2004 Articles of Interest

NCAA Honors Three with Inspiration Award
Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS - The NCAA has awarded the 2005 Inspiration Award to three athletes who overcame life-altering experiences.
Kaia Jergenson of Lipscomb University; Michelle Thomas of the University of Oklahoma; and Marcharia Yuot of Widener University, were announced Thursday as recipients and will receive the award at the NCAA Honors Dinner on Jan. 9 in Dallas. The award is presented to someone who has displayed perseverance, dedication and determination to overcome a life-altering event.

Knight Commision Continues Call for Academic Performance to Factor into Bowl Game Eligibility
Under Commission Standards, nearly half of the teams would not be eligible.

MIAMI, Fla. – In 2001, the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics recommended that eligibility for postseason bowl games should be reserved for football teams that graduate at least 50 percent of their players.


Attorney's Recomendation for Protection Against Fraud

A corporate attorney sent the following to the employees in his company.


In-House Psychologist Helps Oklahoma Athletics
From The New York Times

Physical injuries aren't the only kind athletes face. Anxiety and emotional turmoil can impair them as well. Now, in perhaps the start of a new trend, the University of Oklahoma athletic department has hired a psychologist to give players support.


Seven Men and Two Women Will Rule on Pivitol Title IX Case
Latest Update as of December 1, 2004, from College Athletic Clips

From the highest court in our land comes word of arguments on whether Title IX should protect whistle-blowers who accuse educational institutions of sex discrimination even if they were not personally the victims of bias.


Member Profile: Joel Maturi, NACWAA Institute for Athletics Executives Faculty Member
Athletics Director Maturi Reflects on His Long Road to U
By Than Tibbetts from mndaily.com

Sue LaTendresse said she was having phone trouble Wednesday night, so she tried to call her office answering machine at 11 p.m. to see if her connection was bad. To her surprise, her boss, Athletics Director Joel Maturi, answered the phone. "What are you doing there?" she asked him. "I told your wife you'd be home tonight."

NACWAA Triology - Past, Present and Future in Word and Song
During the 2004 Fall Forum in New York City, NACWAA members presented an abbreviated version of NACWAA's history and projections for the future during the General Session. 


Hooked
By Besty Bair

Most of us will post an "out-of-office" auto-reply message on our e-mail later this week as we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. It's the modern-day equivalent to hanging out a "Gone Fishing" shingle.


Hatch Comes Up Short on Judgeship
BYU Counsel Thomas Griffith Can't Allay Democrat's Doubts
By Robert Gehrke, The Salt Lake Tribune

WASHINGTON - Sen. Orrin Hatch's last-ditch push to get BYU counsel and former Senate attorney Thomas Griffith confirmed to the federal bench failed Saturday, brought down by questions over a lapsed law license, his candor on a bar application and views on women's athletics.



Member Profile - M. Dianne Murphy
Murphy Calls for Patience from Fans, Alumni
By Anand Krishnamurthy - Columbia Spectator

After a prolonged search, Dianne Murphy replaced John Reeves as Columbia's athletic director. She began her tenure at Columbia by presenting her "Vision for Athletics" in her introductory speech. Last week, Spectator sat down with Murphy for a three-part interview, the third of which focused on Columbia's current athletic programs.



Title IX Complaint May Bring Change
Lessons to be learned in long SMS legal saga
published November 15, 2004 in News-Leader, Springfield, MO

Sports should be a source of pride for a school. Unfortunately, that's not the case with all of Southwest Missouri State University's sports teams and facilities. Specifically, the school's softball team plays on an outdated field that needs lights, warm-up areas, good irrigation and draining systems and a good scoreboard. Bears softball coach Holly Hesse said some high schools in the Ozarks have better softball facilities than SMS. That is a mark of shame.


Member Profile: Phyllis Bailey, Lifetime Achiever
Her Contribution to 40 Years of Magic

Forty minutes in a basketball game. Forty years of milestones. Forty years of memories. Forty certainly seems to be the magic number. The Ohio State women's basketball team celebrates its 40th season as a varsity sport this year. It is quite an accomplishment that will not go unnoticed.


Adolescent Children of Same-Sex Couples
Excerpt from November/December issue of "Child Development"

Adolescents who grow up in the care of same-sex couples are as well adjusted as their peers in households with opposite-sex parents, according to a study by Charlotte J. Patterson, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia; Stephen T. Russell, a professor of human development at the University of Arizona; and Jennifer Wainright, a doctoral student in psychology at the University of Virginia.



