HHP 420, HHP 428: STELLAR SACK SYMPOSIUM PANELISTS ANNOUNCED

STELLAR PANELISTS ANNOUNCED

April 18, 2023 Sack Symposium Why Division I Revenue Sports Athletes are Not Realizing the Promise of Graduation

National Press Club

Washington, D.C.

MEET THE PANELISTS - REVIEW THE APRIL 18 PROGRAM

9:15-10:45am PANEL #1 – Who Is the College Athlete Who Is Not Graduating?

A panel of former college athletes examines the reality of the athletics experience and reflects on the graduation statistics, demographics, and causative factors of college students participating in Division I revenue sports: e.g., 52 percent of all NCAA Division I men's basketball players; 38 percent of all Division-I football players, and 38 percent of all Division I women's basketball players who were full scholarship recipients and required to be full-time students did not graduate within six years. A clear majority of these athletes are students of color.

WILLIAM C. RHODEN, MODERATOR, ESPN/Andscape, former award-winning sports columnist for The New York Times, and author of Forty Million Dollar Slaves, Third and a Mile, and The Crowd Goes Wild; Emmy-winning writer of film Breaking the Huddle; writer-at-large for Andscape, a Black media platform dedicated to creating, highlighting, and uplifting the diverse stories of Black identity; Rhoden joined Andscape, formerly The Undefeated, in October 2016, after 34 years with The New York Times, 26 of them as the Sports of The Times columnist. In collaboration with Andscape, ESPN, and the Walt Disney Company; Rhoden established the Rhoden Fellowship, a one-year program that identifies and trains aspiring African-American journalists from Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

SHERILL BAKER, Assistant Women's Basketball Coach/Recruiting Coordinator, George Washington University; an All-American at Georgia, where she holds the single-season and career UGA records for steals; Baker was named All-American, All-SEC First Team, and National Defensive Player of the Year in 2006; named an SEC Legend at the 2014 SEC Women's Basketball Tournament; Baker was selected 12th overall in the 2006 WNBA draft by the New York Liberty, and spent four seasons playing professionally in New York, Los Angeles, Detroit and Indiana; her playing career also included overseas stops in Israel, Italy, France, Germany and Cyprus where she averaged double figures in scoring each year. Baker earned her degree in speech communication.

MAURICE CLARETT, former Ohio State Buckeyes football running back who also played professionally for the Omaha Nighthawks of the United Football League; as a freshman at Ohio State University in 2002, he helped lead the Buckeyes to a national championship; Clarett was drafted on the first day of the 2005 NFL Draft with the final pick of the 3rd round (#101 overall) by the Denver Broncos; Clarett is well known for unsuccessfully challenging the NFL's draft eligibility rules requiring a player to be three years removed from high school; he is the author of One and Done: How My Life Started After My Football Career Ended; he is a nationally celebrated public speaker, founder of a successful behavioral health agency in both Youngstown and Columbus, Ohio and co-host of Business and Biceps, a top-rated business podcast.

BRENDAN COLE, Athletic Director at The Field School in Washington D.C. and a former three-time team captain and twice all-conference defensive back at Hampton University, where he earned his bachelor's degree in Strategic Communications with a minor in Political Science and a master's degree in Sports Administration. Formerly, he was Assistant Athletic Director and Head Boys Basketball Coach at Christchurch School.

JACKSON MATTEO, Woodbury Forest School Head Football Coach. graduate of the University of Virginia, where he started 30 games at offensive line from 2012-2016, and served as team captain in 2016. He holds a bachelor's degree in sociology and a master's degree in higher education with a focus in athletic administration; he defended his dissertation this spring to complete his Doctorate in Education, where his research focused on the transition experiences of Black Division-I football players at a predominantly White institution; previously a graduate assistant coach at UVa under Bronco Mendenhall, working with the defensive backs in 2017 and the offensive line in 2018 and 2019; during his tenure as graduate assistant coach, Matteo helped Virginia achieve three consecutive bowl berths, winning the Atlantic Coast Conference's Coastal Division in 2019.

11:00am-12:30pm PANEL #2 - Aspects of the College Athlete Environment That Negatively and Positively Contribute to Academic Outcomes.

