There's been a lot of talk about personnel changes in the University’s athletic programs lately. Men’s basketball coach Dave Leitao was ousted, and Al Groh barely held on to his job thanks to a mid-season winning streak (which was followed by four straight losses). The underwhelming performance of these revenue sports teams, as well as some unpopular administrative decisions, have led others to call for the termination of the athletic director himself, Craig Littlepage. I’m not opposed to any of these staffing decisions, but the University needs to do more than that to address the problems with the athletic department: It needs to fire the athletic department itself.
I’m not suggesting we get rid of athletics at the University. Instead, the University should place the responsibility for running athletics within the Office of Student Affairs. This is a radical move, but it has already been successfully implemented at Vanderbilt University, and it seems to be working there.
The problem with having an athletic department is that it is completely removed from the regular academic operations of the University. It is as if a few privately owned sports teams operate on the University’s Grounds and use its logo. The sole purpose of the athletic programs – especially for revenue sports – seems to be entertaining students and donors in order to make more money.
Don’t get me wrong — I’m a die-hard Wahoo sports fan. Supporting the football, lacrosse and club hockey teams as part of the Pep Band and the soccer team with the Wahooligans will be some of my fondest memories when I graduate. Division I athletics are a major selling point for the University. But the goal of putting on a good show is not worthy of the University. Everything the University does should be aimed at scholarship, including athletics.
In fact, the athletic department’s existence as a separate body detracts from the education of its student athletes. It’s true that the University provides significant help for student athletes in the form of tutors and study halls, but the point of these programs is not scholarship: it’s eligibility. Encouraging athletes to keep their grade point average above a certain level is not the same as encouraging athletes to get the most out of the University’s academic programs. In fact, it creates perverse incentives in which students may be encouraged to take less challenging courses. Certainly study abroad programs and demanding honors programs are out of the question for many athletes. Every student has a GPA requirement, but for non-athletes, the goal of college is scholarship beyond merely fulfilling graduation requirements. In an athletic department whose goal is to win, there is little incentive for the administrators to encourage students to do anything beyond what is necessary to stay eligible.
The athletic department also renders the University’s tradition of student self-governance null and void. The athletic department is in no way answerable to students (or to academic faculty, for that matter). Most of the department’s money does not come from students, so when student wishes conflict with those of donors or television stations, the athletic department has no reason or obligation to side with the students. It is strange that the University trusts students to run its honor system, but it allows them no direct authority over athletic programs, which would seem to be significantly less important.
The University is hardly alone in dealing with a renegade athletic program. Nearly every university in the country struggles with the intersection of academics and athletics. Fortunately, there is an alternative.
Moving the athletic administration into the Office of Student Affairs would allow administrators whose goals include academic excellence to oversee athletics. More athletes could take part in organizations like Student Council and the Honor Committee — is there a better solution to the spotlighting of athletes? If the shift were arranged well, it could also allow students more direct input into the running of the athletic programs.
This isn’t just a far-pitched theory. Vanderbilt Chancellor Gordon Gee disbanded his school’s athletic department in 2003. Since then, student athletes report becoming more involved in student life. Athletic teams have joined forces with academic faculty to promote not just good grades but extracurricular academic opportunities like study abroad as well.
What’s more, Vanderbilt’s athletic programs haven’t suffered on the playing field, even in revenue sports. The Commodores’ basketball team made the Sweet Sixteen in 2007, and this year the football team played in its first bowl game since 1982 — and that’s in the tough Southeastern Conference. Had the Cavaliers met the Commodores on the field this year, I’m not sure who my money would have been on.
For years now, the University has been torn between emulating an Ivy League school with strong academics and weak athletics and becoming another state university with all the frills of a top-rate athletic program. The Vanderbilt model shows there is a middle road between the two, in which the University can support a vivid athletic program without betraying its ideals of scholarly achievement and student self-governance.
Daniel Colbert’s column appears Tuesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at d.colbert@cavalierdaily.com.
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