tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51977648666264882382024-02-15T22:33:58.403-06:00Ultimate Sports InsiderUltimateSportsInsider.com provides news, observations and commentary about college athletics with a focus on intercollegiate athletics as a business and educational enterprise. Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.comBlogger203125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-83981251219571015262023-02-20T13:33:00.000-06:002023-02-20T13:33:48.254-06:00Are you "over-qualified"?<div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV9qczGVOhs2oL4kaMiFcWU4j0Dux-tqjoaSXB2Mcn-92gtL_So-8CS1zUu_V6bIweYJjMT2UYNL4b1jyhyOweG4eUPOjvNXY-AIVRTzV8jPzgBsvYwkvl2v3KOzSHgIRmmbxVNYCEpSsNUWUHSUN5msFCwk-CRPY5vgkiUQ_Y1xmTMLHoIJYbJMvZ4w/s1080/Qualifiers%20blog%20image.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV9qczGVOhs2oL4kaMiFcWU4j0Dux-tqjoaSXB2Mcn-92gtL_So-8CS1zUu_V6bIweYJjMT2UYNL4b1jyhyOweG4eUPOjvNXY-AIVRTzV8jPzgBsvYwkvl2v3KOzSHgIRmmbxVNYCEpSsNUWUHSUN5msFCwk-CRPY5vgkiUQ_Y1xmTMLHoIJYbJMvZ4w/w183-h183/Qualifiers%20blog%20image.jpg" width="183" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">I recently heard a ten-minute presentation from a leading professional in their field regarding academic policies - a straightforward and fact-based topic. The presenter was without question the expert in the room. </div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Unfortunately, the speaker eroded their qualifications and authority from the outset - sentence by sentence - through the use of qualifiers. In the course of the short presentation, more than 30 qualifiers (an average of one every 20 seconds) were used. I'm sure you'll recognize them - </div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">
"A little bit" - five times</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
"I think" - four times </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
"Just" - three times</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
"Kind of" - three times</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
"Trying to" - three times</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
"Some" - Twice</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
"Maybe" - Twice</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
"Probably"</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
"Approximately"</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
"At times"</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
"A few" </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
"A couple"</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
"Pretty good"</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
"As possible"</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
And there were some compound-qualifiers such as "probably a little bit" and "maybe a little bit" for good measure. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The use of qualifiers has become pervasive and exhausting. Politicians and talking heads are notorious for it. Sports commentators, especially former players and coaches, love wiggle words as they attempt to sound critical and strong to their audience while leaving themselves wiggle-room with their former competitive and professional peers. Unfortunately, many AD's and coaches have adopted the trend. It's particularly glaring when reading a quote in print. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">We've become reluctant to take a stand - fearing the social media mob that's ready to fire up their outrage machines and play gotcha. Which is followed by the "I should have been more thoughtful and didn't mean to offend anyone" faux apology/retraction. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Leaders talk about culture, core values, leadership, transparency and doing things the right way. You're not required to answer a question, speak or provide commentary on any and every topic. If you choose to do so, it's refreshing to hear someone authentically and genuinely (two popular cliche words) voice those views, rather than kind of wanting to hedge in a way that sort of, sometimes, is just pretty good and suggests they might actually have a partial opinion. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Take a stance and own your views. The ensuing debate is how we all get better. </div>
Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0State College, PA, USA40.7933949 -77.860001214.634455068452514 -113.0162512 66.9523347315475 -42.7037512tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-12084130116300948282019-11-20T08:00:00.000-06:002019-11-20T08:00:09.004-06:00Student-athlete gambling research suggests challenging future<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQH9Hugb5cOp2aLJwnHYhLa7h6x-omnIM_nkCcaFpERi6-YP_h2gHqm5TKQ14EbpSnXjB4eBsXqXo1aRSAxG98vUw0X5gTd151VnW5pVKjZR52xiZ6mLE10jpt49_40rLv4IhQ-3X7tlLW/s1600/Michigan+Gambling+Study+Cover+Image.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="731" data-original-width="546" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQH9Hugb5cOp2aLJwnHYhLa7h6x-omnIM_nkCcaFpERi6-YP_h2gHqm5TKQ14EbpSnXjB4eBsXqXo1aRSAxG98vUw0X5gTd151VnW5pVKjZR52xiZ6mLE10jpt49_40rLv4IhQ-3X7tlLW/s320/Michigan+Gambling+Study+Cover+Image.JPG" width="238" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">In 1998, men's and women's basketball and football
student-athletes from across the country provided a window into their gambling
activities through a University of Michigan study conducted by friend and
colleague Ann Vollano and myself (</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black;"><span style="color: #0e4c92;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0-RCNk1lrcDVDM1OVFDSlByRDVwTVV6Mm02OXBVNzl4M0Vr/view?usp=sharing" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The extent and nature of gambling among college students, Cross and Vollano, 1998</a></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: black;">). </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Prior to the study, data about student-athlete gambling was essentially
non-existent. Our research </span><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/12/sports/colleges-university-of-michigan-survey-study-finds-athletes-betting-pervasive.html" target="_blank" title="This external link will open in a new window"><span style="color: #0e4c92;">garnered national media
attention</span></a></span><span style="color: black;"> and prompted the NCAA to conduct its own studies which
advanced this initial work. Twenty years later, the 1998 research
provides an insightful point of comparison with the </span><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/2017RES_wagering_powerpoint_20171129.pdf" target="_blank" title="This external link will open in a new window"><span style="color: #0e4c92;">NCAA's 2016 gambling
study (Trends in NCAA student-athlete gambling behaviors and attitudes, 2017)</span></a></span><span style="color: black;"> and possible future trends. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="color: black;">Positive trends</span></b><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Specific types of gambling among male student-athletes have
declined in nearly every case (except the purchase of lottery tickets.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.8pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Type of Gambling Activity<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.85pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">1998<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.85pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">2016<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.8pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Wagering
on sports<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.85pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">37 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.85pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">24.3 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.8pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Playing
cards for money<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.85pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">39.1 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.85pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">22.9 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 3;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.8pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Wagering
in a casino<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.85pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">48.5 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.85pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">18.6 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 4;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.8pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Dice
games<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.85pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">18.5 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.85pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">7.7 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 5;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.8pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Wagering
on horses, dogs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.85pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">13.5 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.85pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">6.3 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 6;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.8pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Commercial
Bingo<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.85pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">8.0 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.85pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">5.0 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 7; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.8pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Lottery
tickets<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.85pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">27.8 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 155.85pt;" valign="top" width="208"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">36.4 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">The percentage of male Division I student-athletes who gambled in
the prior 12 months declined significantly as well, although half the
population still wagers:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center">
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" width="312"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">1998<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" width="312"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">2016<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" width="312"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">71 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" width="312"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">48 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The trends above make sense - the lottery is more prevalent
than it was 20 years ago with some jackpots exceeding $500 million. The
popularity of bingo, horse and dog racing as well as dice games has
waned. The poker boom has receded. And the NCAA's long-standing
educational efforts are having an impact on sports wagering. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">But not all of the news is positive. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="color: black;">Neutral and Negative Trends </span></b><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></b><span style="color: black;">Wagering
activity below $50 was unchanged but the percentage of athletes making large
wagers drifted upwards and internet gambling has grown exponentially.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="color: black;"><br />
</span></b><span style="color: black;">Percentage
who wagered less than $10<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" width="312"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">1998<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" width="312"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">2016<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" width="312"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">32.5 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" width="312"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">33.0 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Percentage of male athletes who wagered more than $50<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" width="312"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">1998<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" width="312"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">2016<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" width="312"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">20 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" width="312"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">21 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Percentage of males who wagered more than $500 at one time<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" width="312"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">1998<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" width="312"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">2016<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" width="312"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">1.5 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" width="312"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">4 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Percentage of male student athletes who wagered via the internet<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" width="312"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">1998<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" width="312"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">2016<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" width="312"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Less than 1 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 233.75pt;" width="312"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Approximately 33.0 %<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Keep in mind, the most recent NCAA numbers are nearly 4 years old.