Breaking News, Breaking Bounderies
By Kerry White, WSF
Title IX. Annika Sorenstam. The WNBA. As women continue to make inroads in the world of sport, the landscape of women’s sports changes. With it, the issues facing the women who cover sports evolve, too. The progressing attitudes towards women in sports have allowed more women to move into sports journalism, but their new-found visibility has created a whole host of new issues for these female journalists to face.



Athletic Costs Weigh on Universities
By Shelby Oppel Wood, the Oregonian

BEAVERTON -- The Oregon State University athletic department has pulled out of the red after 12 years operating at a deficit, President Ed Ray reported to the State Board of Higher Education on Friday.



Delaware State University Board OKs Gender Equity Plan
by Kristian Pope, the News Journal, 11/12/04

DOVER -- The Delaware State University board of trustees unanimously approved a $300,000 commitment Thursday for women's athletics, the first portion of a proposed $5 million budget increase over five years to address gender equity deficiencies in the school's athletic department.



Member Profile: Sandy Barbour
By Ann Tatko, Contra Costa Times

Cal's New Wonder Woman - Barbour not afraid to dive in headfirst as AD. There is no warming up in the bullpen for Sandy Barbour. She is being sent straight to the mound in the bottom of the ninth in a critical save situation. New Cal athletic director Sandy Barbour doesn't come across as a woman under pressure. She inherited a $160 million renovation project for Memorial Stadium. She handles the daily barrage of questions about how she plans to keep football coach Jeff Tedford. She took over an athletic department with an annual operating deficit of $3 million to $5 million.


Equity Is Diversely Defined Description
Excerpt and commentary from a 615 word, 2-chart article in NCAA News, 10-25-04

From the latest round of data from the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) comes word of a noticeable leveling off of the catch-up gains that had been made for the past decade relative to male athletes.


Workplace Moves to Metrosexual Mode
by Carol Kleiman, Workplace Columnist, Chicago Tribune

Metrosexual...that's the buzz word, engendered by the popular TV show "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," for a straight urban man who has become increasingly interested in appearance, grooming, home furnishings, the arts and food…in other words, a man who pays more attention to his "softer" or "feminine" side.


Member Profile: Cheryl Levic, From Santa Clara to St. Louis
By Stu Durando of the Post-Dispatch


Cheryl Levick's temporary housing arrangement gives her the opportunity to mix with people who are at the heart of her work - even if it happens because of the occasional fire alarm. It comes with the territory when you live in St. Louis University's Marchetti Towers, where the new SLU athletics director is making do until she can sell her home in California.


NCAA Schools Weigh Dollars and Sense
Selling Naming Rights Raises Some Questions
By Don Walker

Judging from the howls of protest from Michigan and Ohio State alumni, the athletic directors at the two universities will think twice before they even consider selling the naming rights for the annual football game between the two schools.

A Night of Terror
The Privilege of Voting

The women were innocent and defenseless. And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of “obstructing sidewalk traffic.”


NCAA Seeks Right Way to Score APR Grades
By Mark Alesia, mark.alesia@indystar.com
October 29, 2004

When the NCAA passed a framework in April for measuring the academic performance of teams -- and then giving punishments or rewards -- association president Myles Brand hailed it as a "sea change."


Important Findings on Women in Coaching
By Kristi Sweeney and Dr. Nancy Lough

Kristi Sweeney from Xavier University and Dr. Nancy Lough (NACWAA/HERS 2004W graduate) from the University of New Mexico recently completed research on “The Relationship of Family Commitment and Career Salience Among Coaches of Elite NCAA Division I-A Women’s Programs.”


Fan Profanity
By Howard M. Wasserman, Florida International University College of Law
Many free-speech controversies, especially on college campuses, are grounded in concerns for civility, politeness and good taste. They also tend to follow the same path and end the same way. A government entity regulates speech in an effort to elevate discourse, limit the profane and protect public and personal sensitivities; courts strike down the regulations as violating the First Amendment freedom of speech; and we end up right where we started.

California Takes Lead in Sports Equity
From Women Sports Foundation Weekly Newsletter
By: Rebecca Vesely; WeNews correspondent, Thursday September 23, 2004
SAN FRANCISCO (WOMEN'S ENEWS)--If former bodybuilder and now Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger lends his signature, California could soon become the first state to require that girls enjoy equal opportunities in after-school athletics programs.


