Free Republic

Each year at this time, the staff of the Martin Center share our higher-ed-reform dreams for the coming 12 months. Will all of our wishes come true? Probably not. Nevertheless, we offer them here in a spirit of optimism, for the reader’s enjoyment and edification. Keep Title IX Out of College-Sports Revenue SharingLast year, the Boston College Law Review (BCLR) published an article on the “equity implications” of paying college athletes, a topic made pressing by Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s NCAA v. Alston concurrence and the related settlement of House v. NCAA. As a review, Kavanaugh joined in full the Court’s...

The San José State University (SJSU) women’s volleyball team made international news this season, with coverage by the BBC, the Telegraph, Quillette, the New York Times, CNN, and ESPN. The reason for all this interest is that SJSU had a biological male on the team. This offense against athletic fairness was not received kindly by many involved. Brooke Slusser (a team co-captain), assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smoose, two former players, and eight players from teams that forfeited games against SJSU have all filed suit. Teams from Boise State University, Southern Utah University, Utah State University, the University of Wyoming, and the...

Perhaps the most exciting NCAA men’s basketball championship game ever played was also one of the biggest upsets. The 1983 North Carolina State University Wolfpack, despite being heavy underdogs to the University of Houston, managed to sink a last-second basket to win 54-52 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The iconic nature of NC State’s victory has played well to audiences in the 41 years since, and the NCAA has used images of the game and its players in publicizing its highly popular tournament. That a heavy underdog NC State team made this year’s basketball Final Four only added to the 1983...

Northwestern University is in the news these days. Normally, that makes them happy. An allegedly prestigious, globally-renowned research university certainly ought to make the news all the time – with revelations of scientific discoveries, medical breakthroughs, or career announcements about proud alumni. Not today, however. Northwestern is in the news because of a rash of reports – some uncorroborated, some perhaps exaggerated or understated, some likely perfectly accurate – of various types of hazing and otherwise toxic cultures in their athletic programs. A baseball coach was fired for allegedly discouraging students from reporting injuries. A volleyball student’s sensible reticence to...

California lawmakers have moved onto the next big battleground in the convulsive world of college sports: sharing the industry’s wealth with athletes. ...That could include a windfall for University of Southern California and University of California, Los Angeles, football players after their schools move in 2024 to the Big Ten, as they would benefit from the conference’s $7.5 billion seven-year media rights deal. Payments to players would be based on a formula in which half of the money is set aside for male athletes and half for female athletes every year, and then apportioned equally among players in programs that...

(Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider how strictly to interpret the landmark Title IX civil rights law's protections for gender equality in college sports in a lawsuit challenging Michigan State University's elimination of its women's swimming and diving team. The high court rejected the university's appeal of a lower-court ruling in favor of former members of the team who say MSU violated Title IX by not providing enough opportunities for women athletes to participate in sports. Lori Bullock, a lawyer for the student athletes suing MSU, said she was "pleased but not surprised" the Supreme Court...

This coming January, the NCAA will convene in Texas to decide the future of standardized testing requirements for student-athletes. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA and universities nationwide have taken steps to waive or modify admissions and eligibility criteria. With the pandemic coming to an end, it is yet to be determined which policies and requirements will be reimplemented by these institutions and which may be scrapped entirely. Division I and Division II college athletes are held to a specific set of academic eligibility requirements by the NCAA. These include a minimum GPA (2.3 for Division I...

The University of Pennsylvania’s transgender swimmer, Lia Thomas, was defeated by another transgender swimmer. The record-shattering Thomas previously competed on the Penn men’s team and has transitioned to female. But at an Ivy League swim meet Saturday, a Yalie, Iszac Henig, defeated Thomas in both the women’s 100- and 400-yard freestyle races, the Daily Mail reported. Henig, who is transitioning from female to male, set a record for the women’s 50-yard freestyle, the outlet said. Henig was able to compete on the women’s team because she had yet to start testosterone treatment, according to a June piece in The New...

A decade ago, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was engulfed in a sports scandal that made national headlines, brought down a chancellor who seemed destined for a lustrous career, and caused the school huge expenses in litigation and for public relations experts. For the Carolina faithful, those events are now just a bitter but much faded memory. The university has made the needed changes to avoid any repetition so everything is all right. At least, that is the conventional wisdom. One UNC graduate who has his doubts, however, is Andy Thomason, author of a new book, Discredited:...

Two young men grow up in the same neighborhood and spend four years together at the same high school taking the same classes from the same teachers and playing on the same winning football team. Both are good students and dedicated, hardworking athletes. But one is a journeyman offensive lineman, while the other is an all-state quarterback. In their senior year, they both decide they want to attend the same prestigious private university that plays in the Football Bowl Subdivision — and where the tuition and board and room exceed $60,000 per year. The university accepts them both. But the...