Since 2016 sports wagering has become legal in many states with the number of
internet-based tools and phone-based apps exploding. The 2016 numbers
most certainly under-report the activities of 2019 and it’s reasonable to
expect the amounts wagered will increase due to the simplicity of wagering with a credit card. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="color: black;">The Future</span></b><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">If you accept the premise that student-athlete wagering is
correlated with societal gambling practices, college sports faces a daunting situation. Consider the following trends that have emerged since
2016:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">legalization of sports wagering, <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">significant emergence of internet wagering options from
legalization,<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">increased
media coverage and commentary on sports wagering in light of
legalization, including point spreads on college football games,
over/under, etc.</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">general
societal acceptance of gambling, and<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: black; line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">a
tsunami of technology and data, which can be facilitated by artificial
intelligence, makes the exploitation of information for wagering purposes
both irresistible and fiscally prudent for those who choose to
gamble. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">The potential for manipulation that impacts the integrity of contests is real. For decades the NCAA
has advocated a zero tolerance policy towards wagering on sports sponsored by
the Association. But with new opportunities for wagering emerging, it seems unlikely wagering on sports
will decrease further when the rate of decline over the past 20 years
has been less than 1% annually. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Intercollegiate athletics leadership needs to utilize the same legislative and technology-based tools that are available to gamblers to
eliminate avenues for possible contest manipulation. Legal options through state houses and court houses will be important. But the more fruitful approaches will be technology and policy based. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: black;">S</span>tandardized data tracking and ownership at the conference level along with consistent injury reporting are easy first steps. When everyone has the same information, insider intelligence that can be exploited for gambling is reduced. Publicly available data should track team, student-athlete and referee performance. There isn't agreement about this approach, but it's needed - secrecy in the information age doesn't work well. Additionally, <span style="color: black;"><a href="https://dailyiowan.com/2019/11/05/iowa-regents-to-consider-barring-members-from-sports-betting/" target="_blank" title="This external link will open in a new window"><span style="color: #0e4c92;">some institutions have already taken steps to limit faculty and staff gambling.</span></a></span><span style="color: black;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Interesting policy questions will also emerge from the economic pressures facing higher education and college athletics. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">T<span style="color: black;">he </span><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://hechingerreport.org/college-students-predicted-to-fall-by-more-than-15-after-the-year-2025/" target="_blank" title="This external link will open in a new window"><span style="color: #0e4c92;">decreasing number of traditional-age college students</span></a></span><span style="color: black;">, </span></span>a re-invigoration of trade occupations, <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">an unwillingness of today’s families to assume large amounts of student loan debt and softening game attendance will rationalize gambling access in a manner similar to the </span><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/college-football-turns-to-an-unlikely-savior-beer-beer-and-more-beer-11565956854" target="_blank" title="This external link will open in a new window"><span style="color: #0e4c92;">expansion of alcohol sales at college sporting events</span></a></span><span style="color: black;">. </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Alcohol availability is a revenue opportunity wrapped in the language of "enhanced fan experience" and "decreased incidents". "Enhanced fan experience" and "reduced risk of contest manipulation" will provide similar linguistic justification for institutions to pursue the financial opportunities of legal wagering and associated businesses </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">(e.g. sponsorship) despite its moral murkiness. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">How long will it take to get meaningful tools in place to protect
contest integrity? Or for institutions to take a permissive approach
regarding wagering? I don't know the answer to either question, but if there is an
over/under on the amount of time it will take to see either occur, I'll bet the over.</span></div>
Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0State College, PA, USA40.7933949 -77.860001240.745305900000005 -77.9406822 40.8414839 -77.7793202tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-69921323482361959012019-03-31T04:30:00.000-05:002019-03-31T04:30:05.650-05:00Risking prosperity in college athletics<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYv_IpWgnZe_F7huqa92BGqht8uGB7xtUEMs7N9zogO_CWlaNMtlPys6mQr1O0i1X-FP0Egcnx06EoVlYmVQnDp4QkX8nkfsAwGyxQtJ47OIAUG_cCeduW9L6u87HahofSouF82O5po7ao/s1600/Prosperity+Quote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="300" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYv_IpWgnZe_F7huqa92BGqht8uGB7xtUEMs7N9zogO_CWlaNMtlPys6mQr1O0i1X-FP0Egcnx06EoVlYmVQnDp4QkX8nkfsAwGyxQtJ47OIAUG_cCeduW9L6u87HahofSouF82O5po7ao/s320/Prosperity+Quote.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The quote "The more prosperous a sport becomes, the more likely it is to destroy the reasons for its prosperity" is displayed prominently in my office. And while you may not be familiar with it, you're likely aware of the worn-out metaphor about athletics being the "front porch" of the university.<br />
<br />
Other societal institutions could use the same "front porch" metaphor. Ornate churches are an attractive invitation to God and salvation. Washington DC and governments around the world have incredible architecture and monuments that memorialize promises of freedom, benefits, protection and security.<br />
<br />
Yet church attendance and donations are waning, and faith in government is at historic lows. Beautiful entryways and attractive architecture can only do so much.<br />
<br />
College athletics is facing the same challenge. Each day's news cycle brings another troubling headline in higher education and college athletics. Think back fewer than three years ago. Could you have envisioned the following?<br />
<ul>
<li>the FBI investigation into men's basketball recruiting, </li>
<li>a multi-million dollar bribery scheme facilitating admission to elite colleges across the country using coaches and athletics administrators as a point of access,</li>
<li>ongoing legal actions seeking economic justice for student-athletes, and </li>
<li>significant concerns regarding student-athlete safety and well-being. </li>
</ul>
Systemic pressure to win, life-changing wealth, status, social media and institutional brand consciousness are powerful dynamics contributing to the current state of affairs. Yet each negative story erodes the prosperity of college athletics. It's time to use our prosperity to fix the front porch and rebuild the core of college athletics - holistically educating and developing student-athletes without exploitation.Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-81850405946812343572018-08-13T12:00:00.000-05:002018-08-13T12:00:14.194-05:00Unintended consequences of NCAA transfer rule changes The NCAA recently <a href="http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/autonomy-conferences-adjust-aid-rules" target="_blank">implemented changes to student athlete transfer rules</a>. They are well-intended and promote fairness to student athletes seeking different opportunities while balancing these expanded opportunities with institutional needs. But like all rule changes, unintended consequences and creative ways to use the rules to an institution's advantage will immediately emerge. Here are a few potential outcomes to these rule changes:<br />
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1) <b>Increased transfers</b> - In an environment that already has significant student athlete movement, allowing students to move without restriction will make transferring more prevalent. Coaching staffs around the country will watch the "free agent list" for their sport to see who has become available and aggressively recruit those individuals.<br />
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2) <b>"Tampering" will occur </b>- Any coach will tell you, when a student athlete asks for permission to talk to other schools about transferring, in most cases they're already gone. "Permission" is just a formality and in some cases contributes to the restrictions coaches have attempted to place on where an athlete transfers.<br />
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Under the new system, although a student athlete has to merely inform their current institution they may leave, the risk of losing their athletic aid provides significant incentive for the athlete to do their research before declaring their intent to transfer.<br />
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Tampering (influencing someone to transfer to another institution without the student having informed their current institution) will be a level-two NCAA violation, but this will be a limited deterrent because recruiting relationships are essential to providing a steady flow of talented student athletes. AAU coaches, advisers, quasi-agents and others will continue to have a full understanding of the marketplace for student athletes with whom they are close. And coaches will certainly have the same understanding of that marketplace and close relationships with those same individuals. Winks, nods, and "hypothetical" conversations will continue to occur despite the threat of a level-two violation because tampering is exceedingly hard to prove and coaches generally don't turn in their peers, preferring to avoid someone doing the same to them.<br />
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Just as it currently is, player movement will continue to be negotiated on the front end in many cases.<br />
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3) <b>Faster coaching searches and contract changes</b> - The speed required to make a coaching hire will add pressure to coaching searches. Trying to maintain a roster with no coach in place will be more difficult than ever with student athletes merely having to declare their desire to move once a head coach vacancy is announced.<br />
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The speed necessary to fill a coaching vacancy will increase the need for on-going relationships with search firms and agents in advance of an anticipated vacancy where a coach is being let go or may move to a higher profile program.<br />
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AD's will have even greater incentive to move quickly in coaching searches because transfers put the NCAA's <a href="http://www.ncaa.org/academic-based-revenue-distribution" target="_blank">academic-based revenue distributions</a> at risk.<br />
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Internal succession of an assistant coach to head coach could also become more likely with familiarity, connections, name recognition and pedigree facilitating decisions - making the advancement of diverse and female candidates more difficult if they are not tied into these networks.<br />
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The primary reason for many athletes choosing a school is a relationship with the head coach or a key assistant. These relationships will take on even greater importance and departing coaches will recruit directly from the roster of their former institution since the athlete's institutional choice cannot be restricted.<br />
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I expect to see a new standard contract clause stipulating a coach will not allow a student athlete from their prior institution on the roster of their new institution - a similar concept to buyout clauses requiring a home-and-home series between a coach's former and new schools. </div>
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4) <b>Students and coaches will have greater incentive to maximize value and make the market more efficient</b> - Recruiting is an inexact science. Finding the individual who fits in your system, identifying late bloomers, eliminating recruiting misses and maximizing ability to win will encourage both coaches and athletes to take advantage of the new rules.<br />
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Student athletes will have greater incentive to test their value in the marketplace, just as we have seen with graduate transfer rules. Student athletes have three primary goals when transferring - maximize the value of their scholarship; play more because they're underutilized in their current environment; or play at a higher level to perform against better competition and enhance future professional opportunities.<br />
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Coaches will have incentives to encourage transfers as well. They will seek transfers who can enhance their team's chance to win by actively seeking students who aspire to play more or compete at a higher level. And student athletes who haven't developed in the manner anticipated by a coach will be "encouraged" to look elsewhere. Coaches will now have additional incentive to have direct conversations with a student athlete about their ability to play in a program since a coach can immediately recover a scholarship once the student athlete is placed on the transfer list - regardless of whether they actually find a new school.<br />
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Coaches will also communicate with their peers who are indirect competitors at lower tier schools to find landing spots for student athletes who need a fresh start.<br />
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There are clearly benefits to student athletes in the new transfer rules. Similarly, coaches will utilize the transfer rules to their advantage while administrators attempt to minimize the negative effects of these same changes through contractual clauses and rapid coaching transitions that utilize search firms and agents to facilitate hiring. </div>
Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-17983813388819262892018-02-21T20:38:00.001-06:002018-02-21T20:38:24.190-06:00Bench pressing with the king of analogies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdQ0-Xh47OnqGFtbiOVs-3hcTw6f0SH5lewDltrTbFDBKtTRkDeuDUZ2pLzFJrIUd7iWQsC8ocp7CTQuF3gpN5Tt2oXPLelU6afqjtQ82-exCyhw5r6cAShHzmD6ywc6T-4p85S2vStQop/s1600/legend-fitness-competition-flat-bench-press-3906-bench+press.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="801" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdQ0-Xh47OnqGFtbiOVs-3hcTw6f0SH5lewDltrTbFDBKtTRkDeuDUZ2pLzFJrIUd7iWQsC8ocp7CTQuF3gpN5Tt2oXPLelU6afqjtQ82-exCyhw5r6cAShHzmD6ywc6T-4p85S2vStQop/s200/legend-fitness-competition-flat-bench-press-3906-bench+press.png" width="199" /></a></div>
This morning as I had breakfast with my son Nathan, I was reminded how words and actions can be influential. Nathan calls me the "King of Analogies". I love using them to better explain myself and provide helpful examples.<br />
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Nathan shared with me an analogy about weight lifting - specifically, bench pressing.<br />
