13^th Annual National Meeting of the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics (COIA)

“… No More Turning Away?”

February 25 – 28, 2016

NCAA National Headquarters, Indianapolis, Indiana

Schedule of Events

Thursday, February 25, 2016
Time	Session/Speaker/ Moderator	Location
9:00 – 10:00pm	COIA Steering Committee/Interested Leaders MeetingMike Bowen, COIA Chair (University of South Florida)	Cardinal Room, at the Fairfield Inn & Suites
Friday, February 26, 2016
7:30 – 8:00am	Meeting registrations/information and reception	Walter Byers Auditorium, NCAA National Headquarters
8:00 – 9:00am	Conversation with Oliver Luck,NCAA Executive Vice President for Regulatory Affairs.Moderator: Mike Bowen	Walter Byers Auditorium
9:00 – 9:15am	Official welcomes, Introductions, Meeting OverviewMike Bowen, Jane Albrecht (Wake Forest University) and John Nichols (Penn State University)	Walter Byers Auditorium
9:15 – 10:00am	Academic Eligibility – Academic Misconduct documentPresenter: Chris Anderson (University of Tulsa), with guest Tom McIntosh, Head Men’s Soccer Coach,  University of Tulsa, Advisory Group, National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA	Walter Byers Auditorium
10:11:30am	Facility TourAzure Davey and Jenn Fraser: COIA liaisons – NCAA, Academic and Membership Affairs	NCAA Hall of Champions
11:30am – 1:00pm	Lunch: On your own
1:00 – 2:00pm	Conversation with Donald Remy, NCAA Executive Vice President for Law, Policy and GovernanceModerator: Larry Gramling (University of Connecticut)	Walter Byers Auditorium
2:00 – 3:00pm	Conversation with Dave Schnase, NCAA Vice President of Academic and Membership Affairs, and Jon Duncan, NCAA Vice President for Enforcement Moderator: Bob Eno (Indiana University)	Walter Byers Auditorium
3:00 – 4:00pm	Conversation with Kevin Lennon, NCAA VP D1IModerator: Christopher Anderson (University of Tulsa)	Walter Byers Auditorium
4:00 – 5:00pm	Conversation with Brian Hainline, NCAA Chief Medical OfficerModerator: Matt Wheeler (University of Illinois)	Walter Byers Auditorium
5:00 – 6:00pm	COIA only member debriefing sessionModerators: “Conversation” moderators	Walter Byers Auditorium
6:00pm +	Dinner and evening on own

13th Annual National Meeting of the Coalition on Intercollegiate AthleticsPage 2 of 2
Saturday, February 27, 2016
Time	Session/Speaker/ Moderator	Location
8:00 – 9:00am	Facility TourHosted by: Azure Davey and Jenn Fraser, NCAA	NCAA National Office
9:00 – 9:30am	Drake Group update on the proposed Presidential Commission and on their activitiesPresenters: Gerry Gurney (Oklahoma University) and Jayma Meyer (Indiana University) of The Drake Group	Walter Byers Auditorium
9:30 – 10:00am	Past COIA Chairs’ Roundtable discussion: COIA history – “Howe we started, what we’ve done, what we’ve tried to do, and where we are today”, with John Nichols, Nathan Tublitz and Bob Eno	Walter Byers Auditorium
10:00 – 11:30am	Reforming Intercollegiate Athletics: “What we’ve done! What we’ve accomplished? What do we do now?”Speaker: COIA Chair, Mike Bowen	Walter Byers Auditorium
11:30am – 1:00pm	Lunch:  On your own
1:00 – 1:30pm	Speaker: Rick Eckstein (Villanova University)FCS universities inclusion in COIA?	Discussion session: COIA members with Gerry Gurney and Jayma (Drake Commission)
1:30 – 6:00pm	COIA: Organization, By-Laws and Leadership IssuesMike Bowen and the COIA Steering Committee Break-out/Working sessions on:COIA leadership issuesCOIA By-Law revision & Steering Committee reorganizationCOIA Committee organizational sessions?Formation of a national organization of faculty governance bodies. Report-out session and discussion.	Walter Byers Auditorium Break-out Rooms:James Frank RoomPresident RoomChancellors Room
6:00pm +	Dinner and evening on own
Sunday, February 28, 2016
8:30 – 11:00am	Committee Reports; Follow-up Discussions; Voting; Meeting Wrap-up Mike Bowen; COIA Steering Committee	Walter Byers Auditorium

13^th Annual National Meeting of the 

Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics (COIA)

 NCAA National Headquarters, Indianapolis, IN

February 25-28, 2016

The meeting schedule was amended as the conversations unfolded, as can be seen in the following notes taken at the meeting.  Many thanks to Jessica Schein (Michigan State U); Jane Albrecht (Wake Forest U) and Adrien Bouchet (U of Tulsa) for their extraordinary collaborative effort that has resulted in this document.

