The USOC today announced it has joined a coalition of 31 NCAA conferences called the Coalition to Protect & Improve the Student-Athlete Experience. The conferences founded the group in January to trumpet the benefits already received by athletes at a time when cost-of-attendance stipends and other factors were pressuring athletic department budgets. USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said low-revenue-producing Olympic sports are particularly at risk any time expenses rise, jeopardizing the training grounds for Olympians in gymnastics, swimming, track and field and many other sports. Blackmun will address the Collegiate Commissioners Association tomorrow to discuss potential joint actions. USOC execs on June 30 will present a strategy for dealing with the issue to its BOD. "If there’s an increase in the expense budget of a collegiate sport program, they have to find that money somewhere, and what we’re seeing is that in many cases, that money comes from Olympic sport programs,” Blackmun said. “So whether it’s stipends or anything else that puts pressure on athletic departments budgets, the at-risk programs are the olympic sport programs, not other programs.” For the first time this year, new NCAA rules are allowing university athletic departments to pay stipends to athletes in addition to their scholarships. A statement from the coalition also refers to “a variety of lawsuits that threaten to impose major changes” on colleges. But the threat to Olympic sports predates recent developments. In a speech last October at the National Press Club, Blackmun cited the sharp 35-year declines in the number of gymnastics and wrestling programs across the country.