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The child is the weight lifter and the weights are "the weight of the world." Considering some of the things going on around us right now, I'm sure to a teenager it feels that way. I know it does as an adult.<br />
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The parent is the spotter. Do too much work as a spotter and the child doesn't get stronger. Don't provide assistance at the right time and the weight lifter gets crushed.<br />
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Pretty good analogy, right? Nathan was fired up for developing it, and I was fired up
that he embraced the power of the analogy.<br />
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As a coach, leader or parent - what's your approach? Are the the people you have responsibility for getting crushed? Are you doing too much "spotting" - in effect micromanaging and helicoptering? Or are you providing security and encouragement, helping only when necessary?<br />
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Your approach as a spotter matters.<br />
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<br />Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-23280550430357922662018-01-09T06:00:00.000-06:002018-01-09T06:00:30.972-06:00If you want to stop the ride, you need a three-legged stool<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggy5znsBbMv_nmqtLtXIUVvj2Vr90P-mD_93gFU5CCp6bMSTo9Kg9_DmH-3q2G2QA4P4a4zCa5HLlVJhF0vyUdvo1_DH5rJ9kvgxZ_1ZoDYBfSihkFSPK6ja2YJFYFOBlLOgQh9XY6Zq_y/s1600/mr+toad.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="783" data-original-width="516" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggy5znsBbMv_nmqtLtXIUVvj2Vr90P-mD_93gFU5CCp6bMSTo9Kg9_DmH-3q2G2QA4P4a4zCa5HLlVJhF0vyUdvo1_DH5rJ9kvgxZ_1ZoDYBfSihkFSPK6ja2YJFYFOBlLOgQh9XY6Zq_y/s320/mr+toad.png" width="209" /></a>2017 had many of us in athletics feeling like we were on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride - and that the operator couldn't turn it off. The coaching carousel has never spun faster, with coaches losing their positions after short tenures and unmet (perhaps unattainable) expectations. Public measures of success such as fan satisfaction and wins or losses can mask more complex situations and stories lived by those most effected - the student athletes themselves. </div>
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Receiving student athlete feedback, asking the right questions, developing actionable and chronological data, and implementing coaching and mentoring before it's too late are not only desirable but appropriate first steps for all involved - student athletes, administrators and coaches.<br />
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The trouble is many athletic administrators don't have these measures available to support a coach on the hot seat, to respond to an anxious booster or president to explain patience may be prudent or to put a plan in place to redirect an off-course program. This doesn't have to be the case, as the following real life example demonstrates.<br />
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Last year an athletic director colleague did their post-season coaching evaluations and found that one of their head coaches was at risk of losing the locker room. Their team reported numerous examples of behavior by the head coach that were not in alignment with the department-wide culture, and it was coupled with a dismal team record and a poor student athlete experience. <br />
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In addition to qualitative data mined from student survey questions, anecdotal comments that were repeatedly shared by student athletes last year included:<br />
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<i>"Speaks to players and assistant coach in a rude and harsh manner. Not professional."</i><br />
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<i>"Doesn't respect the players of our own team."</i><br />
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<i>"Does not discipline those who go against team rules. Rarely addresses issues or team conflicts."</i><br />
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<i>"Very knowledgeable about the game but a terrible coach who is immature and inappropriate."</i><br />
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<i>""Forgot" to provide the team breakfast multiple times before away trips."</i><br />
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The athletic director faced a choice - do nothing (which was not an option), make a coaching change, or dig into the issues and develop a plan for improvement.<br />
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The athletic director utilized the data collected using <a href="http://athleteviewpoint.com/" target="_blank">Athlete Viewpoint</a> and presented it to the coach to develop specific, actionable feedback. They met regularly and put an action plan in place to help the coach grow professionally and personally. As the 2017 season began, the AD had regular check-in's to make sure that new, positive habits weren't crumbling under the pressure of being "in-season".<br />
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After the season, the data came in from their student-athlete surveys. The athletic director had data from both last year and this year to compare and see if progress had been made.<br />
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In addition to dramatically different evaluations and ratings from the student athletes, their comments told an incredible turn-around story:<br />
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<i>"Last year we were all brutally honest with the coaching evaluation, so this year I think credit should be given where it is due. Our coach really stepped it up this year and I personally think we had a phenomenal season as a team on and off the field."</i><br />
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<i>"Our coach improved greatly and she has the ability to be a really great coach."</i><br />
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<i>"Our coach completely destroyed my expectations for this season. Her readiness to help us in any way that she could and her overall coaching abilities were outstanding. When she gets more experience she will be an amazing coach with a record of wins and championships."</i><br />
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This coaching success story was possible because 3 critical factors existed for this AD and supported a positive outcome:<br />
<ol>
<li>Actionable Data - Their department's use of a student-athlete survey instrument that was professionally built to collect meaningful data provided a compelling case that change needed to occur with specific, comparative examples to other programs of strengths and weaknesses. </li>
<li>Leadership - An athletic administrator who was willing to look for the causes behind the losses and negative reviews and decide there was a possibility of improvement while personally investing time in mentoring the coach.</li>
<li>Introspection - The coach was open to hearing direct feedback from their team, didn't become defensive, looked in the mirror and decided their career was important enough to them to do the work required to improve. </li>
</ol>
It was rewarding for both the coach and the AD to see their efforts achieve the desired results. And this year's data will yield a new plan for the trajectory of improvement to continue.<br />
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Like all three-legged stools, if any one leg is missing, then it will tip over. It's great if you are willing to give your coaches feedback - but what is it based on - gut reaction, experience, anecdote? If your coach is naturally introspective, you've got a chance to intervene, but what if they aren't? Can you visually show a problem exists and provide <u>actionable</u> feedback.<br />
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Having real data and analytics should be incorporated into all areas of your athletic program to <br />
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enhance performance, mentor, lead, and support decision making.<br />
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If you would like to maximize performance in your department and stop the wild ride, I encourage you to support with your data collection initiatives by joining the growing list of campus partners who are using <a href="http://www.athleteviewpoint.com/" target="_blank">Athlete Viewpoint</a>.<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Athlete
Viewpoint will be at the NCAA Convention. Shoot us an <span id="goog_873172262"></span>email <span id="goog_873172263"></span>if you would like to meet. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Athlete Viewpoint is a customized tool designed by industry experts to
alleviate the time and labor your staff spend on this valuable process.
Let us do all the work gathering feedback, so you can spend your
over-stretched minutes improving the student-athlete experience and
making data-driven decisions in a strategic and thoughtful manner. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Watch a brief video and schedule a demo of Athlete Viewpoint at </span><a href="http://www.athleteviewpoint.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">www.AthleteViewpoint.com</span></a></div>
<br />Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-70331138404818807512017-09-06T11:45:00.000-05:002017-09-06T11:54:45.041-05:00Student-Athlete Survey Data: To Share or Not to Share<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Improving Student-Athlete Surveys: A “How-To” Guide for Athletics Administrators</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This is the second in a series of posts that will provide guidance on moving your student-athlete survey from a “vanity metrics” activity to a valuable and actionable tool to gain competitive advantage for your department. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Post #2: To Share or Not to Share</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You have a lot of challenges as an athletic administrator and there is already a lot of “noise” surrounding your program, teams, coaches and athletes. Fans weigh in relentlessly on not-so underground message boards and the media always have their own opinions about what you are doing. One seemingly innocuous tweet can land you in the middle of a firestorm. This information age we are living in is both a blessing and a curse. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In an age of ever-present sharing it may be tempting to trumpet your “great student-athlete survey results” to recruit future student-athletes. Similarly, it may seem enticing to allow students the opportunity to like or dislike the comments of their peers. Your decisions to facilitate these things should align with your purpose for doing your the survey in the first place. Is your philosophy one of education, risk management and quality control for your department? Or are you seeking to provide a favorable, but not necessarily accurate, view of your department or team through social media? If it’s the latter, you could be opening your department to legal scrutiny. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Three trends are happening today regarding data and social media:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1. News outlets are using FOIA requests to review and then write about what your student-athletes are saying about their experiences. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Here’s one article from </span><a href="https://nmfishbowl.com/2017/01/12/exclusive-unm-docs-detail-pitfalls-of-athlete-experience/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">New Mexico</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> which published quotes student-athletes gave during exit interviews. The more you publically volunteer that you are gathering this information, the more at risk you become. Remember the National Enquirer ads that said, “Enquiring minds want to know.”? Well they do want to know now more than ever, so for athletic departments the question becomes do you want people to have to dig to find this information or do you want to advertise that you have it and hand it over with a bow?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2. People sue each other - a lot. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Talk with just about any athletic director in 2017, and they can probably share with you a story about either themselves personally, or a colleague who was threatened with a lawsuit. Maybe a student-athlete didn’t like the medical treatment they received or perhaps they thought they should get more playing time. Or maybe there was a coaching change that left them scrambling to find their place in a program and finish their degree. The scenarios are endless and an unfortunate drain on time and resources.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Now imagine you posted a row of 5 star reviews about your program on your website. “Jordan” joins a team in your department as a freshman and is really excited to be a [<i>insert your mascot name here</i><insert here="" mascot="" name="" your="">!] But as the year goes on, Jordan realizes that being a college student-athlete, maintaining GPA, etc. is a lot of hard work. Perhaps they were the star of their high school team, but now they are sitting the bench - a lot. They go back to those 5 star reviews you posted on your website and think, “None of this was true - this isn’t my experience. I was lied to and I have proof.” Adding fuel to their case is the less-than-full picture shared with selective data reporting, and seeing that you dropped out all of the negative reviews and ratings they can claim fraud. </insert></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3. Social Media creates drama.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The Pew Research Center did a </span><a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/08/06/chapter-5-conflict-friendships-and-technology/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">study in 2015 </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">that showed that one quarter of teens responded that they frequently experience drama on social media. Now translate that to your soccer team. If your student-athletes are posting comments that their peers can then react to, and a quarter of your team ends up arguing on-line as a result, how is that helping you win? How is that contributing to team chemistry and a positive culture? By making their remarks public, rather than dealing with issues privately, you create factions and could be throwing lighter fluid on an already smoldering fire. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This approach puts the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Hawthorne Effect</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> to work in ways that aren’t likely to be beneficial to your evaluation. Some people will tailor their comments to receive a reaction, while others will withhold information for fear of providing personal thoughts that aren’t well received by their peers. It can create some unintended power dynamics on your team that can have lasting negative repercussions.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Gathering data about your student-athletes experiences is critical component of running an athletic department and should be handled with care. Aligning the purpose of why you are conducting the survey with your actions, and using a tool built to meet your intentions, is likely the best way to guide your decision making. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When you align your core values and work hard to provide every student-athlete a distinctive education and a championship experience, everybody wins. And that news will spread on social media all by itself. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Next Up in Post #3: Ways Actionable Student-Athlete Data Supports your Work</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When you collect actionable data, it can support your program in a holistic manner. Read about the top areas where better data can positively impact your department.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Athlete Viewpoint is an actionable tool designed by industry experts to alleviate the time and labor your staff spend on this valuable process. Let us do all the work gathering feedback, so you can spend your over-stretched minutes improving the student-athlete experience and making data-driven decisions in a strategic and thoughtful manner. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Watch a brief video, view a sample survey, and schedule a demo of Athlete Viewpoint at </span><a href="http://www.athleteviewpoint.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">www.AthleteViewpoint.com</span></a></div>
