Trustees and Presidents: A Podcast for University Leaders On College Athletics

When the news broke that both the women’s and men’s swimming programs at Michigan State would be cut in October 2020, there was shock and sadness. Citing declining department revenue resources available in the early days of the pandemic, as well as an outdated pool, former athletics director Bill Beekman and president Stanley signed off on a news release, stating “We understand that the news is devastating to our outstanding student-athletes in these sports, as well as to their coaches, but with every thoughtful analysis it became increasingly clear that we were not positioned to offer the best experience to our student-athletes, either now or in the future.”

Plaintiff’s attorneys Lori Bullock and Joshua Hammack were contacted by the athletes on the women’s team almost immediately after the news broke. In this podcast, they speak with me about their strategy behind a successful outcome for this case. 

Lori has successfully represented student-athletes who’ve faced discrimination that’s attracted national media attention. Working with Bailey Glasser’s Title IX team, Lori has won a series of high-profile settlements for female student-athletes at eight U.S. colleges and universities to date. 

Josh is her co-counsel for this case and a member of the same impactful Title IX team at BaileyGlasser. You will not want to miss this interview.

Boise State burst on the to the national stage in football over 20 years ago and made a mark few non-Power 5 schools have done. From the famous "Blue Turf" in the stadium, to 3 Fiesta Bowl victories, football put a regional state school in the national discussion. Along with the Mountain West Conference's first mover status in creating its own television network, the Broncos became a national phenomenon that still resonates today.

My guest today is former Boise State President Dr. Robert Kustra. His bio states "Arriving in 2003, Dr. Kustra led a transformation that turned Boise State into a metropolitan research university of distinction. There was an increase in the number of full-time and out-of-state students, a focus on maintaining a vibrant undergraduate experience, and growth in graduate degrees offered. In 2016, Boise State was officially designated a Carnegie doctoral research university — a goal of Dr. Kustra’s since he started."

In addition to leading for 15 years, he also held the presidency at Eastern Kentucky. Bob also served in the Illinois House of Representatives, and was Illinois' Lt. Governor from 1991-1998, bringing a unique perspective to our conversation, especially since the NCAA's new President is the former two term Governor of Massachusetts, Charlie Baker. Now retired, he writes for the Idaho Statesman, and has been a regular contributor to Boise's NPR station via the "Reader's Corner".

Bob shares candid observations and reflections on where college athletics is today, and how his thinking has evolved since joining the Broncos in 2003. And, because he was a politician before he became a college president, he offers his insight on the NCAA's new President, Charlie Baker.

When a college leader assumes his/her presidency for the first time, I've often wondered how they begin to understand the complexities of college athletics. Nearly 90% of sitting presidents rise to the position from the academic side of the house- where do they learn about athletics?

In 2023, there are so many challenges and choices for presidents to make, that it can seem daunting. How do new presidents go about learning how things work (beyond wins and losses) in the business of college sports? Do they just listen and take directives from their athletics director? Or do they work to insert the values and mission of the institution into their athletics departments? And how do presidents work to understand the Conference and national issues impacting college sports today?

My guests today are two long time professional colleagues and friends. Ana Mari Cauce is the 33rd president of the University of Washington where she has been a member of the faculty since 1986. She is a member of the Pac-12 Conference executive leadership team, and was a part of the group that hired current Commissioner George Kliavkoff. She is deeply aware of the fast changing dynamics in Power 5 and Pac-12 programs.

James Soto Antony is the Dean, Division of Graduate Education, and Professor, Education Studies at the University of California San Diego. Along with Ana Mari, he is a co-editor of  The College President Handbook: A Sustainable and Practical Guide for Emerging Leaders, a dynamic book published in 2022 that includes relevant information for new Presidents across many of their responsibilities. Jim has closely followed the changes in college athletics in the last 20 years as a researcher, and was the founder of the University of Washington's Center for Leadership in Athletics.

Today's podcast is particularly timely as Presidents are often approached by boosters, conference commissioners and others with ideas of "elevating the schools profile" by changing Conferences. The whole concept of "Conference Realignment" is something your school could face during your tenure. The NCAA's FRS (financial reporting system) is one of several key indicators to monitor the health of you athletics department.

My guest today answers the above questions and takes you on a deep dive into NCAA reporting requirements for all Divisions. The FRS requires all member institutions to collect their data every year and have it meet the annual compliance expectations (aka "agreed upon procedures). The NCAA aggregates all the data under the IPP (Institutional Performance Program) dashboard and allows member schools to access data on their peers. This becomes especially valuable when you want to compare categories equally while measuring data the exact same way.

James Moore and company also have a robust interest NIL impact on taxes, revenues and complying with current NCAA and state rules.

