Kent State Victories, Fundraising, and Title IX

I read an article yesterday on the success of Kent State University sports, in terms of both results and fundraising.  The article described the success as follows:

Golden Flashes baseball advanced to the College World Series, [men's] golf finished tied for fifth in the nation, wrestling was ranked at No. 13 in the nation, men’s basketball topped 20 wins for the 13th time in the last 14 seasons, and the football team is going to a bowl game for the first time in 40 years.

Those teams not only carried the Kent State brand into the national spotlight, but they helped athletic director Joel Nielsen generate over $3.5-million in fundraising for Kent football and baseball alone, most of it over the past 12 months. Fundraising for the other programs remains high as well.

As I read this piece, I wondered about women’s sports as all the above sports involve male athletes. The article did mention both the men’s and women’s golf teams flying around the country to compete, and it did note the renovation of the men’s and women’s basketball offices.  However, the focus of the piece was on football, wrestling, and baseball, sports with no female counterparts that would naturally share the wealth.  Thus, I wonder how the donations the successful men’s sports garner are being distributed so as to fulfill the demands of Title IX.   Nielsen talks of using fundraising to enhance the football program:

“When we arrived, we talked a lot about what it would take to have football success,” Nielsen said. “One of the things we looked at was that we were poorly resourced in football, primarily with our people. President (Lester) Lefton gave us the green light to go out there and talk to football donors, talk to people who wanted to see football be successful. We had about 20 people step up that first year, some significantly. That allowed us to pay some competitive salaries.

I wonder how the school has gone about maintaining equity with women’s sports.  I jokingly wonder if the solution might be found in today’s piece on April Goss a walk-on kicker for the football team.  If she is going to the bowl game and dresses with the rest of the team, that could make it so the football team is no longer a men’s sport but a co-ed sport. But I do not think that really works for Title IX.

 

 

The Rooney Rule: White Privilege Means Not Being a Token Interview

With the firing of many NFL coaches and general managers on Monday, there are many openings to be filled.   All the articles I have read about these openings have mentioned the Rooney Rule, the NFL policy that requires that at least one candidate of color be interviewed for an opening.  These mentions are usually near the end of articles after the article reviews all of the candidates, most if not all of whom are white.  In particular, the Cleveland Browns my beloved, bedraggled hometown team has a clear list of coaches in whom they are interested.  There pictures were plastered all over the front of the sports section.  None of these fine football minds happen to be people of color, so the Browns at some point will have to bring in a candidate of color to fulfill the Rooney Rule.  As I have noted before, the rule is positive in that it forces those in positions of power to broaden their pool and reach beyond the so called old boys network.  However, I do wonder how it works for the actual candidates who are brought in to fulfill the Rooney Rule.

I am reminded of conversations with educators of color who are mid level administrators and find themselves often called by search consultants to be candidates for division head or headmaster positions.  They have to suss out whether they are being called to make the pool diverse or if they are being called because they have a legitimate shot at the job.  I heard many talk of disappointment when they realized they were not a serious candidate, but had thought they were and had invested time and emotional energy in the search process.

That is one part of white privilege I and the white potential hires in the NFL benefit from.  We know that if we are invited to interview for a job, we are not being invited just because a person of our race is needed to diversify the pool.

Chip Kelly, supposedly the top candidate to coach the Browns (from U. Oregon website)

College Football Ambitions: Title IX?

Many universities are moving their football teams up to the highest level of NCAA competition.  A New York Times article by Bill Pennington looks at the motivations and the pitfalls.  Generally speaking there is not much hope of a monetary reward as most programs lose money, but there is a hope of a higher profile in the state, the region, and nationally.  For example Old Dominion University’s Division I football team is intended to elevate the school to the same level (football-wise) as Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia in the state, and SUNY Buffalo has had out of state applications increase since becoming a Division I program.

The article focuses on the University of Massachusetts that moved up this last year, a move that involved playing games far from campus at Gillette Stadium, games that attracted few fans.  The idea may be that this move elevates UMass to the same level as already Division I UConn in New England.

A Nearly Empty Gillette Stadium hosts a UMass game (Erik Jacob, New York Times)

I wonder about the Title IX implications of all this investment, something the Times article does not mention.  The costs of the equipment, coaches, and scholarships involved are immense, and if they are all going to a men’s sport, does that not raise equality issues?  For UMass if they are getting a big stadium for the men’s sport and busing fans there, should not funds be available for a sweet softball venue on campus or the rental of Fenway Park and the provision of buses?  On a more realistic level, if a football team has a coach for every position (running back, quarterback, linebacker, etc.) as well as coordinators and quality control staff, then should not the field hockey team have a similar roster of position specific coaches?

