On Friday, Oct. 17, UNC-TV will broadcast a one-hour program focused on reform in college athletics produced Sept. 4 on the Elon University campus. The program will air statewide at 10 p.m. on the 11 affiliated UNC stations:
- WUNF-TV 33 Asheville, NC
- WUNC-TV 4 Chapel Hill, NC
- WUND-TV 2 Columbia, NC
- WUNG-TV 58 Concord/Charlotte, NC
- WUNK-TV 25 Greenville, NC
- WUNM-TV 19 Jacksonville, NC
- WUNE-TV 17Linville, NC
- WUNU-TV 31 Lumberton , NC
- WUNP-TV 36 Roanoke Rapids, NC
- WUNJ-TV 39 Wilmington, NC
- WUNL-TV 26 Winston-Salem, NC
The program will also be offered to public television stations nationwide in a Oct. 19 satellite broadcast.
The program, which is titled “Intercollegiate Athletics: Is Reform Working?,” focuses on the status of college sports and institutional integrity. It was produced by Elon’s Office of Cultural Programs with broadcast production by The University of North Carolina Center for Public Television.
Leading advocates for reform in intercollegiate athletics held a panel discussion moderated by William Friday, president emeritus of the University of North Carolina, who has co-chaired two Knight Foundation Commissions on Intercollegiate Athletics.
Panelists included Myles Brand, president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); Len Elmore, a 1974 All-American basketball player at the University of Maryland and noted college basketball analyst for ESPN; Thomas Hearn, president of Wake Forest University and member of the Knight Commissions; Daniel Morrison, commissioner of the Southern Conference; and Kay Yow, head women’s basketball coach at North Carolina State University and member of the basketball Hall of Fame.
Friday and Hearn have been outspoken promoters of reform, and will be active in the Knight Commission work when that group reconvenes this fall.
Brand became the first university president to lead the NCAA last January. He previously served as president of Indiana University and the University of Oregon. Brand gained national attention in September 2000 when he fired longtime Indiana basketball coach Bob Knight. Following an intense media firestorm, he called for new rules for college athletics in a National Press Club speech titled “Academics First: Reforming Intercollegiate Athletics.”
Elmore, who played professional basketball for ten years, earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1987. He is president and CEO of TestU, an online test preparation company that gives students affordable access to the preparation they need to break the barriers to achievement.
Morrison added the perspective of a collegiate conference commissioner to the panel and Yow, who served as head women’s basketball coach at Elon before moving to N.C. State, has witnessed the tremendous growth of college athletics during her 32 years as a head coach.