Katie Davis, CPA is the Higher Education and Collegiate Athletics Practice Leader at James Moore & Co., an accounting firm that works with universities, athletic departments, athletic associations, booster clubs, and other higher education-related organizations nationwide. For nearly 20 years, Katie has dedicated her career to providing accounting and consulting services to universities and advocating for the financial voices in college athletics. She helps to educate the sports business industry on relevant issues that impact us now and in the future. Katie also co-hosts the “News & Brews Sports Biz” podcast, which is focused on finances and other emerging issues in college athletics.

The trend of higher education employees leaving their jobs before they have been offered another is an under-mentioned aspect of the “Great Resignation”. Whether the reason could be due to caregiving for a family member or friend, or the acceleration of wage growth in sectors outside of higher ed, it has highlighted a lack of pay, work/life balance and/or growth opportunities (i.e. “career paths”) for those who work at colleges. Simply put, we have focused on that for our students, but we have done a poor job of mentoring and growing our employees. This is especially important to those who start as entry level staff in academic advising, athletics marketing and communications (events and promotions), and media who want to be able to rise through the organization.

Credentials, Entrepreneurship and Certificates are part of the workforce future in higher education.

My guests today work for a company that has produced some remarkable research in this area, calling attention to an opportunity for higher ed workplaces to focus on how to grow employees, not just hire them. Dr. Ruth Watkins is the President of Strada Impact, a part of the Strada Educational Network. She is the former president and provost at the University of Utah. We are also joined by Dr. Courtney McBeth, Senior Vice President and Chief Program Officer for the Strada Education Network. Courtney was a soccer student-athlete at the University of Utah. Both bring powerful expertise to a discussion that includes NIL, entrepreneurship and the high turnover rates in athletic department employees.

We also discuss the impact on the University of Utah’s entrance into the Pac-12, what it means both from an institutional alignment perspective and from a career opportunity perspective for Utah student athletes.

More info on Strada: Strada Education Network is a national nonprofit social impact organization that collaborates with learners, educators, employers, and policy makers across the U.S. to bring to life a postsecondary education and training (PSET) ecosystem that provides equitable pathways to opportunity.

A nightmare occurred at the University of Maryland in 2018 when freshman football player Jordan McNair died of heatstroke after an offseason practice. The confluence of events caused this nightmare scenario—a warm, humid day with a heat index over 90 degrees; practice was suddenly relocated to another field because the designated practice area (the football stadium) was under construction; the workouts were started before ATCs arrived on site and were fully set up (including cold water pools), and the strength coach running the practice did not recognize the signs of heatstroke that McNair was demonstrating.

That same year, I authored an op-ed in the Baltimore Sun about what may have precipitated this pressure placed on coaches, athletes and administrators-both financial and prestige. This situation can typify the unintended pressures that come as presidents and trustees try to move their institutions quickly up the ladder in college sports.

The question all senior leaders should ask is: could something like this happen at my school?

Today, my guests are two health care professionals who have seen college athletics from the inside, both as team medical professionals and now as administrators in the United States. Both represent the U.S. Council for Athletes Health, an organization dedicated to strengthening institutional education, consulting, compliance (with existing health care mandates) and support for the newly mandated Athletics Healthcare Administrator, now required under NCAA rules.

Dr. Chad Asplund is a 20-year sports medicine practitioner at the professional, Olympic, collegiate and recreational levels. Dr. Asplund is the executive director of the U.S. Council for Athletes’ Health, as well as a sports medicine physician and Professor of Family Medicine and Orthopedics at the Medical College of Georgia. Chad currently serves as the medical director for USA Basketball, and a team physician for USA Hockey and Georgia Southern University. He also is the past president of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, the largest physician-only organization for sports medicine physicians.

Angie Beisner focused her career on the care and prevention of athletic injuries within collegiate organizations for more than two decades before bringing her extensive knowledge to USCAH operations in June 2021.

Before joining the U.S. Council for Athletes Health, she most recently was the head athletic trainer at Ohio State, she was also named the lead athletic trainer for the USA U19 Men's Lacrosse team.

Student Athlete Health, Safety and Wellbeing: A Lack of Accountability and Prioritization Poses the Greatest Risk to College Sports

Opinion Editorial/Blog

Written by James Borchers, MD, MPH

President and CEO of USCAH

With the Big Ten Conference signed a brand-new media rights contract worth $1.23 billion annually, all of college sports took notice. Exceeding the NCAA’s March Madness contract, the Big Ten will soon deliver between $70 and $100 million to each school in the conference. It’s a staggering number and has positioned the conference as one of the top two in all of Division I sports.

My guest today is former Fox Sports President and CEO of Thompson Sports Group, LLC, Bob Thompson. Bob and I first spoke when I was researching the formation and financial structures behind the Big Ten Network for my dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a wealth of information then, and this conversation extends that discussion to 2022. Mr. Thompson is considered one of the most knowledgeable authorities in the sports television industry.  During his more than 25 years at Liberty and Fox Sports, Mr. Thompson negotiated more than 200 television rights agreements with professional sports teams, leagues, and collegiate conferences and has been directly involved in the launch of 18 regional and national cable networks.