US Senator Cory Booker (D, Thrace) has introduced a bill to “solve” the problem of college athletics, in much the same way that a healthy dose of arsenic might be proposed to solve a stomach ache. We have over 5000 colleges and universities in the United States. Every college, public and private, has a somewhat different approach to finance, with varying balances between tuition and endowments, scholarships, government grants and all kinds of partnerships. The colleges that offer competitive sports teams include the costs (coaching staffs, facilities, travel, player scholarships) and the profits (ticket sales, advertising and broadcast rights) of...

The Big Ten circus is an unmitigated PR disaster with a leader who wants to hide in the corner without suffering from the consequences of a premature decision. After a sudden and unpredictable shift in optimism within 72 hours, Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren canceled football, with little evidence to back up his decision. Now parents of affected students are demanding justification as to why Warren reached this verdict.After Dr. Venk Murthy, a University of Michigan cardiologist, questioned the evidence the Big Ten used to cancel its season, parents of Ohio State, Penn State, and Iowa football players have submitted...

ACT, college sports, discrimination, A proposal recently released by The National Association of Basketball Coaches requests the NCAA remove an eligibility requirement to submit SAT or ACT scores. In the proposal, put forth by the Committee on Racial Reconciliation, the NABC decries the two tests as wicked forces of institutional racism that should be “jettisoned for that reason alone.” The committee was formed last month, and the proposal shows it.Their argument runs like this: the SAT was created in 1926 by the eugenicist Carl Brigham. Brigham intended the test to demonstrate the racial superiority of white blood. His project, of...

Colleges eager to cut costs amid a financial crisis brought on by the coronavirus pandemic have settled on an easy target: low-profile sports that don’t draw many spectators, attract a disproportionate number of white or foreign athletes and are relatively pricey to operate. Schools ranging from highly selective private institutions like Stanford University to public institutions including the University of Connecticut and the University of Akron are scrapping varsity teams for sports such as rowing, fencing, tennis and squash. The teams have small rosters and require expensive facilities. They also don’t make money for their schools. Dartmouth College, which is...

Without revenue from the NCAA Final Four tournament and other sources of income, it is clear that the intercollegiate athletics industry faces difficult choices from the consequences of the coronavirus. College sports will confront a continuing crisis until adequate testing is in place, along with social distancing at athletic events, or a vaccine is created. In essence, every college athletic director must have a plan that anticipates reduced or canceled 2020-2021 fall and winter sports seasons, along with reduced institutional and student fee subsidies. Thanks to declining enrollment, the 98 percent of all athletic programs that require significant subsidies to...

Due to athletic department budget restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic, Cincinnati has shut down its men's soccer program. Director of Athletics John Cunningham announced the university's decision Tuesday, which is effective immediately. Cincinnati will honor soccer players' scholarships for the duration of their academic careers and allow them to be released immediately from the Bearcats' roster if they wish to transfer to another program.

hile money is not the root of all evil, it is undeniably responsible for the transformation of the University of Oregon (UO). It changed from a typical state flagship where athletics were a nice diversion for some students and alums into a sports powerhouse where the quest for glory in football and basketball dominates the school. The person directly responsible for that is Phil Knight, the founder of the athletic shoe and apparel giant Nike. At a time when the university’s president was desperately looking for outside funding for the school, Knight, an Oregon alum and huge athletics booster, was...

Did I just hear that right? Just a minute ago ESPN was running a video introduction of the game with a guy narrating and I could swear he just said 'in a time of inequity in this country' Blah, blah, blah 'one can say it's only a game' but blah, blah,blah ,' that's what it is 'A GAME......and so on. What the heck?

The National Labor Relations Board is expected in the coming weeks to weigh in on several high-profile labor cases with major implications on workforce and union issues, ranging from college football players to fast food restaurants. Business are bracing for a flurry of action from a labor board they’ve accused of taking on an activist, pro-union agenda. "We’ve seen the board become very active and aggressive under the Obama administration,” said Beth Milito, senior executive counsel for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). One of the most closely watched cases on the labor board’s agenda involves a bid by...

A weary wrestling coach once lamented that his sport had survived the Fall of Rome, only to be vanquished by Title IX. How did an honorable equity law turn into a scorched-earth campaign against men’s sports? This week is the 42nd anniversary of this famous piece of federal legislation so it’s an ideal time to consider what went wrong and how to set it right. MORE Historically Black Colleges Are Becoming More White Report: California Colleges Must Do More to Combat Sexual Violence Friday's Top 6 News Stories NBC News What Happened When One Woman Had Her Picture Photoshopped In...