Discriminating Airwaves
By Kerry White, Thursday September 16, 2004
From the Women's Sports Fondation Weekly Newsletter

The Olympic torch has burned out, and our athletes are back in the United States. Women athletes everywhere smile ontentedly—American female Olympians brought home approximately half the medals. The marquee women’s teams were the real “Dream Teams,” winning gold in basketball, beach volleyball, soccer and softball. According to Orlando Sentinel Columnist Mike Bianchi, “the Olympics are the only sporting event in the world in which women get equal billing and exposure with men.” In the spirit of the Olympic Games, equality reigned supreme, and the women played on a level playing field and got the credit they deserved. But did they?

College Athletics Admin Hiring Not A Black And White Issue
From CollegeAthleticsClips.com

FROM THE GRAND CANYON THAT SEPARATES MERITOCRACY FROM POLITICAL CORRECTNESS come a variety of interpretations, speculations and explanations about the continued lack of minorities in most college athletics administration positions.

New Study Debunks Conventional Wisdom on Arms Race Spending
From CollegeAthleticsClips.com

FROM THE OBJECTIVITY AND CLARITY THAT ARE OFTEN—BUT NOT ALWAYS—INTEGRAL INGREDIENTS OF ACADEMIC RESEARCH comes a meticulous report finding that winning athletics programs do not result in a significant increase in donations or student applications.

Brigham Young U. Merges Men's and Women's Athletics Departments
By John Gravois

Brigham Young University announced on Wednesday that it was consolidating its men's and women's athletics departments into one, removing itself from the dwindling list of American colleges that maintain separate athletics programs for the two sexes.



Mellon Fund Tackles College Sports
New project focuses on academic requirements for athletes and the role of coaches.
By Welch Suggs

An excerpt from a September 3, 2004 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education. The controversies may have died down, but the final whistle hasn't blown yet on The Game of Life.


US Women Have Stolen the Show from Men in Athens
Performance by Women Teams Have Overshadowed Men at Olympics
By Jim Armstrong, AOL Exclusive

In case you haven't noticed, but I know you have, the Olympics has turned into one big chick flick. Girls rule, boys drool in Athens. Oh, sure, the U.S. men have accounted for their fair share of medals. Michael Phelps, for instance. He won eight, six gold, thus ensuring himself a lifetime pass to Letterman and Leno. But more and more, the Olympics are about the fairer sex. I'd say the gentler sex, too, but some of those U.S. weightlifting mamas might beat the snot out of me.


College Sports TV Signs Deal with Mountain West Conference, Breaking Into ESPN Turf
By Welch Suggs, Chronicle of Higher Education

The Mountain West Conference announced on Thursday that it would switch its television programming from ESPN to College Sports TV, a new network based in New York, beginning in 2006. The deal is CSTV's first successful foray into broadcasting the revenue-generating sports of football and men's basketball. The new deal will be worth $82-million to the league over seven years.


Cheerleading: Sport or Tradition
FROM THE CONFLUENCE OF GENDER-NEUTRAL COMPETITIVE ENDEAVORS AND NEO-FEMINIST OPPORTUNISM comes a swirling debate over the proprieties popularity and differences between scholastic (traditional rah-rah sideline style) and all-star (competitive, acrobatic, away-from-the-field style) cheering.


Athletic Fields Put Spring Back into Player's Steps
Recycled rubber tires protect grass, cushion soil.
By Keith Farner, Hearld-Leader Staff writer

Each fall, area athletic fields look bruised, battered and worn out.
Every day, it seems, they're subject to cleats and balls. Running, kicking, sliding from soccer and football practices and games.

Staley to Carry Flag for U.S.
From The New York Times, August, 13, 2004

ATHENS, Aug. 12 - Dawn Staley, the 34-year-old point guard for the United States women's basketball team, has been chosen to carry the flag and lead the country's delegation into the stadium on Friday for the Olympics' opening ceremony, where an uncertain atmosphere awaits.


Myles Brand Commentary - Olympic Sports: Non-revenue Sports Have Other Value
Indianapolis Star, August 13, 2004

"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph, but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered, but to have fought well."
-- Olympic Creed
 
There is clear irony for many of the American athletes who will be participating in the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.



