Level Required 3-5 years experience
Work Schedule Varies
Hiring Range $35,100.00 - $56,784.00
Relocation Offered Yes
Visa Sponsorship Provided No
Background Check For position finalists, employment with the University will require successful completion of a background check
Child Protection Clearances The following PA Act 153 clearances and background checks are required prior to commencement of employment and as a condition of continued employment: PA State Police Criminal Record Check, FBI Criminal Record Check, PA Child Abuse History Clearance.
Shemar Stewart might as well be the best player college football never saw, though not because he hasn't been noticed. Stewart is the No. 5 player in the Class of 2022, according to the 247Sports Composite, ranked No. 1 both at his position of defensive end and in the state of Florida.
The 6-foot-6, 265-pound edge rusher from Monsignor Pace High School in Opa Locka, Florida, is wanted by everyone. Unfortunately, he's been seen by almost no one.
"An edge monster," Monsignor Pace High School coach Mario Perez called Stewart. "There isn't a school that is not interested."
The problem, three months removed from his junior season, is significant for those so vitally interested in recruiting Stewart. They have yet to meet him in person. That piece of human interaction has been prohibited by the NCAA until at least May 31.
Because of COVID-19, the so-called "dead period" is in its 13th straight month. During a recruiting dead period, schools in all sports have not been allowed to host recruits nor visit them at their homes or schools. The NCAA first implemented a dead period on March 13, 2020, the day after the NCAA Tournament was canceled. The NCAA Council has extended it eight times.
That's meant a different type of isolation. The lack of an in-person evaluation aspect of recruiting has given rise to the Zoom culture -- for better or worse.
"You're telling me we can't have any interaction? Zero?" Perez asked. "That's extreme."
It may be about to end.
The NCAA Football Oversight Committee will recommend this week that the dead period transition to a "quiet period" on June 1, CBS Sports has learned. During a quiet period, college football programs can host recruits on campus and conduct camps.
If the NCAA Council approves the measure at its Wednesday meeting, there will be a sense of liberation. You may have been cooped up in your house; football recruiting this past year has been reduced to the screen size of your laptop.
By June 1, face-to-face recruiting will have been prohibited for 14 ½ months. Declining infection rates and the development of vaccines have led to this welcome reconsideration.
"We want the council to make that decision sooner rather than later so institutions will know what to plan for," said Buffalo athletic director Mark Alnutt, a member of the oversight committee.
A high-ranking NCAA Council member told CBS Sports it "seems pretty likely we will end the dead period in June if virus cases continue to decline." As we've learned, the coronavirus dictates things.
In a regular year, staffs would be preparing for the evaluation period on the recruiting calendar, a time when coaches can go on the road and meet with prospects. For juniors, that period lasts from April 15 to May 31. Stewart and thousands like him are scheduled to continue spending that period in Zoom limbo.
"A kid like Shemar … you're asking him to make a decision for the next 3-4 years of his life. He's never going to see a campus except for [perhaps] Miami because it's in his backyard," Perez said. "He can go anywhere [to play], but you can't have any connection with the athletic department."
That is evidence of some of the frustration resulting from the shutdown. The isolation may also have changed recruiting forever. Some say for the better.
"I don't know if 'frustration' is the appropriate word," Alnutt said. "Just in this past year, the virtual recruiting space has served as an advantage for some programs to be able to be creative in how you recruit kids. As I see it going forward with the recruiting calendar, is there a need to be on the road as much as it was in the past? Give some of those coaches some sort of life outside of game planning."
Until then, recruiting will continue to be the full-bore, cutthroat business it has always been. There is already anecdotal talk of schools planning on-campus visits and camps. Schools can't fully commit, though, until the council gives the go-ahead. Both sides are so eager to see each other again that coaches have been warned not to break NCAA rules by allowing recruits to see them during unofficial campus visits. Not that there have been many of those.
Unofficial visits are taken at the expense of the recruit's family. During COVID-19, that meant a prospect couldn't even meet with academic support, much less a coaching staff.
A favorable decision would be sweet relief for Stewart, who the 247Sports Crystal Ball currently projects to be leaning toward LSU. That sense of anticipation includes Perez, who says he has nine Division I prospects on his roster.