Conversation with Oliver Luck:  NCAA Executive Vice President for Regulatory Affairs 

Oversight of 3 Regulatory Divisions:

Enforcement. Two big issues:

• Academic fraud
• Recruiting violations 

• AMA, Academic and Membership Affairs
  • New academic standards for new student athletes 
    • Constant tension between need for access to higher education as well as the desire for college level academic performance 
• Eligibility Center (formerly the Clearinghouse)
  • Changing definition of amateurism
  • Standards have been raised
• Group discussion
  • Title IX, NCAA does not have a Title IX coordinator
    • Amie Wilson, office for inclusion, gender equity expert but does not specialize in title IX
  • Does the NCAA see itself as an advocate for compliance of Title IX?
    • On Championship side, there is a strong commitment to equality 
    • NCAA doesn’t investigate or enforce, as Title IX is federal law, that is left to campuses
    • A statement from the NCAA would be useful to show support of Title IX related issues, it would draw more attention at colleges
    • Desire for a zero tolerance policy for NCAA in eligibility
      • Initiative should come from the member institutions
      • COIA could draft a statement to the NCAA to call for attention on this subject
  • Can you give us some sense of prevalence of academic fraud? 
    • Approx. 20 cases currently that the NCAA is investigating 
    • Focus is on culpable adult behavior (institutional behavior), athletic dept. employees*
  • You talk about the membership, our presidents. Can you talk about the impact of presidents on athletics so that we can attempt to hold these presidents accountable? 
    • Presidents cannot be detached. The Board of Governors sets NCAA policy.
    • A number of tough decisions have been moved over to the NCAA (ex. Incoming eligibility standards) from the university, but presidents should and can be involved more here.  
    • What then is the role of the faculty in the NCAA? 
      • Currently NCAA has FARS on the Board of Governors who do speak up.
  • COIA members, due to tenure and protection, historically aided the NCAA to bring to the front academic reforms, when presidents, constrained by their trustees, etc., were reluctant. Currently, the NCAA does not seem open to hear the voice of COIA (elected faculty representative of their Senates).  Does the NCAA still look at COIA as an agent to mobilize campuses? 
    • The NCAA is open to suggestions from COIA. 
  • One of the biggest pressures on SA is the increasing number of hours per week, in addition to SA travel time. From the perspective of faculty this is impacting academics. What is going on to try to control those hours? 
    • “Time demands” is the most important topic at the NCAA right now. Two or three subcommittees are looking at time demands, the 20 hr. rule, the fact that studying film and lifting weights do not count in those 20 hrs. 
    • Mid-week games have added to this issue. TV established networks that need content.
    • Importance of college experiences for SA 
    • Key question-can you come out with a set of directives for all 26 sports? Different sports have different demands.
    • One conversation; can we have a mandated day off each week or a few weeks off after the Championship events? 
    • The good thing is, the new NCAA governance structure (39-member Board) now has a stronger student-athlete voice, SAC reps. 
  • Do you think it’s better to be a college athlete today versus years ago?
    • In balance, it has gotten better. Better academic support. More pressure and time demands. Technology makes it easier to handle these time demands. Coaches have more control. 
  • However, the pressure increase has led to increased mental health issues. 
  • How many of our institutions have two levels of admission standards? 
    • Several school don’t have athletes etc. come through their university’s general admissions committee
  • What do you see as the role of COIA moving forward? Are we one of many external groups? What is your view of our role? 
    • COIA can be a good sounding board for the NCAA academic group (AMA). 
    • AMA is like a suggestion box; they try to do the right thing given the information they gain from their interactions.  Luck will be happy to engage with faculty in the future.
  • Have your views changed at all on amateurism? You once stated you support third party endorsements for SA. 
    • That statement was not true 
    • Luck does believe that SAs should not lose their name, image, and likeness when they sign a letter of intent but he does not believe that third parties can monetize that name, image, and likeness; they should not be sold. 
      • The anti-trust issue of the O’Bannon case overshadowed the name, image, and likeness piece.
    • Luck can see a point where a university who is monetizing N, I, L could provide some kind of compensation to an individual SA, but NCAA does not have a plan in place to do this. 
      • What are the title IX implications for anti-trust? 
  • COIA thinks there may be benefit for anti-trust exemption for the NCAA. Is this something that would help the current situation? 
    • If we could get a limited anti-trust without the other consequences…yes. The biggest issue is coaches’ salary. It is not appropriate given the current stresses in HE. NCAA cannot regulate this. 
    • We all worry about a bill loaded up with other things….
    • One thing we and the Drake group is worried about. What conditions would allow for the anti-trust exemption happen. If the NCAA is interested, we would like NCAA to work with COIA to come up with a plan to support both with our faculty senates to be able to regulate athletics to a level corresponding to our academy standards. 
  • The vast majority of presidents do not feel that they can control commercialism in IA. How do you feel about the independence of your current government structure? Should the Board of Governors be independent? Do you think NCAA should have the Olympic level of 20% student athlete representation in governance? 
    • NCAA has moved to include more student reps. 
    • Can’t really answer the independence question 