Are current academic and other support programs for college athletes structured to achieve graduation success? What constitutes a meaningful education and a safe and supportive educational environment? Do coaches make a difference in college athlete academic outcomes? Are there underlying issues related to racial inequities, time demands, and/or abusive coaching practices that should be addressed? How does athletic injury and adequacy of coach training affect athlete classroom performance?

MARK HYMAN, MODERATOR, Director, The Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism and George Solomon Endowed Chair in Sports Journalism, Merrill College of Journalism, Univ, of Maryland; four decades as a sports journalist at Businessweek, The Baltimore Sun, The Baltimore News American, the Dallas Times Herald, The Bulletin (Philadelphia) and The Ledger-Star (Norfolk, Virginia) and seven years serving as a Professor of Sport Management at The George Washington University School of Business; Associated Press Sports Editors Awards for investigative reporting and news writing for such stories as SMU football's pay-for-play scandal/NCAA "death penalty," the death of UMD basketball great Len Bias, the construction of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the sale of the Baltimore Orioles in federal bankruptcy court, and the Orioles' 1999 goodwill exhibition in Cuba.

RICHARD LAPCHICK, Director, The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, President, The Institute for Sport and Social Justice, University of Central Florida; Human rights activist, pioneer for racial equality, internationally recognized expert on sports and social issues, scholar and author; often described as "the racial conscience of sport"; prolific writer, his 17^th book was published in 2018; regular columnist for ESPN.com and The Sports Business Journal; inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame of the Commonwealth Nations in the category of Humanitarian along with Arthur Ashe and Nelson Mandela; 2021 Muhammad Ali Humanitarian of the Year; received the Arthur Ashe Institute Leadership Award in recognition of his trailblazing work and dedication to diversity and social justice; named one of the 100 Most Powerful People in Sports.

BRUCE SMITH, Ph.D., Director of Empowerment Strategies/CEO, ACES Group; worked in K-12, higher education and intercollegiate athletics for more than two decades as a teacher, professor, administrator, and coach; as a higher education administrator, his work focused on student life, athletics, and equity and justice at both small private liberal arts colleges and flagship state institutions; Smith specializes in managing comprehensive student support; mentoring and supervising staff; creating connections between curriculum and co-curriculum and developing equity and justice institutional strategies; as a professor, his work focuses on African American life and culture; the sociology of education; sport studies; and American studies with an emphasis on developing engaging, student-centered, identity-conscious pedagogy.

DAWN STALEY, Head Women's Basketball Coach, University of South Carolina, 2017 and 2022 NCAA D-I champions; four Final Fours in last seven; 12 25-win seasons; seven SEC regular season and tourney titles; 8 years as Temple University head coach; inducted into the Naismith Memorial and Women's Basketball Halls of Fame; USA women's national team head coach earning multiple FIBA World and Olympic Gold titles; as a player, a National High School Player of the Year, USA National Team Player with three Olympic Golds; 2004 Olympic Flag Bearer for USA; ABL and WNBA All-Star professional player; numerous local and national public service awards.

MARY WILLINGHAM, former Academic Advisor and Clinical Instructor in the School of Education, The Center for Student Success and Academic Counseling, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; research includes studies on NCAA academic standards, university athlete admission procedures, college athlete academic skill deficits, and the incidence of LD/ADHD; co-owner of Paper Class Inc., a company dedicated to raising awareness about the need for NCAA reform; recipient of the 2013 Robert Maynard Hutchins Award in recognition of her courageous stand to defend academic integrity at UNC; co-authored commentary in both The Chronicle of Higher Education and InsideHigherEd.com; author of Cheated: The UNC Scandal, The Education of Athletes, And The Future of Big-Time College Sports.

2:00-3:30pm PANEL #3 - Are We Getting What We Paid For? Entertainment or Education?

What are the economic drivers of college sports and how do they affect athlete education? The NCAA's Division I athletics enterprise generates $15.8 billion in annual revenues of which only $2.9 billion --18.2 percent -- is returned to athletes in the form of athletics scholarships and only 1 percent is spent on medical treatment and insurance protections compared to 35 percent spent on administrative and coach compensation and 18% on lavish facilities. Will a redistribution of expenditures address unacceptable academic outcomes or the long-term impact of athletic injuries?