"If [recruiters] can't come watch spring practice and we can't go to their campus and there are no campus visits, the NCAA is getting this wrong," Perez said.
This tipping point in the recruiting process was anticipated. Almost from the time of the March 2020 shutdown, coaches said the Class of 2021 would be impacted. With the Class of 2022 -- juniors entering into their senior years of high school -- in-person contact has been non-existent.
Add to that the lack of actual games. Monsignor Pace played only six games last season because of COVID-19 protocols in Florida.
In recruiting the 2022 class, "a lot of it is sight unseen," said Auburn coach Bryan Harsin.
What no one knows is which way the NCAA Council is leaning. This is one of two huge decisions it will make this spring.
Next month, the council is likely to approve the one-time transfer rule that several coaches have labeled "free agency." That may be true, but there isn't a coach alive who isn't already massaging the transfer portal like it is a waiver wire.
The U.S. Justice Department is currently considering antitrust aspects of transfer rules before the NCAA makes a move.
The NCAA Council is a 40-person body responsible for day-to-day NCAA legislative and policy decision-making. It has a representative from each of the 32 Division I conferences. Voting is weighted toward the 10 FBS conferences, and within that, the Power Five (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC).
If the FBS conferences vote as a group, they control 56.3% of the voting points. However, the Power Five cannot decide the issue on its own. Those conferences control only 37.5% of the total vote.
For recruits and coaches, June 1 can't get here fast enough.
"I do think that's how it's going to land. but it's hard to tell," said a member of the oversight committee who did not wish to be identified. "I've heard of an interest to get back out on the road because of relationships. It's not just that … everybody wants to get their relationships back up and running. There is more support from coaches to get back to normal than I expected there would be."
A return to normal is loaded with issues. There no doubt will be schools that favor an extension of the dead period because their campuses still aren't open. As with everything college football, it comes down to recruiting. Specifically, who can possibly get a competitive advantage out of all this if some schools can host recruits and some cannot.
"Do you have to wait until the last campus is open until you say it's for everybody?" the committee member asked. "How do you manage that? That's the tricky part."
When the dead period was extended to May 31, Texas A&M AD Ross Bjork immediately tweeted: "This is very disappointing. We've made many advancements in protocols … to safely host families & prospects. … If we don't have a clear plan by June 1 we are doing many people a disservice. It's time.
Bjork did not want to comment further after being contacted by CBS Sports.
"By June who knows what it's going to look like," said the committee member. "All indications are the world may feel normal in June. You can always back off. But you have to at least allow people start preparing right now."
In an unprecedented show of collective dissent from those who have served within the NCAA's ranks, six former NCAA employees filed an amici curiae brief Wednesday in support of former college athletes who are suing college sports' governing body over antitrust claims related to scholarship restrictions.
In a "friends-of-the-court" petition in the Supreme Court case NCAA v. Alston, five former NCAA investigators and a one-time senior executive have said the association's position has failed to keep up with the times.
"Though they once supported and enforced all of the NCAA's rules," the brief states, "with the benefit of further experience and hindsight, amici have come to believe that the NCAA's current restrictions on college athletes' receipt of education-related benefits do not promote 'amateurism,' which the NCAA itself has admitted has no fixed definition."
Among the group, the most notable petitioner is Mark Lewis, who served as NCAA executive vice president until 2016. In 2014, Lewis was among the NCAA's key trial witnesses in the separate class action lawsuit brought by former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon over the publicity rights of college athletes.
The other five pro-Alston petitioners—Tim Nevius, Renee Gomilla, Mark Neyland, Angela O'Neal and Jasmine Williams—worked in various enforcement roles within the NCAA.
Of the group, Nevius, an attorney who once led the NCAA's investigation into "Tattoogate" at Ohio State, has been the most active in speaking out against amateurism. In 2019, Nevius launched the College Athlete Advocacy Initiative, an organization aimed at raising public awareness and providing legal support for college athletes over eligibility and other NCAA entanglements.
Although the former NCAA employees constitute a tiny faction of those who have worked for the organization, their joint statement is nonetheless remarkable, considering how rare it is for insiders to speak out against the core doctrine of the association's canon.