Conversation with Tom McIntosh, Head Soccer Coach, University of Tulsa

• Proposal put together by a group of NSCAA coaches to move soccer from a one to a two semester sport 
• Group of college coaches put together this version over the past 3 years 
• Attempt is to balance athletics and academics by altering scheduling
• Current:
  • 20 contests in the fall in championship 
  • 5 spring exhibition matches
  • 132 days 
  • Currently use 75 days in fall 
• Have learned a lot about rest and recovery needs
  • We know we shouldn’t be playing 3 games in two days 
  • Not good for SA or the game 
• This is not a novel proposal and NCAA, conferences, schools are aware of this concept/draft of proposal 
• Working with 18-19 other D1 coaches 
• Want to:
  • Keep the 132+/- days but spread games throughout two semesters
  • Play one game a week 
  • Adequately rest players 
  • Balance SA experience 
  • Move from 20 to 18-hour week
  • Plan would more adequately count time spent in games 
  • Reduce mid-week games to minimize missed class time per semester 
  • Increase SA well-being by increasing rest, decrease risk of injury and performance issues, decrease the impact of minor injuries 
  • More incentive for seniors to stay in school in their final semester
  • Provide an incentive to stay eligible during both semesters of the year 
  • 13 games in fall, 9 in spring plus spring championship
  • Mirror academic calendar 
  • Give academic breaks back to SA
• A year ago, a poll of student athletes indicated a substantial >90% support of this concept 
• Vast majority of student athletes are currently playing 10 months a year, 40-50 games. 
• Questions: 
  • What are you looking for COIA to do with this proposal? 
    • Today, seeks COIA input and in future would like help to gain approval. 
  • How does this address graduation rates?
    • Coaches have met with MLS, there have been discussions to move the pro draft back to after NCAA championship
  • How does this work with the women’s side? 
    • Vast majority of women’s coaches are also in favor of this change
    • Facilities are an issue when they are shared with multiple sports 
      • One game per week v. several should make it easier to share facilities
    • Women’s programs aren’t affected the same way as men’s teams due to the lack of professional/external pressures on women.  Men are encouraged to skip college altogether. 
  • What are the procedures for making this change? What are the log jams? What are the arguments against/from whom? 
    • Will need to be moved forward by a conference, one of which will have to submit it as an official proposal to the NCAA membership.
    • Shared facilities is an issue with Lacrosse and some field hockey 
    • Shared staff, athletic training, sports information, finances. Currently games are played Fri-Sun to save money, and spreading them out will cost more.
  • What do other coaches outside of soccer think about this?
    • Some sports already do two-semester schedule (basketball) and it could be a model for other sports to follow.

Question for further study by COIA or other group:  Do SAs perform better academically in-season or off-season?

Conversation with Donald Remy: NCAA Executive Vice President for Law, Policy, and Governance 

• Governance
  • Office in DC and legislative affairs 
  • Office on committees on infractions 
• Legal
  • Office of Legal Affairs 
• Member of the Senior Team 
• Importance of the Academic Quality for SA 
• Importance of health, wellness, fairness and safety 
• Look at issues through the lens of student athletes and the values of the membership 
• Questions: 
  • Can you give us a big picture view of the Penn State Scandal/lessons learned?
    • Circumstance that arose on the campus reflected behavior that is not acceptable for a HE org. 
    • The NCAA then participated in a dialog with various parties and created a formal doc. Consent decree was signed by all parties.
    • Lesson: In the midst of the crisis it is important to take time to think about the next steps moving forward 
  • One thing being discussed is the punishment structure. Those who were not the culprits are being punished. What are your thoughts about that? 
    • Aren’t those punishments hurting the wrong people? You have to look at the behavior that has resulted in the penalty. Was there cheating? When those things occur and there was a victory, the victory should be stricken. The punishments are based on what is best for the scenario at that particular time.
    • There is no movement to shift from these practices 
  • Reported by president Erikson that the consent decree was forced. Do you think that it was signed under duress? 
    • That is a disputed issue of fact. He may have not said that. But the consent decree states that there was an agreement between Erikson and the NCAA. 
  • How can the board of governors act to punish member institutions? 
    • It is in the bylaws that the membership can take action
  • How did Mark Emmert quantify a recruiting advantage? 
    • That is not part of the factual record 
  • Is there any consequence against a university who provides incorrect information on an institution? 
    • Ask Dave Schnase 
  • COIA is committed to collegiate model, that model has come under a lot of pressure lately esp. amateurism and anti-trust. If the next case moves the NCAA to anti-trust, what strategies will the NCAA take to work against this. 
    • COIA will be instrumental if this ever happens, but it likely won’t. Kessler ruling would have to say that collegiate athletics is anti-competitive. Then the NCAA would appeal to the US Supreme Court and if that failed, then: 
      • We can decide to embrace new world of college sports, s semi-pro system, and our money into it. This is very impractical as universities are 501C ed. organizations. 
      • We could fracture and there would be a segment that would change and operate in this world. Div 1 Mens bball and football would create a business model and become professional sports, unionized labor, profit-making, etc. 
      • Seek a legislative change prompted by the US Supreme Court decision. Then congressmen would have to act to keep their constituents happy. This would lead to them rallying for anti-trust protection. Then we would need the voices of faculty etc. to build the argument to protect college sports. 
    • The tethering of sport to education is what make sports what it is.  As the NCAA evolves, it needs to keep up dialogue with COIA and others over core values (that NCAA is a higher ed. endeavor. *
    • Public perception of coaches’ salaries undermines the collegiate model.
  • Is there a way to keep coaches who violate NCAA rules from moving from school to school?  Yes, there’s the Penalty Matrix instituted in 2011.
  • NCAA needs faculty voice to talk about what should happen at our universities and even provide declarations or depositions in cases such as UNC academic fraud.