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-28169225275555563512017-08-02T09:30:00.000-05:002017-08-02T09:30:21.687-05:00Vanity Metrics are Useless<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-4f616fc3-9eac-899b-b300-bff46388f507" style="line-height: 1.295; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Improving Student-Athlete Surveys: A “How-To” Guide for Athletics Administrators</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This is the first in a series of posts that will provide guidance on moving your student-athlete survey from a “vanity metrics” activity to a valuable and actionable tool to gain competitive advantage for your department. </span></div>
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<img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhffGEQY9fD6yRauQjJS9sKhaPHI7JpqL83zXsQFGgSKL19Hky-NMwm5deCqHlDmJWl7gB99MM9DuY3aHaqzsYHco2OPDhk-7LXeWhA5SpJcE2pHfEZzpmczOpTHAKdA9YQwcuopMfkIv56/s320/shutterstock_251983468.jpg" width="320" /></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Post #1: Vanity Metrics are Useless</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The single most important improvement you can make to your student-athlete survey, is to move away from asking insignificant questions and gathering useless data. Many evaluation tools are rooted in “vanity metrics” as opposed to actionable data. Serial entrepreneur Eric Ries gives a great overview of the difference:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>“The only metrics that entrepreneurs should invest energy in collecting are those that help them make decisions. Unfortunately, the majority of data available in off-the-shelf analytics packages are what I call Vanity Metrics. They might make you feel good, but they don’t offer clear guidance for what to do…That makes sense, since they are the easiest to measure and they tend to make you feel good about yourself.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Survey questions crafted using vanity metrics tend to measure things like satisfaction, hits and likes. Let’s dissect a common example from a student-athlete survey to illustrate the difference.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Typical survey question focused on vanity metrics:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">On a five-point scale, rate your head coach.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Say the head coach gets an average rating of 4.4 from their student-athletes. Seems pretty good, right? But what does that really mean? What indicators are your athletes really rating them on? What kind of actionable feedback can you give your coach from that question? What should they do to improve? What are they already doing well that they shouldn’t change? And how does that coach compare to other coaches of the same sport at other institutions?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This is a great example of feedback that lacks context and has little meaning. Layering in “stars”, “likes” or “thumbs up/down” may look weightier but in the end you still get the same useless data.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Survey focusing on actionable metrics:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Using a five-point scale, please rate your head coach’s communication ability:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">My head coach communicates clearly with me. 4.8</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I have talked with my coach about my role on the team. 4.7</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">My head coach uses appropriate language around the team. 4.9</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">My head coach knows how to successfully develop and communicate a tactical game plan. 3.2</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The average for this head coach is actually the same as in the first example – 4.4. But we now know that by assessing just this one aspect of the head coach – communication - they excel at the day-to-day communication, but struggle when it comes to communicating technical, game-day strategy to their athletes. Now we clearly see that this coach has many strengths that we can build on to improve an area that needs some work. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Additional variables that impact coach ratings:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Now take this actionable data and layer in other variables that impact coach feedback such as:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Were you recruited by your current head coach?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What is your average level of playing time?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Do you have a leadership role on your team?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Suddenly you have a much richer picture of this individual on your staff, and more importantly as the AD you are better equipped to support this individual in their development and enhance team success.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Improving your Student-Athlete Survey:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Crafting an actionable student-athlete survey will yield a myriad of benefits for your department. Some examples are:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Better recruiting and retention of student-athletes who are a good fit for the strengths of their coach and overall program culture, thus minimizing transfers and “problem” student-athletes.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Demonstrate an arc of progress and improvement in your program. If student-athletes rate their locker-room as substandard, the data (especially when used in comparison with your competitive peers) can support prioritizing resources for a renovation. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Educational opportunities for key support staff such as athletic trainers and strength coaches regarding confidentiality, communication, and “appropriateness.” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Your Action Item:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Review your current survey questions and determine whether they are focused on vanity metrics or actionable data. Do your results help you support measurable coach/staff development? Are you gathering data that supports resource allocation requests for your program to your President/Board of Trustees? Are you gathering information to help you mitigate risk in your program? Do your results demonstrate improvement in the student-athlete experience at your institution year over year?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If you are generating pages of results that leave you with little information you can act on, it’s time to invest in crafting a more useful student-athlete survey.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Next Up in Post #2: To Share or Not to Share.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In an age of ever-present sharing it may be tempting to reveal your student-athlete survey results. We’ll discuss why selectively sharing your data can put your institution at risk.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Athlete Viewpoint is an actionable tool designed by industry experts to alleviate the time and labor your staff spend on this valuable process. Let us do all the work gathering feedback, so you can spend your over-stretched minutes improving the student-athlete experience and making data-driven decisions in a strategic and thoughtful manner. AV was co-founded by Michael Cross, a tireless advocate for both the student-athlete experience and the overworked AD.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Watch a brief video, view a sample survey, and schedule a demo of Athlete Viewpoint at </span><a href="http://www.athleteviewpoint.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">www.AthleteViewpoint.com</span></a></div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-37466914587628813572017-04-13T23:30:00.000-05:002017-04-13T23:30:20.760-05:00Athletic budget update #75<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">University athletic departments are making some very tough financial decisions to reduce budgets for next year. The result is a significant decline in the number of student athlete opportunities. Recent moves include:</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">New Mexico dropping their men's and women's skiing teams.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">North Dakota dropping women's hockey, men's and women's swimming.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Buffalo dropping men's soccer, baseball, men's swimming and women's rowing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Missouri State dropping their field hockey program. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Savannah State announcing they will move their entire athletic program out of NCAA Division I and into Division II. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Drake and Illinois State announcing they are moving their men's tennis programs to the Summit League which will end sponsorship of the sport by the Missouri Valley Conference. The move was forced by earlier decisions at Stony Brook, UMBC and Southern Illinois to drop their men's tennis teams and Wichita State's move to the American Athletic Conference. This is part of a significant downward trend in the number of schools sponsoring men's tennis. </span></div>
Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-55461709733348847702017-04-12T19:00:00.000-05:002017-04-12T19:00:29.213-05:00Everyday is Student Athlete Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitlGA5BNZw-269_1r8Jr8mrCAyBGZb7MSElSkp7wquNw-IavxCgpbs-KvvUUWwsc_HgZwO6w7x6qKYo3n6m8fd5W-Yxly7Ts_vUtoC98DNwbUD3_odVANupOdhcEY03rlmVr0yJByQtQYK/s1600/Tudor+Collegiate+Strategies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitlGA5BNZw-269_1r8Jr8mrCAyBGZb7MSElSkp7wquNw-IavxCgpbs-KvvUUWwsc_HgZwO6w7x6qKYo3n6m8fd5W-Yxly7Ts_vUtoC98DNwbUD3_odVANupOdhcEY03rlmVr0yJByQtQYK/s400/Tudor+Collegiate+Strategies.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Earlier this week I published an article about the day-long celebration that was "Student Athlete Day" and shared how Athlete Viewpoint can help you make each day Student Athlete Day. I encourage you to <a href="http://dantudor.com/everyday-is-student-athlete-day/?utm_content=buffer45417&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer" target="_blank">check out the article through Dan Tudor's site</a> or<a href="http://athleteviewpoint.com/" target="_blank"> learn additional information about Athlete Viewpoint.</a><br />
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Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-75972415214423673972017-01-23T10:30:00.000-06:002017-01-23T10:30:27.234-06:00Transparency necessary to fix college recruiting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Imagine you are searching for a new home. You visit ten houses and finally find the right place. You tell the real estate agent, "This is the one, we are ready to buy." The agent says, "Great! You'll just have to wait until 18 months from now to sign the paperwork on 'National House Buying Day.' In the meantime just verbally agree that you'll buy the house and the sellers will verbally agree they will sell it to you. You have nothing to worry about and in 18 months you'll be able to move into your home." How confident would you feel about actually moving into that house under the verbally agreed upon terms?<br />
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There are serious problems in college athletics surrounding early recruiting that are finally being recognized. This issue is being looked at by the NCAA and the<a href="http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/information/general_releases/2016-17/releases/Ivy_League_Spurs_National_Conversation_Regarding_Student-Athlete_Time_Demands-Early_Recruiting" target="_blank"> Ivy League is advocating for changes in the recruiting approach</a> to delay when and under what circumstances people can talk about and/or offer a scholarship to prospective students. <a href="http://www.rockmnation.com/2016/6/10/11900502/missouri-tigers-offer-8th-grade-georgia-qb-aaron-mclaughlin-we-sec-now" target="_blank">The debate is being fueled by college coaches and grammar school prospects making "commitments" to each other.</a><br />
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For decades the NCAA has tried to regulate who can talk to whom, when it can occur, and under what circumstances. It is classic bureaucracy. The magical first day a coach can call someone is July 1 of their junior year, unless it happens to be June 15 after their sophomore year, or September 1, or some other window of time. You can't call the prospect but they can call you. These arbitrary dates and rules have become the recruiting equivalent of the now infamous NCAA regulation of not being able to provide cream cheese for a bagel.<br />
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As long as the NCAA rule book has existed, armies of compliance staff have instructed coaches how to work around/within the rules. This bureaucratic system fosters an environment where "advisers" and youth level coaches flourish in order to facilitate communication between prospects and college coaches. Families seek to work around arbitrary recruiting dates to become educated about college enrollment opportunities. And coaches work around the dates to secure the services of talented prospects. Both parties want these conversations to occur, otherwise they wouldn't working so hard to have them. <br />
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The regulations simply don't work and have contributed to the current state of affairs. And unfortunately, new regulations won't work either.<br />
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Few participants in the current system are honest brokers. The prospects and families have incentive to shop for the best deal (particularly in equivalency sports.) After making a "commitment" - that they are often pressured into - they can still continue to look at other schools and will continue to receive inquiries from other coaches until they are officially signed. Coaches have incentive to offer earlier and earlier because they know the system better than anyone; they know that even a soft commitment is helpful; and they know if a better athlete comes along they <a href="http://highschoolsports.nj.com/news/article/-5482660132244712626/uconn-reneges-on-scholarship-offer-ditches-jersey-football-recruit-in-eleventh-hour/" target="_blank">have lots of opportunities to escape from their verbal "commitment" with no accountability for failing to honor their offer</a>. The NCAA, colleges and universities are complicit in the behavior because they continue to allow the system to persist.<br />
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<b>It is time for a radically different approach to college recruiting by creating transparency in the strange and unethical world we've created.</b> College athletics should eliminate all restrictions regarding athletic commitments and related agreements by permitting prospects of any age and colleges to move at the pace that is best for each individual situation by implementing the following changes: <br />
