Presidential Coalition for Athletics Reform

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August 29, 2003

I applaud President Cowan's battle against the BCS. Might I offer a suggestion to help his cause. He should state that Tulane and other non-BCS schools just want the same opportunity to build their program that schools like current powerhouse Florida State received.

In 1979, Florida State was in its 4th year with Bobby Bowden as coach. They were the equivalent of a top notch non-BCS school today. In that season, they went 11-0. They played 3 schools with a winning record, the best being 8-4 South Carolina. Their opponents had a combined winning percentage of less than .400. Florida State received an invitation to the Orange Bowl. With that, they gotboth the money and the national recognition it takes to build a program.

In 1998, Tualne and in 1999, Marshall, both went undefeated with similar schedules. They received no major bowl bids, thus no share of the money or recognitoin. Florida State was an independent school at the time, thus had no "weak" conference to hold them back and flexibility to schedule whomever they chose. Without the large bowl payouts toshare with their conferences, the Tulanes and Marshalls of the world can not improve themselves nor their conference opponents.

The philosophy today is they have to pay their dues and earn a major bowl bid. But, without getting a major bowl bid, non-BCS schools can never catch up. And, it's not how schools like FSU did it.

I hope President Cowan is successful in changing college football such that every school is given equal opportunity to compete and then we can someday have a true champion in college football.

August 16, 2003

Dear Members of the Presidential Coalition for Athletics Reform Executive Committee:

We are writing on behalf of the Steering Committee of the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics (COIA), a network of faculty senate leaders working for athletics reform. Our group has become aware of the activities of the Presidential Coalition; we believe it would be helpful to let you know of our objectives and activities, and to look for common ground on which faculty and presidential groups can provide mutual support.

Our coalition, which links faculty governance leaders from over fifty schools, has emphasized the importance of faculty, presidents, trustees, and others in higher education working together to address the problems we face in intercollegiate athletics. For example, last April, we met with leaders of the NCAA and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, and joined in a formal alliance of the three groups on a range of issues where we found substantial agreement. President Gillis of Rice University, who has been active in your initiative, was a participant at that conference. The alliance statement, as well as our proposed Coalition outline for athletics reform and related documents, are available on our website:

http://www.indiana.edu/~bfc/COIA/COIA.html

We have read the news conference text posted on your group's website, and understand that the immediate concern of your coalition involves the BCS structure. We do not feel well enough informed about the specifics of the current arrangements to have a position on that important issue, but we believe that the points you have raised in the BCS context resonate with the overarching challenges that face college sports, and we welcome your initiative for that reason.

The COIA was originally formed last Fall, to articulate faculty support for efforts begun by an alliance of presidents at BCS conference schools that led to recent NCAA reforms. This background led us to begin by limiting our coalition contacts to faculty leaders at BCS schools. However, this June we sent messages to faculty leaders at all other Division I-A schools, inviting them to join our group and broaden our Coalition perspective. We hope that presidents and faculty leaders alike will welcome a chance to address complex issues cooperatively, on a national level.

While we don't underestimate the obstacles facing meaningful athletics reform, we believe that recent presidential alliances, changes at the NCAA, and the rising interest among national faculty and trustee groups are changing the contexts of these issues, and creating possibilities for effective progress that have not existed before. By opening communication, we hope to ensure that in the coming months, the Presidential Coalition and our faculty group do not overlook opportunities to act together in areas of shared objectives.

August 15, 2003

This is a website that features a preseason Top 25 ranking of an actual AP voter from Raleigh, North Carolina. His name is Adam Gold and he is a sports radio personality for 850AM The Buzz. He has a few rules that explains how he arrived at his Top 25. Rule #2 reads as follows... (Don't forget that Adam is an actual voter for the AP)

Rule 2: You must be in a BCS conference (or Notre Dame) to be considered for my pre-season poll. With all due apologies to TCU, and Toledo, or Boise State, if you're in a conference that can't bear the fruit of the system despite helping grow the tree you can't be in the summer version of the Top 25. I have no problem putting you in once you prove it (refer to Rule 1).

http://www.850thebuzz.com/oldcolumn/gold72303.html

I thought Mr. Cowan could use Mr. Gold's Top 25 as evidence of the negative effects the BCS cartel is having on the press's (and voters) view on non-BCS teams.