Academics-First, or Does Athletics Trump Academics?

The University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents adopted a new policy to control athletic programs expansions and financing.  According the system’s vice chancellor and chief academic officer, Houston Davis, “Athletics are certainly something that we value, but we can’t afford to be all things to all people, and we certainly need to think critically, especially if an institution is thinking about expanding. We’ve got fiduciary responsibilities and academic quality assurances as an existing enterprise, and we need to make sure we’re not making those moves to the detriment of other core areas of the institution.”  The policy simply states that, “operation of intercollegiate athletics cannot come at the expense of academic programs and essential activities at a campus or by diverting funds from other major campus functions.” Simply stated, athletics should not trump academics.  In the words of John McEnroe, “you can not be serious!”  Academics-first should be a given, especially at institutions of HIGHER LEARNING.

Yet, this is on the cusp of the University of Georgia Athletic Association giving their football offensive coordinator a $240,000 raise, while other Bulldog assistant coaches received a $25,000 increase.  Not to mention, they increased the head coach’s salary to $3,200,000. The following is a complete breakdown of the coaches’ salaries:

•  Head coach Mark Richt $3,200,000
• Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham: $850,000
• Offensive coordinator Mike Bobo: $575,000
• Offensive line coach Will Friend: $300,000
• Inside linebackers coach Kirk Olivadotti: $285,000
• Wide receivers coach Tony Ball: $260,000
• Defensive line coach Chris Wilson: $250,000
• Secondary coach Scott Lakatos: $235,000
• Tight ends coach John Lilly: $235,000
• Running backs coach Bryan McClendon: $235,000

Keep in mind that this is at a time when faculty have not had a raise in the past five years, and salary compressions are forcing many faculty to seek offers at other institutions. 

I know the common arguments for paying coaches this amount of money: they lack job security, athletics bring in considerable amount of money and attention to institutions, the market drives these salary levels, athletics operate as a separate “self-sufficient” entity, etc.  To be honest, I am not against paying coaches their fair market value.  I am against the hypocrisy of institutions espousing academics over athletics when their behaviors dictate otherwise.  In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.” 

It is time to be honest about the “tail that is wagging the dog” or as Dr. Harry Edwards have suggested that two dogs have emerged under the auspices of higher education with two distinctly different agendas; one purely commercial, while the other is a mixed of being a public trust with commercial interests.  Many universities are being held hostage to the control athletics have over public perception.  Besides, in many cases athletic programs, especially football and men’s basketball drive considerable amount of attention (good and bad) to these universities.  Intercollegiate athletics are being mass consumed by the public, and academics are provided a small space to inform the public through public service announcements aired during televised events.  Furthermore, with the amount of media revenue that is undergirding athletic departments, it is virtually impossible for academic administrators to say no to this commercial enterprise economic expansion.

Another case and point to drive this idea of athletics trumping academics happened at one of this nation’s premiere academic institutions, Northwestern University, where they fired their men’s basketball coach, Bill Carmody.  Carmody’s dismissal was not because of academic reasons: assisting in graduating athletes or in meeting the required APR score.  It was because he did not take his team to the lucrative NCAA’s Men’s tournament and because of his dismal 192-210 record in 13 seasons.  Regarding academics, Carmody’s record was not too bad.  Under Carmody’s tenure, men’s basketball graduation rates for the past 8 seasons averaged 87% GSR and 51% FGR, which ranked him in the top ten programs in the country.  Yet, graduating athletes is clearly secondary to winning basketball games and making it to the tournament.  Therefore, Northwestern University’s, the 12th ranked university in the country according to U.S. News & World Report 2012-13 ranking, academic accomplishments are trumped by athletic desires.

Clearly college athletics is intoxicating and many fans and proponents of the current model are consistently inebriated with an abundance of media coverage.  The athletic-induced drunkenness deadens once senses to the fact that these are institutions of HIGHER LEARNING.  Thus, many exist in a stupor where they are inhibited from making a sound judgment regarding reversing the trend of having athletics trump academics.

Stop the hypocrisy and face the fact that athletics trump academics, in practice; especially the highly commercial sports of football and men’s basketball.  Face the reality that many of these institutions are operating minor league programs that warp the academic achievement of many athletes.  Coming to turns with this truth will help us understand why an Ohio State third-string QB would twitter why he should go to class if he came to play football.  He is not an anomaly.  However, he will probably end up a martyr for exposing the hypocrisy that academics trumps athletics.