College Athletes At Risk From Stalkers and Identity Thieves
From CollegeAthleticClips.com

FROM THE BRAVE NEW WORLD OF WEB-BASED WACKOS comes word of stalking, identity theft and weird phone calls to college athletes.
Some think the proliferation of information about college athletes— including birthdays, middle names, parents’ names, etc.—on websites and media guides / booklets has exacerbated the problem.


American Indians Catching Up with College Educations

FROM THE VANGUARD OF COLLEGE ADMISSIONS OFFICERS ENERGETICALLY EFFORTING TO OUTDO ONE ANOTHER WITH THEIR STUDENT DIVERSITY PORTFOLIOS comes a report on the cottage industry that has developed to help American Indian students improve their college acceptance and graduation rates.

On Balance
Technology: Efficient or Ineffectual
Lynn B. Hennighausen

I'd give myself a B- for keeping up with technology. I use e-mail many times each day, I check for phone messages if I'm out of my office, I navigate the web effectively. There's no doubt that the past 10 or 15 years of emerging technologies makes my work easier; it makes my job possible, in fact. A friend of mine, Marc, recently took a 10-day vacation in Colorado with his family. Feelings of job insecurity, overwork, and travel were nearly putting him over the proverbial edge. In the mountains, Marc received a great gift: no phone signal and no Internet access. His wife, outwardly consoling Marc as he was clearly distressed, cheered quietly to herself.



To Play Sports, Many U.S. Students Must Pay
BY Erik Brady and Ray Giler, USA TODAY

FAIRFIELD, Ohio ˜ When the school district in this Cincinnati suburb announced last March it was eliminating extracurricular activities for the coming school year, many students cried ˜ football players and band members alike.



Unshaken Hands on the Digital Street
By: Michael Bugeja
Excerpt from an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education

Recently I visited Harvard University and got lost at a busy crossroad near Harvard Yard, one of academe's most famous greens. It was 9 a.m., and the street was packed with book-toting students, casually dressed academics, and administrative types in business suits. I was wearing such a suit with a red lapel pin reading "Iowa State University," clearly labeling me a stranger.



Many Programs Seek to Move Up in Classification
July 14, 2004, CollegeAthleticClips.com

FROM THE BIGGER IS BETTER‚ MINDSET comes one college program after another expressing a desire to move up in the world. Such decisions affect a wide group of interested constituencies˜alumni, boosters, fans, politicians, trustees, regents, faculty˜most of whom have traditionally been favorable for their program to move up in the world. After all, the appeal of the perceived prestige and glory of a higher classification can be a significant lure.




Eco Prof Rips College Costs
July 20, 2004, CollegeAthleticClips.com

FROM ACADEME comes a book on why the cost of college has seen a steady rise. Ohio University Economics professor Richard Vedder has written a new book, "Going Broke by Degree: Why College Costs Too Much," in which he methodically spins a free-market explanation for why the price of a diploma has been rising faster than the Consumer Price Index for the past two decades.



One NCAA Championship is Not Enough for Some Schools
July 4, 2004, From CollegeAthleticsClips.com
 
FROM THE SETTLED DUST OF THE RECENTLY COMPLETED NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS come accolades for a special class of athletic program: "double gender champions." These are schools that won both the men's and women's NCAA championship in the same year.



Minorities Hope Race Not Future Question
By Brian Murphy, Telegraph Staff Writer
 
Having been asked every conceivable question about his race and its impact on his new job as director of athletics at Georgia, Damon Evans is hopeful.
 
Hopeful that in the future, the not-too-distant future, another black will be tabbed to lead an athletic program or a football program, and he won't be forced to answer the same questions.



UNC Designs Program to Develop Leadership
By ROBBI PICKERAL, Staff Writer

CHAPEL HILL -- North Carolina's athletics program is known nationally for its success and its tradition. Soon, athletics director Dick Baddour hopes it will be known for something else: leadership.
 
This fall, the school will formally unveil the Carolina Leadership Academy, a first-in-the-nation program that will be mandatory for all scholarship and walk-on first-year athletes, all coaches, assistant coaches and athletics department staff. A select group of upperclassmen began taking the classes this summer.



NCAA Sets to Restrict Recruiting Excesses
From CollegeAthleticsClips.com

FROM THE YAWING GAP THAT CHARACTERIZES BIG-TIME COLLEGE RECRUITING come hints of impending rules and regs from the NCAA task force charged with instilling sanity and equity into a process that has often gone amok.

