Leading advocates for reform in intercollegiate athletics will hold a panel discussion at Elon University on Sept. 4. Moderator for the panel will be William Friday, president emeritus of the University of North Carolina, who has co-chaired two Knight Foundation Commissions on Intercollegiate Athletics.
Panelists will include 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.
“Elon University is proud to host such a distinguished panel to explore a critical issue in higher education,” said Leo M. Lambert, Elon president. “This discussion will frame fundamental issues that continue to challenge athletics programs. The topic of collegiate athletics reform is of great public interest, and we are pleased to bring together a variety of thoughtful perspectives to consider future directions.”
The discussion, which is titled “Intercollegiate Athletics: Is Reform Working?,” will focus on the status of college sports and institutional integrity.
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.”
Brand said big-time basketball and football programs had become a “threat to the academic integrity” of universities. “We are not sports franchises,” Brand said. “I do not want to turn off the game. I just want to lower the volume.”
Brand said college presidents must find solutions to the problems of over-commercialization, poor graduation rates and questionable academic standards used for athletes. Brand also advocated limits to advertising in stadiums and on uniforms, and reducing the number of television time-outs during games.
Similarly, the 1991 and 2001 Knight Commission reports said there was a “widening chasm between higher education’s ideals and big-time college sports.” The Commission proposed creating a coalition of college presidents who would promote an agenda of academic reform, de-escalation of the financial “arms race” and de-emphasis of the commercialization of intercollegiate athletics.
Many of the Knight Commission’s recommendations led to important reforms by the NCAA, including increased presidential controls, new rules for academic eligibility and more resources for women’s athletics programs.
Friday met with several college presidents in June following recent cases of academic fraud at some Division I-A institutions. The group decided to reconvene the Knight Commission this fall and resume its review of reform. Friday will again chair the Commission and Hearn will be a member.
Brand has acknowledged the importance of the Knight Commission to the NCAA over the past decade and said he looks forward to working with the Commission in the future.
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.
In a recent article in the Naples (Fla.) Daily News, Elmore was critical of the recent scandals in college basketball. “Let’s just take a look at what we’re doing and the ‘win at any cost’ philosophy,” Elmore said. “It’s so dangerous and so detrimental to the ideals of college sports and what college sports can do.”
Morrison brings 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.
The panel discussion will be held at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 4, in McCrary Theatre at Elon’s Center for the Arts. Admission is free, but tickets are required. All tickets will be available beginning Aug. 14 and may be reserved and/or picked up at the Center for the Arts Box Office between 12:30 p.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Tickets may be reserved by calling the Box Office at (336) 278-5610.