SALLY JENKINS, MODERATOR, Washington Post columnist, was named the nation's top sports columnist in 2001, 2003, 2010 and 2011 by the Associated Press Sports Editors. In 2013, she won a first-place award from the AP for an investigative series co-written with Rick Maese on medical care in the NFL, titled "Do No Harm." Jenkins is the author of 12 books, four of which were New York Times bestsellers, most recently the No.1 Sum It Up with legendary basketball coach Pat Summitt; She is also the author of The Real All Americans, the historical account of how the Carlisle Indian School took on the Ivy League powers in college football at the turn of the century and won. Her work has been featured in Smithsonian, GQ and Sports Illustrated.

JENNIFER ABRUZZO, General Counsel, National Labor Relations Board, was appointed by the President to a 4-year term; position is independent from the Board and is responsible for the investigation and prosecution of unfair labor practice cases and for the general supervision of the NLRB field offices in the processing of cases; Abruzzo previously worked for the NLRB for over two decades, including as Field Attorney, Supervisory Field Attorney, Deputy Regional Attorney, Deputy Assistant General Counsel, Deputy General Counsel, and Acting General Counsel. Immediately prior to her appointment as General Counsel, Ms. Abruzzo served as Special Counsel for Strategic Initiatives for the Communications Workers of America.

DR. WAYNE A.I. FREDERICK, President, Howard University and Charles R. Drew Professor of Surgery at the Howard University College of Medicine; he is also a practicing cancer surgeon at Howard University Hospital, where he continues to see patients and perform surgeries; born in Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Frederick came to the United States for the first time in 1988, when he matriculated to Howard at the age of 16 to pursue a dual B.S./M.D. program; by the age of 22, he had received his Bachelor of Science degree and graduated from medical school; he returned to Howard as a student to receive his MBA in 2011; Frederick has overseen a period of immense growth and transformation at Howard, including record-breaking enrollment numbers and philanthropic donations; he is a tireless advocate for social justice and a sought-after perspective on the issue of diversity, equity, and inclusion; he uses his voice and his expertise to champion the need for greater access and opportunity for people of color in health care, higher education and society at large.

THE HONORABLE TOM McMILLEN, President and Chief Executive Officer of the LEAD1 Association, which represents the athletic directors and programs of the Football Bowl Subdivision; All-American basketball player at the Univ. of Maryland; member of the 1972 Olympic basketball team that refused to accept a silver medal after its controversial and disputed championship game with the Soviet Union; graduated as valedictorian of his class at the University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry; first Rhodes Scholar from the University of Maryland; Bachelor and Master of Arts in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from Oxford University; played eleven years in the NBA; the first and only active professional athlete to run for Congress; served three consecutive terms from the Fourth District of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives.

ANDREW ZIMBALIST, Robert A. Woods Professor Emeritus of Economics at Smith; has been a visiting professor at Doshisha University, the University of Geneva and Hamburg University; has consulted in Latin America for the United Nations Development Program, the U.S. Agency for International Development and numerous companies and, in the sports industry, for players' associations, cities, companies, citizens groups, teams and leagues; author of several dozen articles and twenty-seven books, including Unpaid Professionals: Commercialism and Conflict in Big-time College Sports, The Economics of Sport, I & II, May the Best Team Win: Baseball Economics and Public Policy, The International Handbook on the Economics of Mega-Sport Events, Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting the Olympics and the World Cup, Unwinding Madness: What Went Wrong with College Sports and How to Fix It with Gerry Gurney and Donna Lopiano, Whither College Sports: Amateurism, Athlete Safety, and Academic Integrity.

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The Drake Group Education Fund (TDGEF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit education organization whose mission is to ensure that the promise of college athletics is realized for all stakeholders. TDGEF produces The Allen Sack National Symposium on Integrity in College Sports and the Critical Issues in College Sports Webinar Series, conducts fact-based research on intercollegiate athletics and develops position papers and other educational materials that influence public discourse on current issues and controversies in college sport.