Conversation with Jon Duncan, NCAA Vice President for Enforcement and Dave Schnase, NCAA Vice President of Academic and Membership Affairs 

• Academic and Membership Affairs 
  • Rule enforcement, waivers, reinstatement, institutional performance program, and liaison on D1 governance space 
• Enforcement of all 5000+ rules 
  • Charge is legislative 
  • Scope of enforcement is bounded by bylaws 
• Problem is no longer deregulation, but now modernizing the rulebook 
  • The latest changes got rid of noise in the system (interpretations, waivers, etc.) 
  • Still a lot of work to do. 
• Since March of 2013, NCAA is trying to right the ship of enforcement. 
• What do you think about outsourcing the enforcement process, use arbitrators (as Amy Perko of Knight Commission suggested several years back)? 
  • The infractions, and all, committees are populated by the conferences, from thee member institutions. It is best that those who make decisions about athletics should know the world of athletics. 
• FARs are appointed by the president. They are the ones in these processes. They have biased opinions. How can we address these biases that would allow for the view of the faculty?
  • This group does not pick the committee. 
  • The conference nominates people for positions on the committee
• Student athlete time demands
  • Autonomy conference and working with academic council on this issue 
  • Survey went out to see what we can and should be talking about.
  • SAAC, Student athlete experience, etc., are working together to gather data about what the current situation is. 
• How are we monitoring day to day student athlete time demands? 
  • Problem with 20-hour rule is we need to think if this is the correct number of hours and what needs to be counted. 
  • Monitoring is left to the campuses 
• The IPPs are not public. Are you looking to open it up?
  • We are not looking to share it. NCAA safeguards the data.
• Will the anonymized data be shared? 
  • There are conversations but not happening yet. 
• How debilitating is it that you don’t have subpoena power? 
  • Lots of time the subpoena does not result in more information…. Subpoena power gets liars (but it could also get documents).
  • We have tools at our disposal 
• Oliver Luck mentioned that he is concerned about the rash of academic integrity investigations. In Jan 2015 you publicly said you were investigating 20 cases.  Do you think this is due to the unpreparedness of the student-athlete? 
  • One of the things Jon wants to do is to beef up the compliance stock across the NCAA and institution. 
  • NCAA is tracking all of the various things related to student athlete academic integrity. 
  • Causes: 
    • Increased academic standards
    • Online courses are a serious problem.
    • Boosters 
  • Outside groups are looking at the preparedness of the perspective student athletes 
  • Our old clearing house is looking at this too. 
• Are there more cases than you can deal with? How do you decide what cases you go forward with? 
  • NCAA has enough resources to do what needs to do to handle the biggest issues. 
  • Can always use more resources and could use them wisely. 
  • They decide based on impact to collegiate model and the impact of the game: academic integrity and recruiting violations are the priorities. There are about 100 major cases under scrutiny at any given time, a few dozen with an academic nexus. 
• Does NCAA have specific tools or sanctions to put pressure on universities to try and control student athletes regarding sexual assault. 
  • No. 
• What tools would COIA give you to address the above question? 
  • We would like to see more coaches held accountable for these things. 
• Online education and academic fraud issue. Have there been any findings in the research?
  • We are seeing an increase in these types of issues! 

COIA proposal from floor: Senates should have committees to monitor aggregated data on grade, course and major patterns among SAs.

Conversation with Kevin Lennon, NCAA D1 VP 

Time Demands

Not just academics

What do we do that detracts from the student-athletes time?

We reverse engineer the college experience – what works and what doesn’t

Sport specific rules is the way to go

Graduate student transfers

Some think once a student athlete finishes a B.S. the NCAA’s oversight is done

Others think you need to pay for the Master’s degree, even if it takes two years to complete

NCAA Policy versus Local Governance

Faculty is often divided over issues

I don’t see Boards/Presidents ceding oversight of facility spending

We have been very transparent regarding NCAA agenda 

COIA reps don’t seem to trust FAR’s because they are appointed by the President and are not completely independent 

COIA can make a difference at the local level, don’t focus on getting a seat at the table

Because of the fact that faculty and any inputs they could offer have been tokenized, and are not significant to the decision making process in the new NCAA governance structure, COIA is now “selling something nobody is buying”

• He works within D1 structure with Pres, SWA, Coaches, etc. to better understand what D1 looks like.  Sees COIA as a provider of constituent feedback, but suggest COIA’s efforts should be local.
• How do we fulfill our mission to our student athletes in the current context?
• On the topic of time demands, in your opinion of the student athlete experience what are your concerns with time demands?
  • We are trying to change the narrative around time demands to student athlete experience. There will be an emphasis early on time demands
  • Broadly, we need to know what are we asking of our young people and how does this affect our student athletes v. general population
  • WE have several students who think athletics is the most important part of their lives. We hope that these kids can better define themselves and reflect more on the student side through their athletic experience. 
  • What do we do that contributes or detracts from the student athlete experience? 
    • Study abroad, internships, mentorships are things they miss out on
    • How do we remove barriers?
  • Can we think about time demand within the context of the student athlete experience? That data will inform our policy actions. 
  • If we could look out 3 years from graduate and reverse engineer, what would we do to create successful young professionals. 
  • Graduate student transfer issue
    • The entire topic of graduate students is worth conversation
    • The good news is that schools are graduating more SAs than ever before, some with eligibility.  
    • The data of those who stay or transfer are not graduating at the rates that we would like. 
    • The board will be talking about aid throughout graduate school for student athletes. Then maybe more students will finish grad school. 
  • Developing a well-rounded student athlete has been a conversation. How do we do this or encourage this with the current arms race in athletic training facilities? They are isolated where they eat, study, etc.  (note the new Clemson facility for athletes only). 
    • Not sure extravagant athletic facilities hurts assimilating student-athletes. Doesn’t Greek life take away from assimilating students?  
    • NCAA becomes concerned when the courses students take are different from the general student population. 
    • We have to think about policy and local decisions 
  • What do you see looking forward? 
    • For the first time D1 laid out a 2-year agenda, 
    • From a process perspective things have changed. Need to keep presidents strategic, out of the day to day. Operationally, look to AD, FARs, and SWA, maybe SA. Also look to constituents, like COIA.  The hard work is done locally. COIA will not have a seat at the NCAA table. We should pick our spots on the national issues and make an impact on your local campuses. 