ESPN Deals Prompt Inquiry
ACC officials will be questioned as the Department of Justice studies ESPN's contracts with college conferences
By ROBBI PICKERAL, Staff Writer, Raleigh News Observer

The Department of Justice wants to interview Atlantic Coast Conference officials as part of an inquiry into whether ESPN's football and basketball contracts with college leagues violate antitrust laws.

Women Need to Negotiate
By Marshall Loeb and Kelli B. Grant, CBS.MarketWatch.com
 
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Women who don't vigorously negotiate their first salaries will continue to pay for many years to come.

In "Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide," economist Linda Babcock and writer Sara Laschever found that men were more likely to negotiate their first salaries upward, earning about 7.4 percent more than initially offered, an average sum of $4,000. In Babcock's study of 117 Carnegie Mellon master's graduates, only 7 percent of women had negotiated the salaries for their first jobs, compared with 57 percent of men.

Pioneers Complete Most Successful Athletic Season
June 21, Click here for original article.


The University of Denver athletics program set a school record with its 58th-place finish in the 2004 edition of the United States Sports Academy (USSA) Directors' Cup presented by the nation's athletics directors to recognize the best collegiate programs in the country. Denver finished in the top 20 percent of the nation's approximately 327 NCAA Division I athletics programs, and was the top Sun Belt Conference School. The Pioneers were second among Colorado Front Range Schools and second among NCAA Division I-AAA (non-football) schools.

Women Win Class-Action Status in Suit Against Wal-Mart
June 23, 2004, Click here for original article.

A federal judge in San Francisco yesterday granted class-action status to a lawsuit against Wal-Mart filed by six current and former Wal-Mart employees who accuse the retail giant of systemic sex discrimination. The lawsuit now potentially covers some 1.6 million current and former female Wal-Mart employees, going as far back as late 1998.

Playing In Two "Equal" Sandboxes
From CollegeAthleticsClips.com
 
FROM THE EVERGOING EFFORTS TO TRACK TITLE IX COMPLIANCE comes the latest report card from the US Department of Education.

The view from 30,000 feet reveals a progress in many areas, but yawning gaps in others. The D of E snapshot depicts a decidedly mixed bag, with Division I seemingly coming closest to the Title IX definition of gender equity. The data comes from information supplied by 1874 institutions for the 2002-03 school year; 981 NCAA schools, 616 two-year colleges and 277 NAIA schools. A total of 481,930 (half a million) student-athletes were fielded by the schools.


Progress Report On Vanderbilt's Athletics Re-Org
From CollegeAthleticsClips.com

FROM NASHVILLE‚S INSTITUTION OF GENTEEL ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE comes an eight month progress report on the abolition of Vanderbilt's athletic department (as we know it).

It was in September 2003 that Chancellor Gordon Gee announced a sweeping re-org that shifted Vandy‚s athletics department toward significantly more integration with "everyday campus affairs." No longer would the athletics department be an entity unto itself, with separate (but not particularly equal) housing, academics and extracurricular activities.


Small Colleges Spent 41% of Sports Budgets on Women's Teams
From The Chronicle of Higher Education - June 18, 2004
By WELCH SUGGS

The NCAA's Division III is a mixed bag of small colleges, some big state institutions, and private research universities. The division, which is the only one in the NCAA that prohibits athletics scholarships altogether, requires members to field at least 8 teams, while Division II colleges must have 10 and Division I institutions 16.

Small Colleges Lag on Sports Opportunities for Women
From The Chronicle of Higher Education - June 18, 2004
By WELCH SUGGS
Major programs take the critical heat but actually do better, new data show

Colleges with major sports programs, which have faced the most complaints about their treatment of women in intercollegiate athletics, have far more female athletes, proportionately, than do smaller institutions, according to a Chronicle analysis of data provided to the federal government.

Regional Colleges Lag on Women's Participation

From The Chronicle of Higher Education - June 18, 2004
By WELCH SUGGS

In the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Division II occupies a middle ground. Its members do not want to have athletics programs on the scale of Division I, but they want to offer scholarships and play at a higher level than most Division III institutions do.

Some Men's Teams Are in Peril in Division I-A
From The Chronicle of Higher Education - June 18, 2004
By WELCH SUGGS

Having a big-time college football team is getting more expensive -- and not just in dollars spent.

For the second year in a row, the number of male athletes declined precipitously at the 54 colleges that field Division I-A football teams but that are excluded from the lucrative Bowl Championship Series. And, for the first time, the number of female athletes at those institutions was down slightly, too.