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1) <b>Eliminate all "signing days."</b> When I got down on one knee and proposed to my now wife of 20 years, I didn't say "will you marry me?" and then after she said yes, tell her the ring was coming on "National Ring Day." Amazon will deliver things to your house in 24 hours. You can buy a car when you are ready to buy. Once a buyer and seller have an agreement, you make the purchase. The same principle should apply in the college athletics recruiting process.<br />
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When a school and a prospect agree to the terms of their relationship for what should be among the best four year's of a person's life - their college career - they should be able to seal the deal in writing and sign a National Letter of Intent, financial aid agreement or a similar contract making all parties explicitly clear about their intentions. With a binding commitment the school is protected against poaching or dishonesty by the family. And the prospect is protected against losing their offer due to coaching changes, injury, failing to develop at the correct rate or a coach <a href="http://highschoolsports.nj.com/news/article/-5482660132244712626/uconn-reneges-on-scholarship-offer-ditches-jersey-football-recruit-in-eleventh-hour/" target="_blank">simply wanting to go in a different direction</a>. Everyone is on the same page - no room for funny business.<br />
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2) <b>Allow signed commitments to occur at any age. </b> Yes, this is radical, but currently coaches and schools hold most of the power in the relationship and face no accountability when they break their agreements. Families face no accountability when they break their commitment either. For those who are worried about high pressure sales, require a delay of a week or two between the offer and being permitted to sign and the signing cannot be in the presence of a coach - similar to the current rules about signing the Letter of Intent. <br />
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3) <b>Under this deregulated system, if both parties agree to part ways they are free to do so.</b> But if the prospect wants to leave against the school's wishes after signing an agreement it would trigger use of the one-time transfer exception for those sports that permit immediate competition without sitting a year - preventing use of that exception later. For those sports that require a year in residence to compete after transferring, the student athlete could leave but would have to sit a year, just as they do now when they transfer after enrollment. If the school is no longer interested in the prospect but the prospect still wants to attend the school, the prospect would retain the rights in the written agreement. <br />
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<b>How does this solve the early recruiting and commitment problem? </b> It's simple - when coaches and athletic programs know they actually have to live with the decision to sign a 7th grade prodigy who may suddenly stop growing or develop a bad attitude as a high school junior the early offers will stop. Similarly, when families know their child will actually have to enroll at their fourth back-up choice school they committed to and can no longer shop for better offers they will pause, further educate themselves and become more sure about their decision. Further, knowing how much movement occurs within coaching ranks, families will become far more focused on the total educational opportunities of the school they plan to attend rather than their sport and the sales ability of a coach when their son or daughter commits. <br />
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Critics of this concept will contend that early decisions are impractical due to undergraduate admission standards and young students being unprepared to make such a decision. But what is "too early" for one individual isn't "too early" for another. Every student is different and their preparation and ability to evaluate their college future is also different. <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-cornell-12-year-old-freshman-20160902-snap-story.html" target="_blank">Consider Ivy League Cornell University's recent decision to admit a 12 year-old student. </a>Cornell determined the student was able to handle their college curriculum and it was a national story. Prospective student athletes in similar situations with athletic talent should be able to do the same thing. <a href="http://d1ticker.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2cf324200cd8a891c384a4e81&id=6bfa736c21&e=959b7fa838" target="_blank">It's already happening internationally with 9 year olds. And it is obviously happening with slightly older prospects in the NCAA recruiting environment, but without the transparency of written agreements.</a><br />
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The problem that needs to be addressed isn't the age of recruiting, which is not a predictor of readiness, maturity or decision-making ability. The problem is the pressure college athletics' fosters through a system of arbitrary dates, indirect communication and "commitments" that have no meaning. <br />
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Allowing signed commitments at any time eliminates the winks, nods and crossed fingers behind backs. Coaches and families will have to be up front about their intentions because they will have to actually live with their decision. Advisors and agents will become less integral to the system because communication can occur directly between coach and prospect rather than via third parties who help circumvent the NCAA's recruiting contact rules to achieve what everyone wants - open communication about the future.<br />
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Going back to my original home buying analogy, some states provide a three day window in which the person who signs the paperwork to buy a home can change their mind for any reason and back out. Ask a real estate broker what happens during those three days - the buyer and seller often continue to look to see if they can find a better house or attain a higher selling price. Obviously the same thing is happening in a recruiting environment where prospects and coaches have months and often multiple years between their "commitment" and actually signing documents ensuring the commitment will be upheld.<br />
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The desire to eliminate the pressure associated with early recruiting, while laudable and necessary, isn't going to happen through regulation. It can best be achieved through deregulation and transparency. Creating another version of the same system with new dates and more regulations will be no more successful than the current system. More regulation will let everyone feel better because they tried to address the problem - but the problem won't be solved.<br />
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Creating a system with transparency by providing open communication, freedom in decision-making and written agreements - in real-time like any other important life decision - will push recruiting decisions to the appropriate time for each individual situation and significantly improve ethical behavior in a system in need of reform.<br />
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Feel free to share your opinions via the comment section on <a href="http://ultimatesportsinsider.com/">ultimatesportsinsider.com</a>. Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0State College, PA, USA40.7933949 -77.860001240.745305900000005 -77.9406822 40.8414839 -77.7793202tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-76273902479172784222016-09-15T21:30:00.000-05:002016-09-15T21:30:13.233-05:00The importance of mission<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There are numerous and significant "elephants in the room" across college athletics. 1) the seemingly endless parade of stories about unethical or illegal behavior happening at a too-long list of universities across the country; 2) student athlete exploitation concerns, particularly in football and men's basketball; and 3) a never-ending discussion about the need to find more financial resources coupled with criticism over how they are spent.<br />
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The common response to unethical or illegal behavior is to create more policies and procedures, call for additional oversight, and suggest we can regulate our way to better morals. Committees and external reviewers are empowered to make recommendations and provide the appearance of action. Carefully wordsmithed statements of outrage coupled with steadfast assurances nothing similar will happen again are part of the process too. Yet impropriety repeats itself as sure as the sun rises.<br />
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The unfortunate by-product of these incidents is additional bureaucracy, expense and lost time for the 98% of the people who do things correctly. And there is little evidence behavior actually improves with increased regulation because when everyone becomes responsible, no one is responsible. The elephant sneezes, and everyone else catches the cold.<br />
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I've been fortunate to have some excellent mentors throughout my career. One in particular consistently reinforced the importance of mission in successful organizations. The mission is fundamental for aligning action, avoiding problems and properly addressing problems that do arise.<br />
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Every athletic department has a mission. I<span style="font-family: inherit;">t's </span>your reason for existing. It provides purpose.<br />
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Do you know your department's mission? Have you and your staff memorized it? If not, why not? Most likely it's because your mission is far too lengthy - perhaps paragraphs long - for anyone to remember or recite in a meaningful manner. A mission that long probably needs to be redone - reduced to one meaningful paragraph, or better yet, a sentence. Stringing together lofty but meaningless word-salad phrases is a recipe for eye rolls and glazing over.<br />
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Direct, specific, unambiguous and narrow are good traits for your mission. If you list 15 things can you really expect to do all, or any, of them well? Simplicity of purpose radiates and makes important decisions easier - hiring and evaluating staff; accountability for performance; strategic decisions with limited resources are made easier with a clear mission and philosophical grounding.<br />
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Accountability to the mission is important. From top to bottom, everyone should understand how their role and decision making relates to the mission. Does everyone in your organization fully embrace your department's mission? If not, why not? And what are you doing to change that situation? If someone isn't furthering and supporting the reason you exist and doesn't act accordingly, you have problems and those problems left unaddressed corrode your department from the inside. And double standards can be just as damaging.<br />
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So much of this really comes down to walking the talk, which is hard to do if you aren't clear what the talk is. <br />
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Your department, your teams and you can benefit from a mission that is memorable, simple and repeatable. You know the elephants in your room, and so does everyone else. Re-establishing your mission could be your first step to helping the elephants out the door.Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-520958605780618512016-08-14T16:00:00.000-05:002016-08-14T16:00:04.856-05:00Athlete Viewpoint Launch<div 0pt="" 1.295="" 12.8px="" 8pt="" arial="" dir="ltr" font-size:="" line-height:="" margin-bottom:="" margin-top:="" sans-serif="">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In March 2015, after five years as a Division I Athletic Director, I started on a new path. For the first time in a long time, I had time to stop moving, reflect, and think deeply about our profession and the student athletes that we serve. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">College athletics is a relentless existence regardless of your position. Student athlete time demands have never been greater; head coaches face unending scrutiny and the expectation of instant and permanent success; and athletic administrators spend their days putting out fires and answering to everyone - University administrators, Trustees, coaches, staff, students, parents, and the media - while barely seeing their own families. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I spent several months developing numerous </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">ways to support friends and colleagues in intercollegiate athletics. My goals with each endeavor are to address the unrealistic and relentless demands on senior athletics administrators; mitigate risk; save financial resources; reduce staff time and frustration; and enhance the student athlete experience. </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">While some concepts are still in production, others are already adding value to my colleagues in this field. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 18.9934px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Through my consulting, I've been able to assist a number of coaching friends </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.295; white-space: pre-wrap;">achieve their first head coaching positions. It has brought me immense personal satisfaction seeing good people with great values join the ranks of the coaching elite. They are individuals who will help student athletes excel - in sport, the classroom and life - and will make headlines for our field for all of the RIGHT reasons.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In addition, we developed and launched </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.6667px; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.athleteviewpoint.com/&source=gmail&ust=1471052090810000&usg=AFQjCNHvjD5pKBbc1PMRiBz9kLgJ01lYug" href="http://www.athleteviewpoint.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Athlete Viewpoint</a>. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Athlete Viewpoint</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is your student athlete survey turbocharged and designed to yield maximum data to make your life easier. In addition, you can </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 18.9934px; white-space: pre-wrap;">compare the views of your student athletes to those of student athletes across the country. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.295; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 18.9934px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I'd encourage you to </span><a href="http://athleteviewpoint.com/" style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 18.9934px; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">click on the link</a><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 18.9934px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and check it out for yourself. And if you are reading this as one of our early adopters who have already signed on, thank you! We are excited to see the impact you can make on your campus with this valuable information.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Author and entrepreneur </span><a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/" style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">Seth Godin</a><span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> writes frequently about building a tribe of like-minded individuals. If you are reading this blog on a regular basis, you are part of that tribe. Thoughtful, philosophical, curious and dedicated to providing every student athlete an opportunity for both a distinctive education and a championship experience. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: calibri; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like many of you, I've been in college athletics a long time and I've seen many changes to our field - not all of them good. Through the Ultimate Sports Insider and these other new initiatives, I hope to continue the conversation with you all about how to best support each other, and enhance the good work that is taking place in athletics today. </span><br />
