Ed. Note: This article is presented as a part of our Voices of the Industry series which is published each week. These articles are written by senior athletic department personnel and intended to shine a light on issues throughout the college athletics industry. If you are interested in writing for this series, let us know and we will be happy to help your voice be heard.
By Dr. Richard Sander
Over the last few years, as the landscape has dramatically changed, college athletics has made a strong push to include the student athlete in the decision making process. At ETSU we developed a new position titled Associate Athletic Director for Student Athlete Experience. Without question we want our student athletes to not only enjoy their careers at ETSU but to maximize the benefit from their time spent at the University. We have instituted weekly sessions with 12-15 athletes selected randomly to discuss their lives and talk about their future and the values necessary to be a success. At ETSU we think a great experience means preparing them for victory in their lives after college. So for me, “having a great experience” means being given the opportunity to succeed in the athletic arena, in the classroom and in their social life while at the same time learning important life lessons that will serve them well after they finish their college years.
I worry, are we giving our athletes a real world experience or are we creating individuals who are getting a false sense of reality? Have we blurred the line that separates giving student athletes a voice in college athletics with providing them an unrealistic picture of the real world? Are we are setting them up for a rude awakening when they do not have coaches and administrators taking care of all their needs and wants? In their first job they better be able to figure things out for themselves realizing that no one will be worried about providing them a great work experience. In every job I have ever had, the leadership made decisions after input from many different constituencies. Upon making that decision, the individuals within the organization, irrespective of their own personal opinion, would be responsible to implement that decision and make it successful. Are we in college athletics creating a model where student athletes are getting a false sense of how the real world works? If you do not like the answer you get, then just question the decision and ultimately get your way. I hope we are not creating a mentality where you do not have to work through difficult situations, just complain and things will change.
Last year at the NCAA Convention when the four-year scholarship was instituted to protect non-productive student athletes, many members of the national Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) were opposed because they felt that every member of their team needed to be held accountable for their productivity. They did not want teammates who were affecting their own team’s success to be given a free pass if they were not investing reasonable effort to help the team. Those SAAC student athletes understood that opportunity is accompanied with accountability. Many of those national SAAC student athletes wanted to send the message that empowerment without accountability is not acceptable. Yet we (the NCAA) passed the legislation. By making these decisions, are we listening to the wrong constituencies and wrong element of the student athlete movement?
While we definitely need to listen to our student athletes, the individuals charged with leading the NCAA have a responsibility of synthesizing data from all of its constituencies and make judgments based on creating a model that not only builds an environment that provides a good experience for our student athletes but also gives them a real world perspective and prepares them to fit into a world where they may or may not have much say in the direction of an organization. I always worry that the leadership in college athletics is making decisions based on the public relations of an issue and how the response plays in the media. We need to do what is right for the student athlete and that is not being held hostage because of fear of how the talking heads or print experts will respond to good, well thought out decisions that are in the best interest of the total group of student athletes, not just the small portion of student athletes with an agenda.
About Dr. Richard Sander
Dr. Richard Sander, led Virginia Commonwealth’s athletic program for 20 years, and was introduced as ETSU’s Director of Intercollegiate Athletics in 2013. Prior to his time at VCU, Sander served as Assistant Athletic Director and was responsible for athletic fundraising at Memphis State University (now The University of Memphis). Sander earned a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga in 1968. He received a M.S. in Physical Education from Xavier University in 1974, and a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Cincinnati in 1980.
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