Conversation with Dr. Brian Hainline, NCAA Chief Medical Officer 

• Just gave a talk titled “Can Sports Save Society?”
•  “Sport is necessary for society; it is different than exercise. In sport you take yourself to the edge of the cliff and learn how to make yourself just a little bit better…sport is incredibly human” 
• We need it in the US. We are one of the most physically illiterate countries in the developed world 
• The NCAA can be the moral and ethical voice for sport as a public health model 
• Put together 9 strategic priorities 
  • Concussion and repetitive subconcussive impact
  • Mental health
  • Cardiac health
  • Overuse injury
  • Doping and recreational drug use
  • Sexual assault –African American male homosexuals at most risk
  • Nutrition, diet, sleep
  • Data-driven decision making
  • Administration of care 
• There are knowledge gaps. 
• Concussion—knowledge gaps
  • We don’t know natural history 
  • We don’t know neural biology recovery of concussion 
    • We allow them to play when the symptoms pass, not when we know that the brain heals 
    • They joined with DOD, 30 M dollars 
    • August 14 the study began 
    • 12 schools 
    • Currently, in August they completed year one 
      • Every student athlete went through a baseline examination (1hr)
      • Then if your concussed the exam happens systematically after
      •  Tracked 472 concussions that year
      • 1/3 are female, females concuss differently from males 
      • Our knowledge of female concussions is 40 years behind. 
      • Football is focus but rates are higher in other sports: Wrestling, and then Hockey (field and ice), lacrosse 
    • One week ago had a safety in college football summit 
      • (all sports) 
      • Relooked at concussion guidelines 
      • Looked at the first round of data
        • SA who don’t report concussions have a much longer recovery period than those who report 
        • SA who play on concussion have higher risk of lower extremity injuries 
      • They ended up with 39 statements from the endorsing organizations (medical groups, university leaders etc.) 
• Mental Health
  • That is the most important issue facing SA
  • They just came out during the convention with mental health best practices. 
    • Endorsed by 25 of the national medical groups 
    • Every document has a checklist for every guideline 
  • They have a TON of data 
  • Wrote a book, Mind, Body, and Sport. (FREE ONLINE) 
  • If you have mental health problems, you are more likely to get injured 
• Screening
  • Cardiac screening—we are not ready for cardiac screening. We have the knowledge gap and a lack of infrastructure 
  • Mental health Screening needs to be done right. 
  • Screening is dangerous and potentially good! 
• Working with every major youth sport in this country. 
• The biggest factor in preventing long-term CTE effects is recovery.  
• Head sensor data are a mess. All of the current systems are not good. Period. They are working with the military. 
• The good one was a mouth guard but they had to stop because it chipped teeth 
• Best helmet would have a progressively collapsing wall, but no one wants to get involved in manufacturing it.
• New legislation will mandate more than 2 days of no contact outside off days 
• What we know is exceptionally skewed to football even though it’s not the sport with highest concussion rate.

COIA Meeting, Indianapolis, February 27, 2016 

Conversation with Drake Group Update on the Presidential Commission Gerry Gurney (Oklahoma U) and Jayma Meyer (Indiana U)

• Jayma Meyer is a member of Drake advocacy group who meets weekly to talk about issues on college sports, lawyer in anti-trust law
• The Drake Group
  • Academic integrity in intercollegiate athletics
  • Deal with the corrosive aspects of commercialism in intercollegiate athletics 
  • Grassroots organization of faculty
• Kinship between COIA and Drake Group over what NCAA espouses and what they actually do 
• College presidents selling grand illusion to the public that athletes in revenue sports are receiving a world class education 
• Drake group position papers 
  • Presidential commission 
    • Started with Arne Duncan and Tom McMillan 
    • Drake group supported and advanced the president’s commission to study the issues related to IA with the idea of advancing legislation (limited anti-trust exemption etc.) 
  • Summary of House Bill 2731 Sponsored by Congressman Dent (PA) 
    • Is currently in committee and has 6 sponsors (bipartisan) 
    • Bill speaks about requiring annual baseline concussion testing 
    • Requires due process for SA
    • Guarantees all contact/collision sports 4 year of scholarships that is irrevocable 
    • Institutions may pay stipends to students 
    • Looks at time demands, graduation rates, standards of academic eligibility, and financing of intercollegiate athletics 
    • Expenditures including compliance with Title IX
    • Look at autonomy 
    • Looks at tax regulations to see if intercollegiate athletics is related to the tax exempt status of institutions 
    • Look at the federal judicial system concerning compensations (limited anti-trust exemption) 
    • Look at transfer rules 
    • Institutions ought to allow student athletes the ability to transfer at any time they want just like any other student 
    • Commission would have 17 members (3 house members, 5 appointed by president, 3 senate minority, and 3 senate majority) 
  • Position statement on the establishment of the President’s commission 
• Jayma Meyer, IU Sports Law Professor 
  • The collegiate model is not working, needs some changing 
  • Look at what has been happening
    • An enormous amount of money is being spent on law suits
      • NCAA 47 Million for the plaintiffs’ attorney fees alone in the trial portion of the O’Bannon case
    • Judges should not be making decisions about policy, NCAA needs to be making these decisions 
    • When we think about amateurism, the focus is on the demarcation of professional and college sports, in the power 5 conferences, life is better than in many professional sports 
    • NCAA may be interested in rules where universities pay for names. Images, likeness, coaches’ salary cap, etc. They see merit in anti-trust exemption 
    • Why wait? Why spend money and have piecemeal litigation. Let’s support a review and analysis by experts and see what the collegiate model should look like. 
    • There is precedent for both the anti-trust exemption as well as a presidential commission 
      • Example of Bush Title IX commission, and Ford commission on AAU, Olympics, and NCAA—1978 Olympic Act
      • Drake group is not pushing antitrust right now, but it may be a result of the Presidential commission 
  • Comments from floor, principally Marty Crimp (Michigan State): 
    • Problems you state are clearly there. But, what are the unintended consequences of asking congress to do things? 
      • She doesn’t think that a government takeover of athletics would happen, but if we don’t do anything, nothing will happen. 
      • We currently have courts deciding what is appropriate for student-athletes 
    • Do you believe that we can get an effective bill in our congress? 
      • We are not looking for a comprehensive bill, we are looking for a comprehensive examination 
    • Do we really know where this can lead? We need to be very, very careful. 
      • The presidential commission is largely just a review mechanism 
      • We want a recommendation; we want to be a part of it to put in our input 
    • Has COIA taken a position on if we support the Presidential Commission 
      • No, but we have asked the faculty senates to discuss this 
      • We have yet to take a vote 
      • The Steering committee sent a letter of support based on an executive decision
  • NCAA was seeking anti-trust exemption as early as 2003 but decided not to because of the dangers involved with congress 
  • COIA didn’t agree with the specifics of the SA protection act but the action is something that we support 
  • Presidential commission is a very good way to get at what we want. 
  • How will the authorization be funded? 
    • Congress will have to determine and fund the effort 
  • Drake group asks that we go to the senators or reps in our districts and have conversations about this effort