I know that football is unique in that it is the sport an institution can use to show that it is a big time school, and no women’s sport has that impact.  So, there cannot be a way to get equal attention and hype, but at least the move up can be a chance to leverage funding.

100 Point Angst: Gender Implications

I just read an article about the three college students who at some time have scored 100 points or more in college basketball game.  The first two talked about the angst the accomplishment engendered and worries about selfishness.  The third, a recent addition, was overwhelmed with media attention but thought his critics were wrong.

What interested me in the article was the brief mention of two female athletes who scored 100 or more points in a high school game (no woman has done so in college).  There was no mention of angst in their cases, although in one case the opposing team decided to forfeit at halftime.

This brief mention made me wonder as to why no women had scored 100 points in a college game.  All of my suppositions tended to rely on stereotypes: women are nicer, women are less likely to pursue a single mined individual goal while embarrassing the other team and marginalizing their teammates, women run slower so the fast break quick scoring approach would not work.  None of these seem valid.

LIsa Leslie in high school

So I am still wondering why a publicity seeking women’s program does not do what one high school did when they had Lisa Leslie playing for them as described in this New York Times clip:

Leslie might have scored 200 in her big game, but the opposing school quit at halftime. They walked off the court because they thought her 100 points were being orchestrated, and they were right.

Leslie’s coach at Morningside High, Frank Scott…used to pick one game each year to let his senior captain go for the school scoring record. The idea is to let the captain take every shot, and that is how Leslie scored 49 in the first quarter and 52 in the second quarter.

They simply stationed Leslie at midcourt and pressed all game.

Certainly there are sportwomanship questions involved, but I would imagine that somewhere a coach and player would have waved those aside by now.

Unneeded Throwback: What were the Braves thinking?

Major League Baseball has come up with batting practice hats, new designs or in some cases throwback designs.  I think the Atlanta Braves choice to go back in time to the screaming Indian logo was particularly inept.  Of course living in Cleveland, home of Chief Wahoo, I am the pot calling the kettle in this case.

See this post by  C. Trent Rosecrans for details.

Race, Jeremy Lin, and Additional Attention

Jeff Lang’s opinion piece “Why Jeremy Lin’s Race Matters” for CNN’s In America Blog is definitely worth reading.  Lang argues that Lin deserves the attention that he gets even if he is not statistically superior to other NBA players of other races.  He points out that the attention cuts both ways in terms of celebrating Lin, certainly, but also in terms of critiques that Lin alone experiences.  I am not sure I agree with Lang’s point that someone with Lin’s skill set who was not Asian would have gotten more opportunities to play high level college ball and would have had a greater chance to be drafted.  However,  I agree with Lang (and Lin) in that Lin gets more attention and from other players as they want to make sure they are not showed up player they would, according to crude racial calculations, be expected to beat.  To quote Lin:

 “Everyone looks me and says, ‘I’m not going to let that Asian kid embarrass me. I’m going to go at him.’ That’s how it’s been my whole life. … I’m not saying I get everyone’s best shot, but I would say people don’t want to be embarrassed by me because of my skin color.”

Lang goes on to expand on the idea saying:

“…the schoolyard dynamics of sports means that players facing opponents of nontraditional backgrounds go harder and rougher, put them on the ground if necessary, to prevent being labeled as “the guy” — the guy who got dunked on by an Asian baller, who got KO’d by a white boxer, who lost a scratch match to a black golfer.”

For some reason given the time of year, I wonder if the same thoughts play out on the schoolyard that is American politics.  No matter the party, are there times when a person loses and their partisans say, “I can’t believe you lost to a….”?

 

Annoying Nationalism in NCAA Cross Country Coverage

Here is an excerpts from  the blurb from the site Letsrun.com (one of the most popular running news sites) on the NCAA men’s championships today:

 OSU was led by Girma Mecheso who was the top American in fifth … The top American born runner was Wisco’s Maverick Darling in 11th – some 59+ seconds behind the winner.

