Copeland at the Table on NCAA Reform
Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2004 4:59 pmSaw this report from the A.D. Not very revealing, but SMU is at the table with Tulane, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Iowa and Miss. State
Copeland AD Report: July 2, 2004
Last Saturday, I spent the day in Indianapolis at the NCAA’s headquarters. No, it isn’t anything the SMU faithful should be concerned about. In fact, my visit to the NCAA last weekend and a trip there back in January reaffirmed my conviction that SMU is doing it the right way.
Here’s the background to my story:
Last December, I was invited by Myles Brand, President of the NCAA, along with a handful of other athletic directors from around the country to sit in with an ad-hoc group called the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics (COIA) to talk about reform in college sports.
COIA is a group of faculty governance leaders on each NCAA Division IA campus that began to organize and focus on intercollegiate athletics a little more than two years ago. These faculty members have significant credibility on their respective campuses and their aim is to positively reform college athletics.
Brand had met with COIA on two occasions prior to my first meeting in January. Before they got too far in talks, he wanted to get COIA together in the same room with athletic administrators from around the country to exchange thoughts.
Other athletic directors that have joined me in the meetings include: Bob Bowlsby of Iowa, Rick Dickson of Tulane, Andy Geiger of Ohio State, Larry Templeton of Mississippi State and Kevin White of Notre Dame.
In addition to the athletic directors present, four representatives of COIA, four NCAA staff members and two faculty athletic representatives from around the country were involved in the meetings.
COIA’s platform document, “A Framework for Comprehensive Athletics Reformâ€, around which most of our meetings agenda have centered, includes the following five areas: academic integrity, student-athlete welfare, governance, finances and over-commercialization.
The focus of the meetings has been to get the perspectives of each group. Surprisingly to some, there has been more agreement than disagreement in the two meetings. The discussion has reinforced my belief that we do things the right way at SMU. We lead by example in operating with integrity and placing the correct emphasis on the term student-athlete.
I’m not sure what exactly will come from our meetings although proposed NCAA legislation from either faculty athletic representatives or athletics directors is a good guess. We haven’t scheduled our next meeting yet but after we do meet again, I will be sure to update you on our progress.
I won’t be writing a column the next two weeks as I will be on vacation on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. If you are going on vacation soon, enjoy yourself, be careful and I look forward to seeing you this fall.
Until next time, Go Mustangs!
Jim
Copeland AD Report: July 2, 2004
Last Saturday, I spent the day in Indianapolis at the NCAA’s headquarters. No, it isn’t anything the SMU faithful should be concerned about. In fact, my visit to the NCAA last weekend and a trip there back in January reaffirmed my conviction that SMU is doing it the right way.
Here’s the background to my story:
Last December, I was invited by Myles Brand, President of the NCAA, along with a handful of other athletic directors from around the country to sit in with an ad-hoc group called the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics (COIA) to talk about reform in college sports.
COIA is a group of faculty governance leaders on each NCAA Division IA campus that began to organize and focus on intercollegiate athletics a little more than two years ago. These faculty members have significant credibility on their respective campuses and their aim is to positively reform college athletics.
Brand had met with COIA on two occasions prior to my first meeting in January. Before they got too far in talks, he wanted to get COIA together in the same room with athletic administrators from around the country to exchange thoughts.
Other athletic directors that have joined me in the meetings include: Bob Bowlsby of Iowa, Rick Dickson of Tulane, Andy Geiger of Ohio State, Larry Templeton of Mississippi State and Kevin White of Notre Dame.
In addition to the athletic directors present, four representatives of COIA, four NCAA staff members and two faculty athletic representatives from around the country were involved in the meetings.
COIA’s platform document, “A Framework for Comprehensive Athletics Reformâ€, around which most of our meetings agenda have centered, includes the following five areas: academic integrity, student-athlete welfare, governance, finances and over-commercialization.
The focus of the meetings has been to get the perspectives of each group. Surprisingly to some, there has been more agreement than disagreement in the two meetings. The discussion has reinforced my belief that we do things the right way at SMU. We lead by example in operating with integrity and placing the correct emphasis on the term student-athlete.
I’m not sure what exactly will come from our meetings although proposed NCAA legislation from either faculty athletic representatives or athletics directors is a good guess. We haven’t scheduled our next meeting yet but after we do meet again, I will be sure to update you on our progress.
I won’t be writing a column the next two weeks as I will be on vacation on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. If you are going on vacation soon, enjoy yourself, be careful and I look forward to seeing you this fall.
Until next time, Go Mustangs!
Jim