Asking individual faculty members to contact their local congressional representatives to co-sponsor the bill (HR 2731), and have provided a template for such contact that will be distributed by email

• What is state of the companion bill in the senate? 
  • It no longer exists. It died on the vine. 
  • We want the NCAA and relevant stakeholders to be a part of the process. 
• Is a National Academy approach a less political and more effective approach to going about this study? The DOE would fund this. This is a less political approach.
  • They have not discussed this, but will in advocacy group.

Past COIA Chairs Roundtable Discussion: Bob Eno, Nathan Tublitz & John Nichols

Bob Eno

• Myles Brand in 2001 gave speech about firing Bob Knight. His speech was full of despair of the arms race in college athletics 
• After the speech, it got picked up by the senate president Jim Earl at U of Oregon and asked the other senates in the PAC10 to support Myles Brand. 
• At Indiana, they mobilized and drafted a similar statement and presented it to the Big10 senates and endorsed the proposal and took it 
• Big 10 Presidents plus a group of 6 total conferences presidents on reform on intercollegiate athletics 
  • NCAA
  • SA welfare
  • Financial issues
  • Governance 
• College presidents were serious about doing something about athletics and needed support. Then Bob Eno met with the president of Org. of Governing Boards. They thought that they should form a coalition—and that started COIA 
• Platform for Coalition, in support of presidents
  • Academic integrity
  • SA welfare
  • Governance 
  • Financial controls
  • Over commercialization
• Then Myles Brand became president of NCAA shortly after. He wanted to make the NCAA an engine for reform and asked for help from our group. 
• Then an official alliance was form that committed the NCAA, Assoc. of Governing Boards group, and COIA to work on a series of projects on intercollegiate athletics 
• During the initial years, we have great support of NCAA because we were supporting what they were trying to do.  
• At the time FARA was controlled by DII leadership and not appropriate for dealing with DI issues. 
• Myles then encourages the D1 FARs to form their organization IA-FARs was formed. 
• The FARs did not like that COIA was doing what the FARs were doing.  (late 2003) 
• We have always tried to work together with the FARs, presidents, and NCAA because our goals and principles were the same. But over time, all groups have changed their goals, except the FARs 
• COIA now is the last major group holding the entire agenda of the early movement. 
• Bob mentioned at the beginning that COIA was partially established at the University of Oregon 
• Nathan was then VP of the faculty senate. In 1994 Nike Owner (Phil Knight) made the movement to update Oregon Athletics. They put a lot of effort into athletics but not any into academics. There was a lot of tension

Nathan Tublitz

• In 2001, the AD decided to move the most important football game to the Saturday before exams. Faculty believed it would impact effect on students. Faculty lost. We found out that another school in the PAC 10 was also considering a movement to change the game time. This was all the same time that the IU speech happened. 
• Bob’s view was that COIA has a limited lifetime and then should be taken over by FARs
• When Bob wanted to “kill” COIA, Nathan said no and thought the job wasn’t done and kept things moving forward. 
• One thing they did to expand COIA was to interact publicly and privately with all the collegiate sports groups (FARs, College Pres, Football coaches’ association, media, etc.) and then became known as an advocacy group. 
• Put out a number of position papers 
• Those original goals remain. Want a better integration of spots and athletics. 
• This group needs to continue to exist and move forward. 
• We are all in this to try and make things better 
• WE ARE THE ONLY ORGANIZATION OF FACULTY SENATES IN THIS ENTIRE COUNTRY*
• When the Drake group speaks, they speak as individuals. We speak as a representation of our thousands of faculties 
• The issue of athletics and the poor intersection with academic is just the tip of the iceberg of the corporatization/bureaucratization of athletics. The issues that we are talking about are broader than just athletics. *