Lewis was a quintessential NCAA insider, playing a key role in securing the NCAA's $8.8 billion television rights extension with Turner Sports and CBS in 2016, prior to his departure. At the time, Lewis was earning $793,297 in annual compensation, according to the NCAA's tax filings, and he received an additional million dollars on his way out the door.
The amicus brief marks a complete reversal of Lewis' testimony in the O'Bannon case. When asked about the concept of amateurism during that trial seven years ago, Lewis said, "I think at its heart, it is what college sports is." He went on to argue that, of the 117 million people who tuned into the NCAA men's basketball tournament that year, "the fact that these are not professionals is a very real part of why they watch the tournament."
In Wednesday's 28-page filing, Lewis and the other amici curiae argue that the NCAA's compensation does not preserve consumer demand.
However, by early last year, Lewis had signaled that he had undergone a change of heart on the issue, joining an advisory board for the National College Players Association, the advocacy group that has led the push for greater athlete compensation. In an interview at the time, Lewis told ESPN that if the NCAA's "priority is to monetize the sport," then players should be entitled to earn money as well.
In the testimonial equivalent of switching jerseys, the former NCAA officials' brief in support of the Alston class follows one filed last month by former athletes in support of the NCAA. As Sportico previously reported, several of that brief's signatories, including former NFL running back Darren McFadden, indicated in interviews that their views about the case may actually be more in line with the plaintiffs.
The ex-NCAA officials' brief was filed by James Quinn, a prominent New York-based litigator who once successfully represented CBS in a class-action antitrust lawsuit brought by former college athletes accusing the network of improperly using their names, images and likenesses.
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Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
With the NCAA model under attack, sports media company Overtime is launching its own basketball league and offering high school players six-figure salaries to skip college.
How it works:Overtime plans to recruit up to 30 athletes, ages 16 to 18, to forfeit their high school and college eligibility and join their league, Overtime Elite (OTE), starting in September.
Compensation: OTE athletes will receive at least $100,000 annually, plus health insurance and equity stakes in the company. They can also earn money from their name, image and likeness (i.e. jersey sales).
Fallback fund: $100,000 in college tuition money will be set aside for each player in case they decide not to pursue basketball professionally.
Format: Players, and possibly their families, will move to one city (to be determined) to live, train and compete. Games will be played on the same court, and the plan is to add an international tour.
Education: Overtime, which has over 100 employees and expects to nearly double in size with the launch of OTE, will hire education staffers to teach athletes and help them get high school diplomas.
Leadership: Longtime NBA executive Aaron Ryan will serve as OTE's commissioner and president, while former NBA player and assistant GM Brandon Williams will lead the basketball operations division.
Overtime host, Overtime Larry, takes a video with fans. Courtesy: Overtime
Between the lines: OTE's model resembles the academy system used in Europe and elsewhere around the world, where major college sports aren't a thing and amateurism is a foreign concept.
"Abroad, they're all pro at 16, so they're looking at our model and thinking 'What's the revolution here?'" says Overtime co-founder and CEO Dan Porter.
"Nobody was complaining that Luka Dončić got paid to play basketball at 16. Nobody shed a tear over him not going to college. So what's the double standard?"
What they're saying: NBA commissioner Adam Silver seemed to approve of OTE when asked about it on Saturday, saying he isn't opposed to paying younger people and that "optionality is good."
The state of play: OTE isn't the only league recruiting teenagers to skip college and get paid. The NBA, itself, is now courting 18-year-olds to join its G League developmental program after graduating high school.
The NBA is expected to end the one-and-done rule in the next few years, which could allow OTE graduates to go straight to the league.
Until then, they'll likely spend a season playing in the G League or abroad before becoming eligible for the NBA draft.
The intrigue: Part of the appeal of OTE is that Overtime has 50 million followers and knows how to create digital content for teenagers, the most important audience for any rising star.
By comparison, Saturday's Duke-UNC game drew just 1.87 million viewers to ESPN — and most were not teenagers.
"Ask college players if they gain a lot of followers after playing on ESPN2 or another network," says Porter. "I guarantee they gain more on our platform, and it's an audience they care about: young people who are going to buy their sneakers."
"Between the NCAA struggling to adopt NIL, an enhanced G League ... pro leagues in other parts of the world signing American high school stars and now Overtime Elite, men's college basketball is learning what competition is about."