Presidents must understand this enormously influential landscape-while you may bring in consultants and lawyers to navigate the details, having a fundamental appreciation of the how this world is changing and where your school sits in the pecking order is crucial in how you approach the outsized expectations of your coaches, alumni and boosters.

One of the key points comes near the end—we talk about the issues surrounding data and data acquisition by media companies. Presidents should understand all the innovative (and some would argue intrusive) data gathering techniques that add the true financial heft to these contracts. While it may seem secondary when you sign the contract, as gambling becomes more ingrained in our ecosystem, this will create the need for serious ethical conversations about who owns the student-athlete’s personal data.

When the news broke in 2010 of an academic scandal on the campus of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, at first involving members of the football team, few knew that the issue would eventually expand to include more than 3100 students and student-athletes taking 200 “paper courses" offered by the African and Afro-American Studies Department. Among many other outcomes, UNC Chapel Hill was put on probation by the regional accreditation association, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. Carolina was restored to full accreditation by the SACSCOC the following year, and later, the NCAA decided not to hold the institution in violation of their rules. 

In fall 2013, UNC-Chapel Hill was under new leadership, including a new Chancellor, new Provost, and new Athletic Director. They needed a clear and comprehensive understanding of the academic life cycle for student-athletes in order to move forward. 

Former Provost James W. Dean, Jr. and Director of Athletics Bubba Cunningham convened a 10-person team of campus leaders to do something that we believe no other university had done before: comprehensively document and assess all academic processes that affect student-athletes from the time that they are recruited until after they graduate. With Chancellor Carol L. Folt’s direction and support, Dean and Cunningham led the Student-Athlete Academic Initiative Working Group in this effort, acknowledging that Carolina needed to make changes to address these issues, restore trust, and promote academic integrity. 

Most institutions sweep high-profile athletics scandals under the rug. UNC instead chose to build a culture of continuous improvement, where everyone on campus plays a coordinated role in student-athletes’ success.

Today's conversation goes behind the scenes with one of the key leaders in this effort, which still continues today. Dr. Debbi Clarke led the Working Group out of the Provost’s Office for more than nine years. Debbi takes us behind the scenes of a leadership puzzle – does change begin at the top with new leadership? Or from the bottom up, led by faculty and other key voices on campus? At UNC, it’s been both. They continue to address the issues they faced in a way that has drawn interest from university leaders across the country. As Clarke says "You're building a new culture. It's a really hard thing to do. We recognized what went wrong, and how it went wrong, and said, ‘This is what we're going to do to fix it." It's a remarkable transition. For more information: https://apsa.unc.edu

With all the talk about Division I undergoing massive transformation, what is going in NCAA Divisions II and III? According to my guest, Chuck Mitrano, long-time commissioner of the Empire 8 Conference in New York, quite a bit. Chuck joins the conversation from two perspectives-one as a sitting commissioner, and one as a member of the NCAA Championships Committee, which provides oversight for all 28 post-season events. In both positions, he interacts with presidents and NCAA staff.

We cover a wide range of topics on the future of Division III, and discuss the Empire 8's substantive proposal on mental health safety nets for athletes on campus. We also discuss what happened in January, 2022.  The NCAA reverted back to the “one school, one vote” rules that were eliminated in the late 1990s, a huge opportunity to influence the direction of NCAA policy. Chuck walks us through why that happened, and in particular, the discussions surrounding increasing the amount of money DIII receives from the CBS/Turner contract (currently at 3.18%). This impacts how Division III championships are funded and managed. 

Chuck brings deep experience to the conversation while overseeing a conference that has as many 15 schools (full and associate members).

“Higher education institutions across the country are contending with significant headwinds. However, with a shared sense of purpose, a creative spirit, and sustained focus, PC can emerge stronger than ever and build a tremendous foundation for the next 140 years.”

That was a part of the inauguration speech that Matthew vandenBerg gave at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina in Fall 2021. His vision for Presbyterian is slowly taking shape, but it has come with both highs and lows. Taking office in February 2021 (in the middle of the pandemic), I wanted to ask Matt to take us behind the scenes of a first time president with a terrific track record in both fundraising and friend raising at his previous stops.

Like so many presidents, he was confronted by challenges from the moment he walked on campus, and, like so many times, athletics is a part of that. In our conversation, he walks us through a very delicate situation that emerged on campus in Spring 2022, when the Howard University women's lacrosse team arrived on campus and was verbally mistreated by a few members of the student population. It gravitated into a national story, and it was clearly a moment that many presidents face in putting espoused values into action. 

We talk about Presbyterian as a very small Division I campus, with non-scholarship football, trying to manage success and expectations for athletes, coaches and administrators in the fast changing world of NCAA Division I sports. It's a great conversation for anyone who has ever thought about becoming a small college president.