John Nichols

• At the beginning COIA were the golden boys of NCAA, now moved to being on the fringe of irrelevancy 
• The NYT ran a series of articles of the formation of Coalition. (2003)
• The reporter said, “you know you guys are right, but you are going to lose.” 
• In 2016, it is time to seriously consider that it is time to throw in the towel.
• It is time to seriously consider if we still serve a purpose 
• COIA currently serve a function of communication but that was not the function of what we were formed to do, which was academic reform. 
• Options:
  • Quit
  • Go into dormancy/Incubation/Rebranding
  • Continue fighting a losing battle 
• How do you explain the lack of representation across all of the institutions?
  • We have about half of D1A schools 
  • We have all spent a lot of time recruiting other schools

Questions

• Larry Gramling from UConn suggestion:
  • Don’t talk money, we are not the group for that
  • Don’t fight commercialization 
  • We should put our focus in the areas where faculty have expertise and responsibility 
  • Governance-a side topic 
• What happened years ago with the alliance with Association of Governing Boards? 
  • New leadership 
• What has been the cost to your careers? What were the benefits? 
  • It is true service
  • This is fundamentally good work to do
• Communication within the field is the most important function that we serve. 
• Mike Bowen is going to make a push to create a national academy of faculty senates 

Conversation about FBS/FCS COIA Involvement: Rick Eckstein, Villanova 

• Sports Sociologist 
• 124 FCS Schools
• 93 DI No Football schools 
• Arm Race
  • NCAA 
  • Delta Change Project
  • Drake
  • Knight
  • EADA Dept. of Education
  • National Center for Educational Statistics 
• FCS schools are getting hit harder than the FBS schools on finances 
• Shared issues by all universities
  • FAR selection process
  • Creeping CARA
  • Constraints on internships and study abroad
  • Obsession with rankings
  • Geographically ridiculous conferences
  • Coaches’ salaries 
  • Eligibility majors
  • Major clustering 
  • Access to GOALS data
  • The complete student athlete experience
  • isolation/ghettoization of varsity athletics
  • community benefits
  • NCAA minimum team requirement
  • Title IX shenanigans 
• Coming soon: His book The Female Youth Sports to College Pipeline 

COIA Meeting, Indianapolis, February 28, 2016

The meeting attendees then considered the organizational structure for COIA as proposed and voted upon (passed) at last year’s meeting in San Diego.   Agreeing that the proposed Steering Committee and Committee structure was sound but needed developing, attendees chose a committee and split into separate break-out sessions.  Those sessions were productive and produced the following reports.

Proposed COIA Organizational structure

It was proposed, similarly to the proposal offered at last year’s meeting, that COIA reconstitute its Steering Committee as a seven-member committee, consisting of a Chair, Vice-Chair, two at-large elected members, the chairs of three working committees (Administration and Communication, Student Welfare, and Academic Integrity), and an eighth non-voting ex-officio position for the immediate past COIA Chair.  Volunteers to each of the committees then met in separate breakout sessions, and developed the following reports consisting of the results of the election of a committee chair to serve on the COIA Steering Committee, and each committee’s proposed charge and duties:

COIA Committee Membership and Structure

Administration and Communication Committee

• The charge of the Administration and Communications Committee is to coordinate and/or develop the internal and external communications, organizational development, and administrative tasks of COIA. This Committee has two primary functions. These functions include but are not limited to:

1. Internal Affairs

• COIA member communication
• Membership and representative information
• Organizational development
• Administer elections
• Administrative tasks
• Finances 

2. External Affairs 

• Press releases
• Brand development
• Communications with external entities
• Relationship management
• Upkeep of the COIA electronic communication systems 
• Advise the steering committee on public relations 

Student Welfare Committee

The charge of the Student Welfare Committee of COIA is to articulate and communicate best practices in areas affecting student athlete welfare.  The committee’s function is threefold:  1) determine areas of concern regarding student athlete welfare; 2) develop and write best practice guides for each area, or identify them where they already exist; and, 3) share best practices locally through faculty governance structures and nationally via electronic means of communication. 

COIA Term Limit	Name	Affiliation	Area of interest?
	Brennan Berg	Memphis
none	Jessica Myrick	Indiana
2019	Jane  Albrecht	Wake Forest
	David Weintraub	Vanderbilt
	John Pijanowski	Arkansas
12/2016	Christopher Anderson	Tulsa
	Betty Sindelar	Ohio
	Louis Harrison	Texas
	Matt Wheeler	Illinois
	Kathy Bailey	Boston College
	Joan King	LSU
	Loren Wold	THE Ohio State U
consultant	Roberta Faust	Eastern Michigan
	Max Boykoff	Colorado-Boulder

Academic Integrity Committee

COIA Academic Integrity Committee

Attendees (2016 Meeting):

COIA Term	Name	Institution	Email
No term	George Gehrels	University of Arizona	ggehrels@email.arizona.edu
Guest	Rick Eckstein	Villanova	Rick.eckstein@villanova.edu
No term	Kent Lutz	University of Cincinnati	Kent.lutz@uc.edu
No term	John Putnam	San Diego State University	putman@mail.sdsu.edu
2019	Larry Williams		lrwilliams@uh.edu
2016	Marty Crimp	Michigan State University	crimp@egr.msu.edu
2016	Pat Backer	San José State University	Patricia.backer@sjsu.edu