New AD Discusses Pack’s Present, Future
Chad Hartley, RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
6/5/2004

Cary Groth shattered the mold of what used to be in the athletic director’s office at the University of Nevada.

Since the 1920s, only four men held the AD post just off Virginia Street. Each one essentially trained his successor, starting with Doc Martie to Jake Lawlor to Dick Trachok to Chris Ault.

U. Nevada: $1 Ticket Surcharge For Academics?
From CollegeAthleticsClips.com

FROM THE WINDY CITY—AND ON THE 50th ANNIVERSARY OF BROWN VS. BOARD OF EDUCATION—comes the report of a successful Title IX seminar.
 
NCAA President Myles Brand framed the lofty parameters of the seminar by stating, "I think Title IX is frankly the most important higher education act in the second half of the 20th century."


Report From Title IX Seminar: Progress Made, More To Come
FROM A CREATIVE UNIVERSITY REGENT comes a provocative proposal to benefit academics funding at the University of Nevada.

University Regent Howard Rosenberg has floated the idea of a $1 surcharge on all athletic ticket sales, with the proceeds to be used for academic needs.

Barnett's Record Irrelevant
By Terry Frei, Denver Post Sports Writer

From now on, as long as Gary Barnett gives Coloradans a competitive football program with perhaps the highest academic and behavioral standards in the Big 12 Conference, he should be treated as if he has professorial tenure.


Commission Chief Calls For End of BCS System
By Mark Alesia
May 25, 2004

WASHINGTON -- The head of the Knight Commission on Monday called for an end to conference commissioners running postseason football through the Bowl Championship Series.



On Balance: When Family and Work Collide: 10 Interruption Minimizers
By Lynn Hennighausen, MS

The phone rang just as five-year-old Harrison was vomiting for the fourth time that morning. Tammy knew that “Extra,” the news magazine, was calling any minute to discuss the jewelry piece she was creating for one of their celebrities. With a deep breath, she answered the phone and, of course, it was them. Tammy comforted Harrison as best she could while trying to carry on (very exciting and important) business. Ultimate work/life collision: taking an important phone call because you must, while dealing with life—in your face.



First-Ever D2 Championship Festival A Big Success
From CollegeAthleticsClips.com

FROM THE SUNSHINE STATE come reports of a hugely successful first-ever Division II National Championships Festival.
 
Staged at various venues in the Orlando area, the ambitious 5-day event (May 12-16) involved 655 student-athletes from 70 teams and 18 conferences competing in six sports: men’s and women’s golf, women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s tennis, and women’s softball.


Cook: Equity Eludes Women in Coaching
Sunday, May 23, 2004
By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

t just seemed right to call Pat Summitt last week after the Nashville Rhythm of the American Basketball Association made Ashley McElhiney the first woman coach of a men's professional team. With 852 wins and six national championships in 30 years at the University of Tennessee, Summitt is the John Wooden of women coaches, the best there ever was


Brand Defends Title IX
Associated Press

NDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Calling athletics "the great equalizer," NCAA President Myles Brand on Thursday defended federal requirements for gender equity in college sports. He said Title IX has not been responsible for cuts in men's sports, although some colleges have used that as an excuse to offset expenses incurred by adding women's programs.

A study of women at Duke has sparked a debate about the pressures of pursuing 'perfection'
By Sara Lipka, Chronicle of Higher Education(excerpt)
Durham, N.C.

Effortless perfection. It's a beautiful phrase, evocative of an ideal to which anyone would want to aspire. Here at Duke University, however, it is the focus of a yearlong debate over how women see themselves.



Lawmakers Praise NCAA Recruiting Reforms but Complain About Commercialism in College Sports
By Welch Suggs, Chronicle of Higher Education
Washington

Members of Congress were alternately critical and cordial toward representatives of college sports during a hearing here on Tuesday. They generally approved of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's plans to reform recruiting and to punish teams whose players fall behind academically, but they voiced skepticism about the commercialism of college sports as a whole.


San Francisco State U. Drops 5 Sports and Curtails 7 Others to Ease Budget Deficit
By Jennifer Jacobson, Chronicle of Higher Education

San Francisco State University is eliminating 5 sports and severely curtailing 7 of its remaining 11 teams as part of efforts to cut $22-million from its budget. The institution, which competes in Division II of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, will also slash its overall athletics budget in half, to about $1.4-million a year from nearly $3-million.