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Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-68091627615758813402016-06-23T22:55:00.000-05:002016-06-23T22:55:47.232-05:00The Man in the Arena<h4>
Excerpt from the speech "Citizenship in a Republic", delivered by Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April 1910. </h4>
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It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place will never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. <br />
<br />Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-46791220710013865452016-06-01T08:31:00.000-05:002016-06-01T08:31:48.032-05:00Athletic budget update #74Dowling College (NCAA Division II) is <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/may/31/struggling-dowling-college-announces-it-is-closing/" target="_blank">closing effective June 3, 2016.</a> The college had been in existence since 1968, offered 14 sports and won 2 national championships (men's soccer 2006 and men's lacrosse 2012) as part of a <a href="http://www.dowlingathletics.com/sports/2011/6/20/DC%20Champs.aspx?path=general" target="_blank">lengthy list of championship successes</a>. <br />
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Alaska Fairbanks may have to<a href="http://www.newsminer.com/sports/uaf_nanooks/ncaa-waiver-available-for-university-of-alaska-fairbanks-if-some/article_bb869fbc-09f2-11e6-a6c2-af49d7220376.html" target="_blank"> petition for a waiver of NCAA rules </a>if it drops below the minimum number of sports required for membership. <br />
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Idaho announced it is moving its<a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/04/29/u-idahos-football-program-depart-football-bowl-subdivision?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=67d533c6dd-DNU20160429&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-67d533c6dd-197348549" target="_blank"> football program from the highest competitive level (FBS) to a level that requires less financial commitment (FCS)</a> and better institutional and conference alignment. <br />
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Morehead State announced they are <a href="http://www.lex18.com/story/31883249/morehead-st-restructures-athletic-program-due-to-budget" target="_blank">dropping their men's and women's tennis programs</a> in order to save about $400,000 while add adding women's indoor track and beach volleyball. The elimination of men's tennis makes it the 12th program dropped in the last two years.<br />
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Arizona State is <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/college/asu/2016/05/04/asu-reinstates-mens-tennis-26th-varsity-sport/83882768/" target="_blank">reinstating men's tennis following a $1 million donation from their Director of Athletics Ray Anderson</a> and a $4 million donation from adidas. Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-22597701543963433742016-05-25T08:00:00.000-05:002016-05-25T08:00:05.961-05:00The sorting hat and your careerI had the opportunity to speak at The Head Coach Training Center (@HeadCoachTC) earlier this week as part of a panel discussion about what directors of athletics are seeking when hiring coaches. While I was there I was reminded of the The Harry Potter series. <br />
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The first installment, "Harry Potter and Sorcerer's Stone", has a scene that involves a "sorting hat," - a magical hat that assigns each student into one of four "houses" where they will live, make friends, attend class and compete against the other houses. The decision is based on the sorting hat's impression of the talents, abilities, attitudes and values of the student wearing the hat. If you aren't familiar with the scene you can watch below.<br />
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The sorting hat is fictional. But your daily actions are the sorting hat of your professional career. </div>
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I'll be attending the <a href="http://dantudor.com/conferences/" target="_blank">National Collegiate Recruiting Conference</a> on June 11 speaking about career development. Summer is a good time to invest in yourself and advance professionally and this conference is one opportunity among many you should consider. <br />
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At some point the hat is going to be on your head. Will it be yelling your name for the house of your choice? Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-34892503544632936202016-04-21T12:22:00.001-05:002016-04-21T12:22:40.970-05:00Athletic budget update #73 - Five teams droppedWestern Kentucky is reducing athletic spending due to budget constraints. <a href="http://www.bgdailynews.com/sports/wku/wku-athletics-prepares-for-budget-cuts-in-next-fiscal-year/article_c48ef174-75cf-54a0-a98b-812900ecac79.html" target="_blank">Comments from the WKU track coach</a> and<a href="http://wkuherald.com/sports/track-and-field-team-to-face-percent-budget-cut/article_ba112734-0726-11e6-89bb-d7416b30e8fb.html" target="_blank"> information about their 50% budget cut to the sport. </a><br />
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The University of Illinois is<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-university-of-illinois-layoffs-20160420-story.html" target="_blank"> preparing to lay off staff due to the on-going stalemate over the state budget.</a> Cuts to athletics, if any, have not been announced. <br />
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Lake Superior State (Division II) announced they are <a href="http://www.9and10news.com/story/31766507/lake-superior-state-university-cuts-softball-team-in-budget-cuts" target="_blank">dropping their softball team </a>at the end of the year due to budget concerns.<br />
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North Dakota announced they are <a href="http://www.startribune.com/university-of-north-dakota-cuts-baseball-because-of-budget-issues/375530881/" target="_blank">dropping their baseball and men's golf teams </a>at the end of the spring season, saving approximately $720,000 annually. <br />
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Tulsa announced they will <a href="http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/tusportsextra/tu-eliminating-men-s-golf-program/article_f765a399-c5a1-5b2d-94ad-22ffde1059ac.html" target="_blank">drop their men's golf program at the end of this season</a> to meet a mandate to reduce expenses by $500,000. <br />
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Albany is <a href="http://www.timesunion.com/sports/article/UAlbany-to-cut-women-s-tennis-program-following-7044505.php" target="_blank">dropping women's tennis</a> at the end of the 2016 season. Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-51037559873260993952016-03-23T18:48:00.000-05:002016-03-23T18:48:31.529-05:00Notre Dame to the Big Ten - Ultimate Sports Insider Radio Interview<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUFFJ_cmaKmf1JtR6O9qOLWgt-bbuMcV-gIMA8qm9BRPmACDZ7xYK5Hs40bqkYPKE1b77GAvceH8Jyn7tdqROdvSRMVACnakKv7Su8g7k4eDW26Yk9k8NSTUXd1cGobe7s577RJeXGp8eM/s1600/Big+Ten+Hockey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUFFJ_cmaKmf1JtR6O9qOLWgt-bbuMcV-gIMA8qm9BRPmACDZ7xYK5Hs40bqkYPKE1b77GAvceH8Jyn7tdqROdvSRMVACnakKv7Su8g7k4eDW26Yk9k8NSTUXd1cGobe7s577RJeXGp8eM/s1600/Big+Ten+Hockey.jpg" /></a></div>
Ultimate Sports Insider was interviewed about Notre Dame joining the Big Ten Conference in men's ice hockey. <a href="https://soundcloud.com/keystone-sports-beat/penn-state-assistant-ad-for-hockey-joined-the-beat-to-discuss-notre-dame-hockey-joining-the-big-10" target="_blank">The interview can be heard here</a>. Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-1161954356481923692016-03-10T01:30:00.000-06:002016-03-10T01:30:19.301-06:00Athletic Budget Update #72The State of Illinois budget situation is impacting Southern Illinois athletic programs. <a href="http://www.wandtv.com/story/31430175/budget-mess-slam-dunks-saluki-basketball" target="_blank">SIU men's basketball will not participate in a post season tournament</a> despite a 22-10 record due to funding concerns and <a href="http://news.wsiu.org/post/no-postseason-saluki-mens-basketball#stream/0" target="_blank">men's and women's tennis could be on the chopping block</a> as well if a 20% budget cut from the state occurs. <br />
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<a href="http://www.scsuhuskies.com/news/2016/3/2/baseball-st-cloud-state-to-reduce-athletics-program-manage-rosters.aspx" target="_blank">St. Cloud announced they are cutting six sports</a> (men's tennis, cross country, indoor and outdoor track and women's tennis and nordic skiing). They also intend to institute roster management by requiring minimum size rosters in some women's sports and roster caps in some men's sports to comply with Title IX. The result should be savings of about $250,000 annually.<br />
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Fresno State is<a href="http://abc30.com/sports/fresno-state-to-add-wrestling-womens-water-polo/1225797/" target="_blank"> adding women's water polo, and reinstating wrestling </a>which was dropped in 2006. <br />
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SIU Edwardsville is <a href="http://thesouthern.com/news/local/siue-to-cut-men-s-tennis-women-s-golf/article_824c3103-085b-5270-bf8b-f81e11c80cfb.html" target="_blank">dropping men's tennis and women's golf</a> in response to the University's budget situation. This is the 11th men's tennis program cut in the past two years. They also decided to <a href="http://www.alestlelive.com/sports/article_5e2524dc-e0cc-11e5-a1e4-d3a760461b9a.html" target="_blank">leave their band and cheerleaders</a> home from the OVC basketball tournaments.<br />
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Alaska Fairbanks is facing <a href="http://www.newsminer.com/sports/uaf_nanooks/nanooks-react-to-legislature-s-proposed-cuts-to-ua-system/article_423337ca-dad0-11e5-b10c-67fb2ba04dac.html" target="_blank">elimination of general funds support to athletics, which would be approximately half their budget ($2.8 million)</a>. Their athletic director believes it would be the end of their athletics program were the cut to occur. <br />
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The budget situation in the state of Louisiana continues to be scrutinized with a recent report that the <a href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/02/10_louisiana_universities_incr.html" target="_blank">public universities in the state (other than LSU) increased their athletic spending by 57%</a> while reducing their spending on academics by more than 4% over the last eight years. Here is some <a href="http://www.tucsonnewsnow.com/story/31247382/zurik-university-budgets-gutted-but-athletics-running-up-the-score" target="_blank">additional information with more graphics</a>.<br />
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Grambling <a href="http://theadvocate.com/news/14888994-172/report-grambling-state-university-suspends-seach-for-athletic-director-due-to-state-budget-crisis" target="_blank">suspended its search for an athletic director </a>due to its uncertain budget situation. <a href="http://www.thenewsstar.com/story/news/local/2016/02/18/grambling-reinstates-athletic-director-search/80581828/" target="_blank">And then less than a week later, reinstated it.</a> <br />
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LaSalle is <a href="http://www.athleticbusiness.com/college/university-looks-to-boost-enrollment-by-adding-sports.html?eid=285791291&bid=1310535?eid=285791291&bid=1310535" target="_blank">adding men's and women's water polo and women's golf to its sport offerings</a> in an attempt to curb enrollment declines at the institution. This raises the number of teams they offer to 25.Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-61268316954233725762016-03-01T08:00:00.000-06:002016-03-01T08:00:15.030-06:00Student athlete time demands: Part 3 - The lost keys<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxMEz7Bj6xkVOVK7ztRf7WHnhZHNCQl9dwKnJvUAf0GbavbOOQNVm1z1o5XpYTxMcopAY7kfRcihOX8mg7yO3nskgoJlgaowJz3GmmQRLf_EGBy4MhSFxa4rHbqvM3p9zFlRHRU7FSZ3a1/s1600/Drunk+looking+for+keys.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxMEz7Bj6xkVOVK7ztRf7WHnhZHNCQl9dwKnJvUAf0GbavbOOQNVm1z1o5XpYTxMcopAY7kfRcihOX8mg7yO3nskgoJlgaowJz3GmmQRLf_EGBy4MhSFxa4rHbqvM3p9zFlRHRU7FSZ3a1/s200/Drunk+looking+for+keys.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
When thinking about reducing student athlete time demands, I am reminded of the story of the drunk <a href="https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2016/02/beginning-of-wisdom/" target="_blank">looking for lost keys under a lamp post. A police officer stops to help him and asks if this is where he lost them. The man says "no." The officer, confused, asks him why he's looking there if that isn't where he lost them. The man says "because this is where the light is.</a>"<br />
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Early discussions about student athlete time demands have primarily focused on shaving some hours or days from the schedule. This is where the light is shining. But the fundamental causes of time commitments are structural - conferences with poor geographic proximity; televised games played seemingly at any time, date and place; schedules that continue to expand and start earlier; and rules that are contorted through numerous exemptions to fit whatever new scheduling concept emerges to provide more television content or unique match-ups at a neutral site (because no one wants to schedule a true road contest.) The result is student athlete commitments have exploded over the past two decades. <br />
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Most coaches follow <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law" target="_blank">Parkinson's Law </a>which states "Work expands to fill the amount of time you have available for its completion." In a coaching and administrative reward structure that is heavily weighted towards winning, a mandated day off and a 20 hours per week athletic activity limit are no longer sufficient to address what everyone knows: student athletes are spending more time than ever on athletics. <br />
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Modest rule changes outlined in <a href="http://www.ultimatesportsinsider.com/2016/02/student-athlete-time-demands-part-2.html" target="_blank">part two of this series</a> that return a few hours and a couple of weeks each year to student athletes can be helpful but more meaningful changes are needed, and will be even more difficult for coaches, administrators, and even the athletes themselves to embrace. These changes have the best chance of restoring balance to the non-athletic side of the student athlete experience because they will address decades of unrelenting athletic expansion. These areas include:<br />
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<li><u><b>Reduce the number of contests in all sports by 10%</b></u>. Baseball and softball could go from 56 to 50 games; soccer would reduce from 20 to 18 games; swimming would be reduced from 20 dates of competition to 18; tennis would move from 25 to 22 dates; track and field would move from 18 dates to 16; volleyball would move from 28 dates of competition to 26. This pattern would occur across all sports. Many coaches and athletes will resist such a change. Indeed contests are one of the best parts of the athletic experience. If competition is the principle of the athletic time commitment, then preparation and travel related to the contests are the compound interest that is impossible to pay down. The number of games that are packed into a season increases the intensity of the experience, increases missed class time and dilutes the educational experience. </li>