• Document from 2005, Academic Integrity document created by COIA, is a good starting point. COIA could produce a revised version of this document.
• Academic Integrity has been a focus of the NCAA. The time is right for best practices.
• Last year the focus was: what can schools do to not have a North Carolina situation?
• Athletics councils—what should be the ideal or basic structure of these councils.
• Students missing exams because of athletics travel schedules—there are best practices that probably should not be regulated.
• Major clustering and special classes and majors for athletes—are these violations of academic integrity?
• Soft courses
• Students get direction from coaches as to what courses and academic majors students should take and not take.
• Online courses are not in the 2005 Academic Integrity COIA document
• The NCAA has looked at majors and clustering twice in the last ten years.
• At SDSU, the Athletic Council got a list of the majors of their athletes.
• National Organization of Athletic Academic Advisors just released a report on best practices for athletic advising.
• In looking at the document, there are local issues identified in the 2005 document which the NCAA won’t address.
• Is there an honor code for student athletes? 
• Exit surveys on students going off eligibility—perceptions of support that the students receive
• Should send the revised Academic Integrity document to the FAR group for input and feedback
• What are the FARs working on? What area can COIA fill that is not being dealt with by the FARs? 

Charge

• Develop best practices and revise the 2005 COIA document including developing best practices on online courses
  • Move it through the review and approval process: work with the Academic Advisors; then send the document for review and endorsement from the member schools
  • Co-chairs: George Gehrels & John Putnam

Mike Bowen, Presentation:  Reform? /Reform…

• Since last year’s meeting’s promise went unfulfilled, we need to reorganize COIA and reformulate the Steering Committee to better fit the realities to today’s conference structures, etc.
• What can we/COIA/Faculty do now? 
  • Just say no to cynicism and never quit fighting!
  • Continue to work/hope for systemic change through the formation of an honest Presidential Commission ‘
  • Continue to communicate and work constructively with the NCAA, within our universities, and strategically in the public sphere
  • We/COIA/faculty must act and change ourselves
    • But do what? Change how? 
  • Faculty focus on core issues
    • Protect and defend our universities’ integrity and mission as educational institutions
      • Admissions issues
      • Issues with athletes’ selection of academic major issues
      • Is the current LSU situation unusual? Only their problem? An issue we can turn away from? 
        • Bankruptcy talks, shut university down, etc. 
  • Challenge the business model as not mission-based, and continue opposing the ongoing realities of the commercialization and professionalization of college sports
    • How far should our academic units go in selling ourselves? 
    • How badly will performance-based funding damage the academy and our culture? Should we also assess athletics departments using PB funding? 
  • Student health and safety 
  • Critical moral issues
  • Continue current efforts (presidential commission), new research, use data…
  • Seeing the big picture: De-fragment/strengthen faculty voice nationally!
  • Work to change the rewards system created by the accrediting bodies, then our universities, so we can effectively organize, mobilize, and engage faculty voices
  • Push hard for constructive changes at the NCAA and within our institutions. Can changing things at each university cause collective change in the system? 
  • Create assessments for the educational benefits of participating in intercollegiate athletics

For COIA’s attention? If participation in college sports provides educational benefits, then the intended learning outcomes need to be clearly specified and assessed!

• Are the intended learning outcomes the same as the actual learning outcomes? 
  • How do we measure and assess the academic outcomes of participation?
  • Who should assess student performance against the intended learning outcomes? 
  • What do participants actually learn from participating in the system? 

• Develop a fuller and clearer vision for the desired outcomes of reform
• COIA needs to restructure, reinvigorate, and encourage/develop new leaders 
• Do all of these mean forming/advocating a new overarching National Faculty Governance Organization? Imply FCS inclusion into COIA? 

Additional suggestions from floor: 

COIA should re-focus on academic issues.

Develop “new member” and new COIA rep” materials, and session(s) at the annual meeting

COIA has an image problem and should think about how we operate, what goes on the agenda and how to market COIA

COIA needs to better define or re-define what it is in the new environment.

COIA should identify SA welfare issues and focus on them. Prepare best practices guides via meta-analysis, compiling a database, collecting information from our campuses. We need national policies on these issues.

FAR focus is on SAs; COIA focus can be on communicating with the faculty.

COIA should use social media, Facebook, and invite all our faculty to belong. Currently COIA only links with Senate leadership. Expand the base. Create a more participatory, broad-based organization. Adopt “social movement organizing” strategy to form community. Will uncover people who care very much.

COIA’s current operational model is not working. COIA should charge a membership fee and hire paid staff.

Post certain documents that all COIA reps should read.

Get control of COIA website; move it from PSU to another host.

2016 COIA Meeting Adjourned

The meeting adjourned with great promise for COIA’s future!  The action plan is to get a formal proposal on the new organizational structure, with the election of the proposed more flexible, representative and active Steering Committee membership, to the full COIA membership as soon as possible.  Should the proposed structure pass the membership, nominations and elections for the Vice-Chair position and two at-large Steering Committee seats will be scheduled, and the work each of the three committees can begin in earnest.  Mike Bowen will continue as Steering Committee Chair through the coming (2016-2017) year (through the 2017 meeting), completing five+ years as COIA Co-Chair and Chair, and then retire to move into the specified ex-officio non-voting role on the Steering Committee upon the election of the new Chair.