The fifth annual Street& Smith’s Intercollegiate Athletics Forum was held Dec. 6-7 at theInterContinental, The Barclay, in New York City. Topics ranged from thepressures on coaches to win and understanding sports fans, to the future ofcollege sports on TV and presidential reform.
LUNCHEONADDRESS: The Changing Role of the Coach: JimBoeheim, men’s basketball coach, Syracuse University
BOEHEIM, on the pressure to win: “Theonly people who don’t have to win every year are faculty people. They’re goingto be there next year whether they have a good year or not.”
 |
| Boeheim: Coaches want to be more involved. |
BOEHEIM, on graduation rates:“Every coach wants every kid to graduate. Why would we not want [that]!Everything reflects back on us. We’ve promised these kids’ parents that we’regoing to help their child. … Bill Gates didn’t graduate. He did all right. Iwonder if he counts against Harvard’s graduation rate.”
BOEHEIM, on frustration over certainNCAA rules: “What world do these people live in who make theserules? From May 1 to Sept. 1, we cannot coach our players. Is the cellist beingtold he cannot practice in the summer? How do the players get better on theirown?”
“Playing Division I basketball isn’t easy. We want to helpthem; we want to have the ability to help them. For the first time in my 40years, we are talking to an NCAA president [Myles Brand], and we have made somestrides. And I’m convinced that if we could talk to other groups involved inthe process, we could make more strides. And that’s all we want as coaches. Wewant to be more involved.”
PANEL: The Future of College Sports on Television
BOB THOMPSON, FSN president, on thepossibility of more conference networks: “Many of the schoolshave individual deals, and in many cases, those deals are with us, so topopulate a channel with product we’re basically taking from ourselves. I haveto figure that out. … On the flip side, our RSNs are carrying more and moreprofessional product, so the collegiate product in many cases can be movedaround.”
BURKE MAGNUS, ESPNU vice president andgeneral manager: “You’ve got to dive deeper into the content, andthere’s a passionate following for a lot of sports out there, and we’re alwayson the lookout for what the next big deal is. … The same thing goes fordivisions. There’s ultimately going to be more opportunity for [Division II andIII].”
BRIAN BEDOL, CSTV president and CEO:“We look at ourselves as not just a media brand, but our goal is to be theIntel of college sports that helps connect the fans to the games of the teams,the sports of the teams, that they want to follow.”
PANEL: Presidents’ Perspective on Reform
WALTER HARRISON, University ofHartford president: “Increasingly, those of us who runinstitutions have to become involved with the financial realities of the futureof intercollegiate athletics. One decision that the NCAA made that illustrateshow much is about the money is the 12th game in football. I could design aplayoff if we gave up the 12th game in football, and it would end at the sametime as it ends now, but I doubt that that will ever happen because every[Division] I-A team gets to play a 12th game and gets revenue from it, and inmy plan only eight teams would play in a playoff.”
KAREN HOLBROOK, Ohio State Universitypresident: “We consider every single game a playoff and do notwant another one.”
ONE-ON-ONE: Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary
FLEISCHER, on why the House Ways andMeans Committee is interested in the NCAA’s tax-exempt status:“For two reasons: One, because they can raise money from it; two, because theyuse it as leverage for other issues. There’s a revenue hunt under way, andgiven the fact that there’s a deficit and a new party is in charge, and theycombine it with getting leverage over other things involving NCAA rules … thisis never a good time to have money in your pocket because people in Washingtonwant it.”
FLEISCHER, on getting the media tofocus on the positive: “I think the key is to succinctlysummarize what is good. If you can’t write it in a simple headline to describeit, then you don’t have it yet. Focus on a very simple way to express it.…
“If you’ve got a case of some athlete who came from ahard-luck environment, [who] maybe is an immigrant to this country or grew upin a household with no father, and yet he’s got fabulous grades … Can you tellthis one individual story as opposed to trying to get out your statistics andyour aggregate data? The press always likes human examples. We all do. Werelate more to it. Players’ stories are compelling ways to force [the press] tocover your statistics.”
FLEISCHER, on accessibility with themedia: “Sometimes you should be wide open, and sometimes you haveto close it down. Public relations is like running a play in sports. Justbecause [the play] worked one time doesn’t mean it will work another time.You’re reading the defense, and so much of public relations is timing. Somedays, you can run a great PR play and get little credit or attention becauseyou got dominated by something else that was newsworthy on the front page ofthe sports section. So, when you’re planning your sports PR, are you doing itwith an eye toward everything else that’s going on out there?”
