On Tuesday, December 16, 2014, William Powers, Jr., President of the University of Texas at Austin, announced the opening of the Center for Sports Leadership and Innovation to “help coaches instill strong character in high school players and teach college athletes how to manage their money better” (Chronicle of Higher Education on-line, 12/17/14). More universities should follow the example. President Powers should be commended for his leadership. However, instead he will step down as president in June of 2015 after much publicized clashes with Governor Perry and some of the members of the Board of Regents appointed by Perry.
President Powers goes on to say that "As a society, we should be doing everything we can to leverage the enormous popularity of athletics to develop leaders and cultivate integrity". In addition to teaching teamwork and discipline, he said, sports can be "a force for good." There is no debate about the inherent good that comes from college sports and the impact it has on student athletes, students in general, and the broader community.
The center will receive $300,000.00 in start-up funds from President Powers’ office via the Longhorn Network. The director of the new center will be Daron K. Roberts, a former student-government president at Texas, guest analyst for the Longhorn Network, and a guest lecturer in humanities at the university where he teaches a course in Leadership Strategy in Sports. He has served as an assistant coach with three NFL teams; the Kansas City Chiefs, Detroit Lions, and the Cleveland Browns; as well as an assistant coach with West Virginia University. He received a B.A. in Government from UT-Austin (2001), a Master’s of Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government (2004) and a law degree (2007), both from Harvard University. He certainly has the academic qualifications and work experience to lead the center.
The creation of the center is a good start toward addressing the problems that exist in colleges sports. The public is tired of hearing about how college athletes are accused of sexual assaults and university administrations sweeping it under the rug. We are tired of reading about cheating scandal after scandal to help make blue chip athletes eligible to play college sports. We are tired of college athletes not attending classes, having term papers written for them and passing classes without lifting a finger. Hopefully the new center will address these and many of the other problems intrinsic to college sports.
I find it interesting that President Powers announced the creation of the new center on the same day the local news reported that a grand jury in Travis County (Austin), Texas had indicted two former Texas football players on sexual assault charges in connection with an on-campus incident with a female student in June. It should be noted that Texas Head Football Coach Charlie Strong suspended both players one month after the sexual assault allegations and in August dismissed them from the team. This is the appropriate and correct action college coaches should take once there is sufficient evidence to determine that the student-athletes were involved in the sexual assault or any other serious violation of the student code of conduct.
It was reported that the center will work with high school coaches to develop a training and certification program which will help them detect and intervene when players exhibit troubling or violent behavior. A pilot program will focus on high school football and girls’ basketball.
According to the announcement, the center will also develop a financial literacy program for the university’s athletes. A one-hour pilot course will start in the fall and will be taught by financial professionals and former athletes will help teach the students how to manage loans, credit-card debt, and other financial matters. These skills will be useful for anyone, including the vast majority of college athletes who don’t go on to play sports professionally. However, the course would obviously benefit the smaller subset of high-profile players who might cash in on their athletic skills. In my opinion this should be a standard course for all college students, not just athletes.
Interestingly enough, the one-hour financial literacy comes on the heels of recent legal rulings about compensating college student athletes. In August, a federal judge ruled that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) had violated federal antitrust laws by unreasonably barring high-profile athletes from earning money off of the use of their names, images, and likenesses. The NCAA has appealed the decision and if upheld, it could allow some football and basketball players to earn thousands of dollars a year in deferred compensation for the commercial use of their images.
I believe that the problems in college athletics are rooted in money. For example, how can a head coach of a major college football program earn $5,000,000 a year and the president earn only $500,000 a year. Or take the recent example of the University of Michigan, my alma mater, which has offered Jim Harbaugh, head coach of the NFL San Francisco 49ers, $8,000,000.00 to be the head football coach. Apparently, $8M is higher than any head football coach makes in the NFL. My point exactly! A salary of $8M is a drop in the bucket compared to the $137M operating budget for the football program at Michigan and football is projected to make a surplus of $9M. Until we remove money from the equation, the problems will continue to exist. A $5M or now $8M, if Harbaugh accepts, a year salary is a great incentive to cheat, keep your job, and your enormous salary.
The creation of the new Center for Sports Leadership and Innovation is a great start in an attempt to address the problems facing college sports. However, I feel a more comprehensive approach needs to be taken. Other university presidents with major NCAA Division I sports programs need to step forward and create other “think tanks” that can study the problems, find solutions, implement them, and create best practices that can be disseminated to all college sports programs. After all this is what our students and the public deserve.