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If you are not convinced reducing games is possible, consider the following example - John Wooden's UCLA basketball teams that won 10 national championships in 12 years<b> never played more than 31 games in any season, including all post season contests.</b> Today, the number of games played by the basketball championship participants regularly exceeds 40 games - a 33% increase. Wooden's teams are no less revered, the lessons learned are no less compelling and the men who played for him received an incredible education because of who Coach Wooden was, but also because they could experience other aspects of college beyond Pauley Pavilion. <br />
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<li><b><u>In the sport of football, reduce the schedule by one game.</u></b> As recently as the early 2000's and in nearly every year prior, the FBS national champion was crowned playing 12 or fewer games including a bowl game. In 2014 and 2015 the national champions played 15 contests, a 25% increase. Obviously money and television are the driving factors in this expansion. But at a time when concussion concerns are at an all-time high, can a 25% increase in the number of contests from a little more than a decade ago be justified? (There is no question it can be rationalized.) In addition, the "Spring Game" has turned into a 16th contest with large crowds on many campuses and preparation expectations only somewhat less than during the regular season. Further, it is now permissible to take one of the windows of time that student athletes could realistically look forward to - spring BREAK - and mandate countable athletic activity as <a href="http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/14706494/michigan-football-spend-spring-break-florida-practicing-bonding" target="_blank">Michigan will do this year during a team training trip to Florida</a>. Reducing the number of football games is unlikely to happen but if planned well into the future (five to ten years?) it could be accomplished and budgeted for appropriately. </li>
<li><u><b>Require meaningful regular season performance in all sports in order to be eligible for post-season play</b></u>. A conference's worst teams shouldn't have an opportunity to win a tournament championship and a trip to the NCAA's. Unfortunately, the regular season for many sports has become largely meaningless with the sole outcome the establishment of seeds for a three or four day tournament. Conferences should evaluate the number of teams in their post season tournament and consider requiring a .500 record. </li>
<li><b><u>Sub .500 football teams should not be allowed to go to bowl game.</u></b> Ironically, basing bowl participation for sub .500 teams on academic performance (to provide teams for all the bowls) is one notable example of a reward for academic performance. But the bowl structure has become college athletics' equivalent of everyone getting a ribbon. The games can't be justified based on revenue opportunities since the schools involved in many bowls lose money. Just because a bowl has been approved, the NCAA shouldn't be concerned about a bowl not being played because there aren't enough teams with .500 records - an incredibly low threshold. Bowls are business ventures and television exposure opportunities and they shouldn't be guaranteed to be profitable or have participants that aren't post-season worthy. </li>
<li><b><u>Reduce or eliminate competition in non-traditional seasons.</u></b> Teams that have traditional fall or spring seasons should evaluate whether competition in the non-traditional season is appropriate and the number of contests should be very limited. Clearly there are athletic benefits. But there are also costs in student athlete time and institutional finances. </li>
<li><u><b>Evaluate whether it is more appropriate to count competition opportunities by the number of games played or dates of competition.</b></u> This is an area that has significant impact on student athlete time demands, and is easily manipulated when the competition day only accounts for three of the countable 20 hours. Consider the sports of tennis and volleyball. Both sports frequently engage in multiple competitions in a day and these commitments can easily create days of 8+ hours of athletic commitment. Any sport that uses dates of competition is likely engaging in NCAA permissible, but significantly inaccurate, accounting of hours on that date of competition. </li>
<li><u><b>Consider using a date of competition AND contest limitation counting method</b></u>. Limiting the number of permissible contests and the number of days in which they can occur could provide a significant reduction. For example, baseball and softball are currently permitted to play 56 games, which can occur across 56 days. Adding a dates of competition limitation (for example 48 dates) would allow coaches the opportunity to evaluate whether playing a double-header, which is common in the sport, would be desirable in order to reach the maximum permissible number of contests. The result in this case could be 8 additional days on campus without almost no effort. Similar reductions could be found in other sports and have little impact on the number of contests played. </li>
<li><b><u>Examine the length of every season.</u></b> There was a time when football didn't start competition until after Labor Day and basketball didn't start competing until after Thanksgiving. The traditional start of basketball practice was October 15, until a plan was devised to allow coaches the same number of days spread out over a longer period of time in order to start in September. The concept was sold on reducing student athlete impact. Instead it does the opposite, making the season longer, increasing the pressure to perform at an "in-season" level of effort earlier, and reducing the time available to realistically pursue other endeavors. </li>
<li><u><b>Establish travel squad limits.</b></u> Potentially a way to reduce time demands for those who aren't going to see competition. Although unpopular, they can work if adopted by all schools so that there are no disadvantages competitively. The NCAA and some conferences already do this as a cost containment measure at championship events. If it can occur in a championship environment, it can certainly be done in the regular season. </li>
<li><b><u>Consider measuring and regulating time commitments over a longer period of time</u></b>. Twenty hours of engagement in a single week is arbitrary. Looking at the time demands on a monthly or season long basis would require better planning by coaches and an understanding that time used now may not be available later as teams approach their season long maximum and possible post season play. </li>
<li><b><u>Eliminate the ability to travel outside the local geography for practice purposes</u></b>. Practice should be an educational and teaching environment instead of a booster engagement or recruiting opportunity. Taking student athletes on the road for practice is the athletic equivalent of holding class on the quad when the weather turns nice - providing great pictures for the admissions brochure and a nice way to break up the monotony.</li>
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All of these ideas will be hard to implement and most will be dismissed as naive or unworkable. But time remains a zero-sum game - an hour used for one purpose cannot be used for another purpose. The benefit of reducing in the areas suggested above is that while simultaneously returning time to student athletes, it keeps teams in each sport on a level playing field because everyone has the same amount of time available to prepare. <br />
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In <a href="https://theamericanscholar.org/solitude-and-leadership/#.VsKBp_IrLWI" target="_blank">a speech by William Deresiewicz to the graduating class at West Point</a>, he spoke about the disadvantages of an elite education. It's worth spending 20 minutes to read the transcript as there are many parallels to today's student athlete experience. College athletics provides access to education and is still a teacher of life and leadership skills. But these benefits have eroded. The elite education of college athletics has become sheltered and controlled. College athletics has become too big to fail in an economic sense with no opportunity for exposure or revenue ignored. And it is too big to fail from a political standpoint with few presidents or directors of athletics able to withstand anything short of exceptional athletic performance. Unfortunately this pressure compromises the student experience.<br />
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College athletics needs to regain its elite educational aspects and find its lost keys. They've set a goal to do so by January 2017. Time will tell whether the search occurs where the light is shining or where the keys were actually lost. </div>
Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-27130211493006809552016-02-23T09:07:00.000-06:002016-02-23T09:07:08.128-06:00Student athlete time demands: Part 2 - The hours<div>
At the January 2016 NCAA Convention, the leadership of the autonomous 65 institutions tabled three proposals intended to reduce student athlete time demands and <a href="http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/conferences-refer-time-demands-proposals-further-study" target="_blank">passed a resolution</a> to address the topic in the next 12 months. </div>
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It is well known that the time demands for a student athlete are significant, with student athletes indicating they spend in excess of 40 hours per week on their sport (yet NCAA rules permit a maximum of 20 hours per week) in addition to their academic expectations and the desire to have a personal life. It is <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/01/15/time-demands-focus-ncaa-convention-policy-changes-may-have-wait?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=4a9a248980-DNU20160115&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-4a9a248980-197348549" target="_blank">widely recognized the system has tilted too far away from a model that values the student experience</a>. But, as I described in <a href="http://www.ultimatesportsinsider.com/2016/02/student-athlete-time-demands-part-1.html" target="_blank">part one of this series</a>, the current compensation structure rewards athletic performance and under values educational outcomes. The result is the maximum permissible amount of time that can be spent on athletics becomes the minimum. And the minimum amount of time that can be devoted to other pursuits such as academics becomes the maximum.<br />
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To address the imbalance in student athlete time commitments a number of changes can be made, including: </div>
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<li><b><u>Time limitations should be sport specific</u></b>. Every coach will tell you their sport is unique - establishing a permissible number of athletic activity hours for a sport should be no less specific. This concept is already evident in the number of contests played, season lengths and a host of other areas. There should be no expectation that the number of permissible hours should be the same for all sports. </li>
<li><b style="text-decoration: underline;">Acknowledge that 20 hours per week in-season may not be enough</b> to allow appropriate preparation and the permissible number of in-season hours should be increased by sport to reflect this reality. </li>
<li><b><span style="font-weight: normal;">As compensation for increased in-season hours, </span><u>reduce out-of-season time demands from eight hours per week to four or perhaps even fewer and reduce the number of days these activities can occur.</u></b> At eight hours per week, student athletes can be required to participate in 90 minutes of athletic activities five days per week or two hours four days per week. The logical opportunity for student athletes to regain time is out of season when extensive direct preparation for competition is not necessary. </li>
<li><u><b>H</b></u><b><u>ours should be counted accurately</u></b>. The current "20-hours per week" rule is laughable because numerous activities are not counted (e.g rehabilitation, travel, recruiting assistance, training meals, fund raising and community appearances, etc.) but do in fact utilize student athletes time and are without question mandatory. The accounting of hours needs to reflect reality and include:</li>
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<li>Increasing the estimated amount of time that is used to account for a competition day - current rules count all activities on game day as three hours, regardless of the amount of time spent. When factoring in pregame meetings, warm ups, post game, and the contest itself, the hours spent in most sports are likely double the accounted for three hours. </li>
<li>Counting all activities that involve coaching and sport specific staff, whether mandatory or voluntary, towards the new hours limitation. If there is seriousness about emphasizing freedom to pursue personal opportunities, part of this is recognizing that time spent on one activity cannot be used on another. By accurately counting hours and establishing sport specific limits, it should be evident when a student athlete has reached a point of diminishing or negative returns and engage in other activities. </li>
<li>Counting activities under the safety exception - Workouts that are supervised by coaches for safety purposes should be considered countable hours. </li>
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<li><u style="font-weight: bold;">Travel time should count in the permissible number of hours</u> as four hours, similar to the current manner of accounting for a day of competition. Travel that is less than four hours should be recorded accurately to represent the actual time spent. While not a perfect solution, it is a step towards accurate representation of travel demands. The obvious criticisms are that this is unfair to institutions who are geographically remote, that travel is unpredictable, and that many conferences are geographically disbursed. All of this is true, and it's exactly why travel should be counted. None of these concerns change the fact the burden of travel directly impacts student athlete's lives. Providing no accounting of the hours lost due to travel is yet another example of inaccurate counting that should be addressed. A benefit of this approach may be coaches scheduling more geographically favorable non-conference contests and conferences scheduling in creative ways that develop travel partner arrangements, neutral site scheduling and other mechanisms to reduce the travel burdens that student athletes face. Schools that have their athletes continually playing "buy games" on the road to fund their athletic programs will need to adjust student athlete hours in other ways to compensate for never playing at home, or schedule more home contests. </li>
<li><u><b>Establish a minimum expectation for academic engagement</b></u>. If a student athlete is taking 15 credit hours, at a minimum they should expect to spend 15 hours per week attending class. In addition, it seems reasonable to expect one hour per credit hour each week to study, prepare, research and read for their courses. Mandatory academic engagement already exists in athletics through supervised and mandated studying. Establishing a minimum baseline should be considered. This may be viewed by many as unworkable, unnecessary or a further infringement on student athlete time. But imagine the compound effect of 100+ hours each semester spent on academics - grade point averages and graduation rates should skyrocket. </li>
