BY DANIEL A. SEGAL At this dire moment of relentless attacks on academic freedom, educational excellence, and rights of campus speech and assembly, we still have big-time college athletics—gridiron football, in particular. This is especially visible at Indiana University. Even more than at most colleges and universities, the administration of IU’s President Pamela Whitten has…
BY STEVEN LUBET When Covid-19 protocols forced Texas A&M to withdraw its football team from this year’s Gator Bowl, the game’s sponsors began frantically searching for a replacement to play Wake Forest on December 31, even if that required recruiting a team with a losing record. Under NCAA post-season rules, the first bid went to…
BY STEVEN LUBET Big-time college football is back, with all the tradition and pageantry, but the sport may soon face a well-deserved existential reckoning for two reasons—one physical and the other financial. First, parents may no longer allow their children to participate in youth and high school football, where the numbers have been declining for…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Morning Consult has released the results of its recent polling on whether the BCS playoffs should be held now that two of the Power 5 conferences have postponed their seasons. Of more interest, I think, is the related polling on whether the Big 10 and the PAC-12 made the right decision…
BY MARTIN KICH Part 1 To stave off some of the assumptions and accusations that my previous posts on intercollegiate athletics have provoked, I want to make clear that for five decades, I have been an avid fan of college basketball and, although somewhat less enthused about college football, I have tuned into the games…
The following is a press release from the Rutgers AAUP-AFT chapter. Rutgers AAUP-AFT has filed a lawsuit to force the Rutgers University administration to come clean about the huge sums of money it funnels to an athletics program that continually loses money. The suit, filed last Friday, asks a superior court judge to require the…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Our administration has asked our chapter to meet with them to discuss budget shortfalls. Noeleen McIlvenna, our chapter president, and other members of our executive committee recruited groups of faculty who have done detailed research on multiple “cost centers” on which the university has not adjusted its spending despite the financial…
BY MARTIN KICH This item appeared in yesterday’s Morning Education newsletter from Politico: NCAA LOSES ANTITRUST LAWSUIT: The unanimous decision from three judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals means that the NCAA must allow costly educational benefits and even cash awards for student-athletes. — The ruling falls short of the push for college athletes to…
BY MARTIN KICH “The NCAA, the presidents of the universities, the Power 5 conference commissioners, the athletic directors need to be meeting right now and we need to start coming up with answers. In my opinion, if we have to bring our players back, test them. They’re all in good shape. They’re all 18, 19,…