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Even though the 2012 NAICU Annual Meeting is history, you can continue to benefit and learn from the many presentations and speeches that were offered, and are now available on line.

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Some Penn State alumni irked by school's handling of scandal, Paterno

McClatchy Newspapers

January 7, 2012

Alumni and other Nittany Lions fans have been dissecting trustees' decision to terminate Joe Paterno and Graham Spanier since the move was announced Nov. 9. Now, some alumni are aiming their frustration with the university's handling of the Jerry Sandusky scandal squarely at the board of trustees. One group has formed with a goal of voting three new members into the alumni seats that are open this year. Others want want more - an overhaul of the structure of a board they say is too large and squelches dissent.

Penn State and the Blame Game

Huffington Post - Analysis

January 7, 2012

It has now been two months since scandal rolled into Happy Valley, and the nation as a whole remains fixated on the question of responsibility. In particular, does Penn State bear responsibility for any of the alleged acts of abuse and, if so, on what grounds? If the institution does bear responsibility, ought we to transmit that responsibility to members of the Penn State community? To which members? And what measures should Penn State undertake in response? We address each of these questions in turn.

When Football Is an Economic Strategy

Wall Street Journal

January 6, 2012

Monday's matchup between No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama in college football's national-championship game has sparked a mild debate over whether these two teams are the best possible pairing. LSU and Alabama are definitely the nation's top programs in another regard - how much football matters to a school's bottom line. Based on information from NCAA financial-disclosure forms from 45 major-conference schools, LSU and Alabama also rank No. 1 and No. 2 in the nation in the percentage of total campus revenue that's derived from football.

Let’s Start Paying College Athletes

New York Times Magazine

January 1, 2012

This glaring, and increasingly untenable, discrepancy between what football and basketball players get and what everyone else in their food chain reaps has bred a deep cynicism among the athletes themselves. Players aren't stupid. During the season, they can end up putting in 50-hour weeks at their sports, and they learn early on not to take any course that might require real effort or interfere with the primary reason they are on campus: to play football or basketball. The N.C.A.A. can piously define them as students first, but the players know better.

Ugliness of today's college football sad

Ventura County, Calif., Star - Opinion Piece

January 1, 2012

It seems to me the problems in college football today all stem from the tension between the worlds of academics and football. The university or college president today has to be confused by the demands that both academics and athletics be successful. He or she must arrange to have high ratings in both domains. And to do so the president must make decisions about football that are not consistent with the academic demands.

The College Sports Cartel

New York Times - Column

December 31, 2011

In Indianapolis a few weeks from now, a home-grown cartel will hold its annual meeting, where it, too, will be working to collude and fix prices. This cartel is the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Rarely, however, will the cartel nature of the N.C.A.A. be so nakedly on display as at this year's convention. In The Times Magazine this weekend, I lay out a proposal to pay the players in the two big revenue sports, college football and men's basketball, something the N.C.A.A. won't countenance. In the course of my reporting, I gained a new appreciation for the cartel characteristics of sports leagues.

Would Colleges Be Better Off Without Football?

The Atlantic

December 30, 2011

Is college football really good for college? Taylor Branch delivered a tour de force take for The Atlantic this year on the injustices suffered by big time collegiate athletes. But what about the rest of the university? What does football culture do for the students who don't play every Saturday? What does football do for schools' finances? Their academics? Their reputations? These are questions economists have been plumbing for years. Here's a taste of what they have to say.

Paterno Put His Penn State Money Above Disclosure of Child Abuse

Bloomberg News

December 27, 2011

The dependence by U.S. universities on sports to help fund everything from money-losing gymnastics teams to general scholarships has created a system where the needs of coaches and their programs supersede the educational values of their institutions, said Robin Harris, executive director of the Ivy League, whose schools don't give athletic scholarships. It also creates an environment where a coach like Paterno had the power to tell the university's president that he wouldn't help raise another penny if the school's top disciplinarian wasn't fired for being too strict with his players.

Before Recruiting in the Ivy League, Some Math

New York Times

December 25, 2011

There is one thing the Ivy League does that truly sets it apart from its sporting brethren nationwide: it tracks and scrutinizes the finite, detailed academic credentials of every recruited athlete welcomed through the doors of the eight member institutions. And it has done so for more than 25 years - creating a dossier of grades and test scores for more than 40,000 student-athletes.

Financial Aid Changes Game as Ivy Sports Teams Flourish

New York Times

December 23, 2011

In the last two years, the Ivy League has produced 108 first-team all-Americans and won numerous individual national championships. Nineteen of its athletes competed at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, and 10 won medals. This renaissance in a league known as the Ancient Eight can be traced to something that has nothing to do with sports: new policies that have substantially enhanced financial aid for all admitted students, making it easier to recruit elite athletes, coaches and athletic administrators said.

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