Help Mom Break that Glass Ceiling
By Holly Sklar

Many women have celebrated Mother's Day in the White House, but none of them was president. We've had two John Adamses and two George Bushes as president, but no Abigail or Barbara, Victoria, Margaret, Shirley or Elizabeth.


Two Universities Reinstate Men's Sports They Cut to Comply With Title IX
By Welch Suggs

Two universities that have dropped men's sports in recent years to comply with a federal gender-equity law are bringing them back. Bucknell University's wrestling team will resume competition as a varsity sport after being demoted to the club level in 2001, and Tulane University is reviving its men's outdoor track and field team after dropping it in 2002.


NCAA Study Finds 35 Percent of Male Athletes Gamble
Ten Percent of Female Athletes Bet on Sports, Report Says

CHICAGO (May 12) -- An NCAA gambling study showed 35 percent of male athletes and 10 percent of female athletes have bet on college sports in the last year, and Division III athletes are the most likely to gamble.



Wrestlers Lose:  Court Upholds Long-Standing Title IX Athletics Policies, as Urged
By National Women's Law Center

May 14, 2004 (Washington, DC) 
In a resounding repudiation of Title IX opponents’ arguments that the law requires “quotas” for female athletes and has resulted in discrimination against men, the D.C. Circuit Court affirmed a district court ruling that dismissed the lawsuit, National Wrestling Coaches Association v. United States Department of Education.



"Pharmaceutical U"
A glance at the May issue of "Boston Magazine": Prescription-drug abuse by students

Forget NoDoz. Desperate college students are misusing prescription drugs such as Adderall and Ritalin, which are stimulants designed to treat attention-deficit disorder, to enhance their concentration during all-night study sessions, writes Meredith Nadler, a senior at Boston College who works as an intern at the magazine.



Rice U. Considers Major Changes in Athletics as Report Identifies Host of Problems
By Welch Suggs
   
Rice University is losing $10-million a year on its sports teams, and athletes are segregated academically and socially from other students, according to an outside report submitted to the university's Board of Trustees this month. The report also says that any institution trying to mix big-time sports and elite academics faces the same problems, and that Rice athletes do much better in the classroom than those at most other Division I institutions.



CSTV'S Championship Mayhem Features Six Live NCAA Championships
21 Championships overall in May
CSTV To Present The Most Championships On One Network In One Month

NEW YORK, April 26, 2004 - CSTV: College Sports Television (www.collegesports.com), the fastest-growing independent cable network, will present six live NCAA national championships and a total of 21 championships overall within its month-long Championship Mayhem programming initiative launching May 1, the most championships televised on one network in one month.  College Sports TV's Championship Mayhem will feature live Official NCAA Selection Shows for Division I, II and III women's lacrosse and Division II and III men's lacrosse, as well.


Last Hurrah For Unchecked Recruiting Expenditures?
April 26, 2004, From CollegeAthleticsClips.com

FROM STATE PUBLIC RECORDS AND POSTSCRIPT INTERVIEWS come accounts of lavishness, sumptuousness and coordinated hospitality. The University of Oregon pulled out all the stops during a football recruiting extravaganza to win over the stomachs, hearts and minds of blue chip football recruits. The total cost to transport and feed feed feed twenty five burly high school recruits? $140,875. And that was for just one weekend in January.


University of Washington Report Describes Doped-Up Players and Bullying Coach on Softball Team
By Peter Monaghan, Seattle
   
University of Washington investigators announced on Tuesday that they had confirmed allegations of improper drug dispensing that were leveled in October against a former volunteer physician for the women's softball team.
 
The National Collegiate Athletic Association had already been investigating the university for failing to maintain adequate oversight of the athletics program, but it has not yet said whether it is taking into consideration the new findings.


N.C.A.A. Set to Put Teeth in Academic Guidelines
By Bill Pennington, NY Times, April 29, 2004

The history of academic reform in college athletics is more than a century old, with some tracing it to 1869, the year of the first college football game. So when a new reform package is labeled as historic by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, people take notice, some with pride and some with disdain.


NCAA to Allow Aid for Additional Expenses With Athletics Scholarships
By Welch Suggs, From The Chronicle of Higher Education

Athletes who earn scholarships and awards apart from their athletics grants-in-aid can keep them as long as their total financial aid is no more than their college's total cost of attendance, according to a rule approved Tuesday by a top governing board of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.


Court Rules Full Disclosure For Coaches’ Pay Packages
From CollegeAthleticClips.com