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Finally, as the debate heats up regarding how to return time to student athletes, I'd encourage decision makers to use a simple litmus test to determine whether they are on the right track in returning those hours to students. Assume for a moment you are required to record athletic and academic engagement as suggested above. When determining whether something should "count" toward the academic minimum or athletic maximum hours, find a corresponding example in the other area and see if you would count a parallel activity in the same manner. <br />
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For example, rehabilitation from an injury does not count in the current NCAA permissible 20 hours. If you were counting academic hours, would you say the same thing about tutoring, which is a form of academic training? If a three credit hour class meets for 50 minutes three times a week, would you count this time as 2.5 hours or three? On the athletic side when trying to avoid hitting a maximum, it would be counted as 50 minutes per practice. Would it be counted similarly on the academic side? While not a perfect test, these parallel examples help sort out what should and should not count and will help move toward greater accuracy.<br />
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Ultimately, the challenge of solving student athlete time demands will be only partially addressed by the above ideas. Tweaks around the edges to give a week or two back to students and letting them reclaim their sleep time between 9 pm and 6 am is only effective if it occurs within a larger adjustment of the structural aspects that truly drive time demands - length of season, out of season requirements, practice and competition start dates, exempt events and the number of contests among other things. In part three of this series, I'll move past accounting for hours and examine ways to provide even greater reductions in student athlete time demands.<br />
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Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-83211396958283737142016-02-16T01:30:00.000-06:002016-02-16T01:30:06.174-06:00Student athlete time demands: Part 1 - The current modelThe 2016 NCAA Convention saw the tabling of three proposals intended to reduce student athlete time demands - no longer considering a travel day as a day off, banning practice between 9 pm and 6 am and requiring at least two weeks off following the conclusion of an athlete's season.<br />
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The always popular call for "further study" and views that the proposals may not have been effective in addressing the issue both contributed to the failure to address what everyone acknowledges - that athletes are spending more time than ever on their sports. The proposals that were tabled dealt more with symptoms rather than the root causes of expanded time demands - increased out of season practice, earlier start dates, exempt tournaments, more games and a host of other athletic opportunities. While some critics would propose abandoning the system, this clearly isn't going to happen. But change does need to occur. <br />
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The media, coaches, student athletes themselves, presidents and athletic administrators widely recognize the enterprise needs change, with near universal advocacy for improved "student athlete welfare." Recent solutions - multiple year scholarships, cost of attendance stipends, essentially unlimited food with fueling stations and extensive training table areas, insurance coverage against loss of future professional value due to injury, travel for family to championships and other meaningful changes - moved college athletics closer than ever to a professional model through increasing amounts and types of compensation. These changes were relatively easy to accomplish because they could be solved by spending more money to address social and legal pressures. In short, they made good business sense. <br />
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But in business, just as in your own life, you can always make more money, but you can't make more time. We each get the same 24 hours in a day and it's a zero sum game, despite what furious multi-taskers would tell you. This is why the truly heavy lifting of changing student athlete welfare has arrived. <br />
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The "student" side of student-athlete does not align with the reward and compensation structure for coaches and administrators which rests on winning and athletic success. Good educational metrics (GPA, graduation rates, APR scores, community service, student athlete behavior and welfare) are necessary but insufficient criteria for retaining your position or advancing to another more lucrative one. Television revenues, ticket sales and donations which all come from winning and a great on-field/court "product" cannot buy more time for a student athlete and in fact dictates they maximize their time on athletics. But the maximum isn't always optimum. </div>
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Providing additional compensation as the first step towards improved student athlete welfare wasn't hard. Those changes brought a brief respite from critics. Now, student athletes want more control of their future, their lives, their day and their schedules. Giving them the freedom to enhance their total college experience will be difficult in the face of a compensation structure that doesn't reward freedom. <br />
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The first step towards change is <b><u>presidents exercising their leadership responsibility and mandating change</u></b>.<br />
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Much has been made about the concept of "presidential control" in the NCAA. Yet, conference realignment, NCAA governance restructuring and huge television contracts had active presidential involvement. The massive structural changes we have seen under their "control" has directly contributed to the current state of student athlete time commitments. Conference realignment and television agreements were obviously going to have undesirable but thoroughly predictable consequences. Without getting dragged into the weeds of policy making, presidents need to mandate that the amount of time budgeted for athletics be reduced (not just at the margins) with the negative time commitments that came with conference realignment and television pushed back into educational alignment. The exercise and expectation really isn't much different than the decisions they make regarding financial budgets. <br />
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Meaningful solutions to reduce student athlete time demands do exist and improving opportunities for educational experiences that look different from today can be achieved. Reducing time demands for student athletes can either nibble at the edges with proposals similar to what was tabled at this year's NCAA Convention or address the root causes of the situation. The upcoming segments in this series will examine various proposals to help student athletes can regain control of their time while maintaining high level Division I athletic programs.</div>
Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-40450613241549757182016-02-10T19:04:00.000-06:002016-02-10T19:14:57.747-06:00NCAA budget update #71Cal Berkeley is facing <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/02/10/berkeley-is-facing-big-budget-trouble-painful-measures-ahead-for-nations-top-public-college/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_evening" target="_blank">a $150 million dollar negative difference between its revenue and expenses.</a> Although the indication is that no teams will be cut, all areas of spending including athletics expenditures will be examined. <br />
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Missouri State is facing a <a href="http://www.news-leader.com/story/sports/college/msu/2016/01/19/bears-losing-fans-leaving-athletics-budget-has-reached-tipping-point/78687234/" target="_blank">$1.1 million shortfall </a>due to declines in men's basketball ticket sales. <br />
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Wyoming was <a href="http://www.laramieboomerang.com/news/local_news/article_790e6356-c25b-11e5-9e3a-bf366b92ff61.html" target="_blank">anxiously awaiting word about whether it would receive $4 million annually</a> in state support for athletics while other areas of the state are facing budget cuts. The funding <a href="http://www.athleticbusiness.com/college/u-of-wyoming-gets-8m-in-state-money.html?eid=285791291&bid=1292025" target="_blank">was ultimately granted</a> but has been the subject of significant criticism in the state.<br />
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<a href="http://theadvocate.com/">TheAdvocate.com</a> reviewed spending on athletics at the 14 public colleges and universities. The findings show that <a href="http://theadvocate.com/news/14345658-86/special-report-why-are-athletics-largely-immune-to-higher-education-budget-cuts" target="_blank">13 of the 14 departments (except LSU) receive substantial subsidies</a>. <br />
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As a follow up to my <a href="http://www.ultimatesportsinsider.com/search/label/Fantasy%20Sports#.VrvgYiorLWI" target="_blank">earlier series</a> about daily fantasy sports, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/02/09/sports/fantasy-sports-betting-fanduel-draftkings-frontline.html?_r=0" target="_blank">the NY Times and Frontline have developed a one hour documentary</a> about the industry. Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-75243105326097250882016-01-29T02:00:00.000-06:002016-01-29T02:00:09.279-06:00What is the NCAA's stance regarding freedom of speech for student athletes?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGFLc65et0suKYIWMkvBD-YvSkr7UNA6N8QMZL6MF-Vu-CbenHLlmqHcI4j4zpK-FP5Vd-34rrYLAV115RSP1VZe06TJSdDTGJh48QUpr09bsItFF64tqaASc0fGx2BYXzf9AUZy6DzGCz/s1600/Donald+Trump.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGFLc65et0suKYIWMkvBD-YvSkr7UNA6N8QMZL6MF-Vu-CbenHLlmqHcI4j4zpK-FP5Vd-34rrYLAV115RSP1VZe06TJSdDTGJh48QUpr09bsItFF64tqaASc0fGx2BYXzf9AUZy6DzGCz/s200/Donald+Trump.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
News from Iowa is that @RealDonaldTrump was "endorsed" by Iowa football and wrestling student athletes. Regardless of your political affiliation or views, it prompts the question - "What is the NCAA's stance regarding freedom of speech for student athletes?"<br />
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Iowa Director of Athletics Gary Barta<a href="http://dailycaller.com/2016/01/27/trumps-use-of-hawkeyes-football-wrestling-teams-violates-ncaa-rules-video/" target="_blank"> issued a statement saying that no NCAA rules were violated</a> by the student-athlete attendance at the rally and the presentation of a "non-official" Iowa jersey to Trump. <br />
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NCAA rules regarding the issue of endorsement can be found in this <a href="http://www.ncaa.com/sites/default/files/images/2014/08/05/advertisingpromotionalguidelines_july_2014.pdf" target="_blank">June 2014 document</a>. The language regarding speech is pretty clear - "Advocacy of viewpoints on controversial issues of public importance (e.g., religious
beliefs, political beliefs)" is labeled as impermissible for student athletes. <br />
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Yet, no <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/09/us/missouri-football-players-boycott-in-protest-of-university-president.html?_r=0" target="_blank">concern over NCAA rules was </a><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/09/us/missouri-football-players-boycott-in-protest-of-university-president.html?_r=0" target="_blank">raised a couple of months ago when the Missouri football team rallied and threatened to boycott their game against Brigham Young University</a>. In fact the opposite occurred, <a href="http://diverseeducation.com/article/79449/" target="_blank">athletic administrators widely lauded student-athlete activism</a> and were supportive of athletes expressing their freedom of speech. And recent NCAA governance changes have provided student athletes with a greater voice than ever in the NCAA legislative process. <br />
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Regardless of your views regarding either the presidential primaries or the protests in Missouri, it appears evident that student athletes are exercising their voices, and their opinions clearly have weight. <br />
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Whether coaches and administrators are truly comfortable with social and political activism, regardless of viewpoint, remains to be seen. But it raises the question, "Does the NCAA have any standing to prevent student athletes from voicing their opinions regarding a political person or social issue?" And if NCAA somehow has this ability, on what basis will decisions be made about which topics or forms of free speech are permissible and which are not? Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5197764866626488238.post-26585505210222108322016-01-21T13:55:00.000-06:002016-01-22T12:08:33.122-06:00NCAA Baseball agent rule change finally arrives six years after Andrew Oliver case<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxvMW1LfTCif6AxWMtJgpHsQgtPRok7WJvPaqSl99ucqs86DuPZJnoKze4BMhRDYeX0IvBzMuWkNjsTaknFwv7S00bzgr-TGCKfXPQao9m3JnRzq_qlB8cJxTmGJIGjEufOMTg9ouYivH_/s1600/Andrew+Oliver.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxvMW1LfTCif6AxWMtJgpHsQgtPRok7WJvPaqSl99ucqs86DuPZJnoKze4BMhRDYeX0IvBzMuWkNjsTaknFwv7S00bzgr-TGCKfXPQao9m3JnRzq_qlB8cJxTmGJIGjEufOMTg9ouYivH_/s200/Andrew+Oliver.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>
The NCAA has <a href="http://www.d1baseball.com/news/power-fives-agent-vote-a-win-for-baseball/" target="_blank">changed its stance regarding prospective student athletes using agents in their negotiation </a>with Major League Baseball teams and will now allow agents to actively represent their client's interests. <br />
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The topic of agents and specifically the <a href="http://www.ultimatesportsinsider.com/search/label/Andrew%20Oliver" target="_blank">case of Andrew Oliver</a> was first chronicled in March of 2009 by UltimateSportsInsider.com and has been among the most read series on this website. <br />
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Understanding <a href="http://www.ultimatesportsinsider.com/search/label/Andrew%20Oliver" target="_blank">the history</a> and how we've arrived at this change is important. Six years ago, the NCAA aggressively fought Andrew Oliver and his attorney Rick Johnson. The NCAA lost court battles and <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=4165191" target="_blank">faced a contempt of court hearing</a> before ultimately settling out of court for $750,000 over its conduct and denial of Oliver's legal rights.<br />
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Six long years later, the resistance is gone with the NCAA voting 72-2 in favor of allowing representation - chipping away another piece of the amateurism facade. <br />
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There is no doubt that this erosion will continue. Its impossible to effectively argue that legal representation for one group of students should be permitted while preventing such representation for others. Additional movement on the issue of legal representation is likely just another lawsuit or NCAA Legislative cycle away from further changes (if the Association wants to be proactive.) <br />
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Oliver <a href="https://twitter.com/DrewOliver27" target="_blank">@drewoliver27</a> has<a href="http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/o/olivean01.shtml" target="_blank"> 31 career innings pitched</a> in Major League Baseball.<br />
<br />Michael Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01871843850156657810noreply@blogger.com0