 

It annoys me no end to see that Letsrun distinguishes between American and American born in writing this blurb.  In some ways it implies that Ethiopian born American Mecheso is less of an American.  It also implies that darn it the American running community is falling down on the job in terms of developing talent and is just relying on imports.  What is wrong with many of the top American runners (Bernard Lagat, Meb Kiflezghi, etc.)  being born in Africa?  I hope that this focus is not tied into some misguided belief that for distance running to become a bigger deal on the American sports scene we need to find a “great American born hope” a goal that is perilously close to finding a “great white hope.”

Girma Mecheso running for Oklahoma State University

 

Whiteness and the NBA

Team photo of the Timberwolves

Last NBA season I posted an entry about the whiteness of the LA Lakers and how ESPN deemed the fact they could put an all white team on the court noteworthy.  Now there are questions about the Minnesota Timberwolves which contrary to the overall demographics of the NBA had an opening roster with 5 black players out of a total of 15.  On the one hand, there are conspiracy theories stating that the team did this to appeal to their mostly white Minnesota fan base.  On the other hand there are officials and commentators who point out that for a variety of basketball related reasons the team just came together this way.  Then there are other pundits who say the conspiracy theorists are just saying what they are because as African-Americans they feel their dominance is being threatened by the whitening of the NBA (mostly through the increasing number of European players).  Lastly, there is the way Rich Adelman the team coach has referred to the team as a, “”smart team, a very smart team” a use of the word “smart” that has in the past been the standard language of praise for athletically limited white players.

I tend to side with those who see this as happenstance that occurred due to a variety of factors over time, not a throwback to the old days when teams like the Boston Celtics were clearly and deliberately white.  Still, all the theories and comments do make one think, and Adelman needs to find some synonyms.  Now if they had only signed Jeremy Lin; too bad they already had a point guard.

 

Spelman Cutting all Interscholastic Sports: A Promising Financial Model?

Spelman College is dropping all interscholastic sports and putting the money towards campus wide fitness programming.  The reasoning is eminently reasonable in that the school spends thousands of dollars for its NCAA Division III in which 80 students participates.  That money can be redistributed to promote the health of the student body as a whole. In addition facilities like the gym and weight room will be more easily accessible as they will not be reserved for teams at various times.  Beverly Tatum the president of the college notes, “we know that we have students who are already struggling with hypertension, already struggling with Type 2 diabetes, et cetera” and the shift to fitness programming will help those individuals.  One could say that this analysis relies on a false dichotomy in that a school can have both programs, wellness and interscholastic sports, but in an age of declining budgets this choice does appear reasonable.  It also gets back to the root goals of sports programs at educational institutions, establishing a sense of community and promoting wellness.  One need not travel and compete against other schools to achieve these goals.

In diversity terms, the fact that Spelman is a women’s college may play into this decision in that there may be less resistance from alumnae then there would be at a school where cutting sports meant cutting the homecoming football game.   Also, the fact Spelman is an HBCU may make this approach a model for other HBCUs both in terms of addressing financial difficulties and in terms of addressing issues of health within the African American community.  In fact, I hope this approach becomes a model for many schools with budget issues regardless of enrollment demographics.  If sports programs are losing money, why not cut them, focus on educational priorities, and, heaven forbid, stem tuition increases.

The Spelman cross-country team at their last meet this season, the school’s last meet ever.

Listening to the NFL on Old School Radio

I have been listening to NFL games on old school radio.  Not satellite radio, not Internet, no video, no bells and whistles, the radio involved was the Dial Global Radio network broadcast on an old fashioned FM device.  With one TV in the house, if I am away from the basement doing work and want to keep up with the action, I go old school.

From this experience I have learned that there are certain assumptions being made about the individuals listening to this most basic means of media delivery.  First, those listening are suffering from ailments–both physical and financial.  I heard advertisements for credit repair, foreclosure prevention services, a get rid of your beer gut diet, and a company that can get you cheap life insurance even if you smoke or have high cholesterol. Second, those listening are assumed to  work in certain ways; note for example the advertisement talking about what work is (work with one’s hands) vs. what work isn’t (talking about work). Lastly, those listening do not do well with technology as there are ads for a simplified remote control system as well as an ad for a state program helping the under served get broadband.  The most telling ad is the one for Buffalo Wild Wings where the logic goes that if you are listening to this game you love football, so you love beer, so you’d love our restaurant, a combination combining many of all the advertisers’ assumptions.

During the week I listen almost exclusively to NPR, so the difference between target audiences is quite noteworthy.  I also find it interesting that with so many fans going to more advanced, sophisticated technology, those left behind listening to the radio make for a demographic open to being targeted for certain varieties of manipulation.