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SBJ College: Athletes Bring Social Justice To Forefront


When a Florida State football player can publicly call out his coach and the coach has to apologize, maybe to save his job, it shows the influence college athletes have, yet seldom wielded before.

 

 

COMMUNICATION KEY FOR ADs, COACHES AMID TROUBLING TIMES

  • ADs and coaches have spent the week promising to listen, change and act in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death and the ensuing protests against police misconduct. Some cases over the last couple of days highlight why they feel the need to initiate more open lines of communication with their college athletes. When communication isn’t as clear as it should be, the players are more aware of the platform they have.

  • That was the case at Florida State today when star football player Marvin Wilson took exception to a really self-serving quote from new coach Mike Norvell, who said he had connected with each of the Seminoles' players after Floyd's death. Wilson disputed that on Twitter, which led to threats that FSU players wouldn’t be working out until further notice. Norvell apologized and Wilson agreed to move on.

  • At Texas, wide receiver Brennan Eagles took to social media to threaten a boycott of the season because of racial injustices. Several basketball coaches, including UCF’s Johnny Dawkins, said their players will be off Nov. 3 so they can vote, while more than 60 Missouri football players yesterday registered to vote as part of the team's call to action following the death of Floyd.

  • One of the images I’ll remember from the week is Ohio State AD Gene Smith participating in a peaceful protest march in Columbus with Buckeye athletes. These circumstances have college leaders in positions they probably hadn’t contemplated.

  • Washington State AD Pat Chun framed the events of the week on a webinar earlier today: “Prior to last week, the landscape was about what’s happening with name, image and likeness and how we’re going to come back from COVID-19. The social injustice awakening that’s happening supersedes both of those. How we handle this as an industry going forward is going to be really pivotal. From talking to some of our athletes, it’s both motivating and empowering at the same time.”

 

Missouri players led a walk from campus to the Boone County Courthouse and knelt to honor George Floyd

 

SURVEY: REVENUE FLOWING SLOWER FROM DONATIONS, TICKETS

  • Season-ticket holders and donors are slower than usual when it comes to making payments, adding another layer of uncertainty to an already precarious 2020 college football season. Ticket offices across the country have extended deadlines for fans to order tickets and pay for them, in an effort to provide as much flexibility as possible. The effect of that is a ticket sales season that’s already compressed and revenue that’s flowing slower than typical. “It’s very concerning,” said Jonathan Marks, CEO at Dynamic Pricing Partners, “although you’d expect the revenue gap to close significantly” once we know more details about the season.

  • DPP just released the results of a survey of 62 ticketing officials, including 33 from the Power 5 conferences and 10 from the Group of 5. It showed 28% of the schools have less than half of their donations paid -- 51% of ticketing officials polled said donations paid were below expectations, while 60% said season ticket payments were short of expectations. With schools offering new refund policies and flexible payment plans, they’ve had to prepare for a variety of scenarios -- 68% have announced some form of alternative planning for a shortened season (23%), no fans (18%), delayed start (16%) or limited capacity (11%).

  • Other notable results:

    • Of the schools polled, they’re 50-50 on announcing in-person classes in the fall compared to those that have not made an announcement.

    • The foremost health and safety measures being implemented for games this season are: social distancing; additional hand sanitizer stations; mobile-only ticketing; and face mask guidelines. Perhaps surprising is that restroom upgrades, plexiglass windows and some form of health verification were barely mentioned.

    • If limited capacity seating is enforced, most schools will allocate tickets based on: 1) priority points system; 2) season ticket tenure; 3) lottery. Around 11% mentioned selling single-game tickets and doing away with season tickets just for this season.

    • Most ticketing officials believe, if crowds are limited, it’ll be 21-30% of capacity. Just today, though, the state of Texas approved attendance capacity up to 50%.

  • Marks: “Given that NASCAR just announced their July 4 Indianapolis races will not have fans and large events with fans keep getting pushed back, I believe there will be reduced capacity, but it will be very state-specific. You could see two schools, in the same conference, with states right next to each other,” operating with different standards.

 

RETIRING HARVARD AD PHILOSOPHICAL ABOUT 42 SPORTS

  • I wish I had reached out to retiring AD Bob Scalise more often during his 18 years at Harvard, where he oversaw the nation’s busiest athletic department with 42 varsity sports. Scalise, whose retirement becomes official June 30, brings a wealth of insight and perspective and I found him to be full of both when I reached him at his Florida home a few days ago.

  • At a time when so many schools are cutting sports due to revenue issues, I expected Scalise to scold them for not finding the funds to keep those programs. He was much more thoughtful about it. “It's a philosophical decision,” Scalise said. “The educational model takes into account the lessons you learn playing any of those sports. If you have more of a business model, you do a product line profitability analysis and say, ‘OK, we have this sport, it brings in this revenue, but it costs five times that to actually sponsor the sport. Why don't we channel our resources into other sports.’ When you run into economic challenges, you do that product line profitability and that will tell you if you need that sport.”

  • Scalise also acknowledged that donations and Harvard’s endowment position the school to support 42 sports. “Our graduates have a disproportionate share of wealth and they give back,” he said. “Because of that, we don't have to chase other revenue sources that other schools probably have to chase. We get very little from TV money or ticket sales. You still need the money, but where's the money coming from? Not everyone can get it from the same places that we're getting it from.”

  • The variety of issues and attention facing big-time college athletics seem more complex to him now than at any time he’s been in athletics. “It’s always been a high-stakes game, but the numbers are astronomical now,” Scalise said. “How do you grow the resources in college athletics and how do you divvy them up? It’s more complicated than it’s ever been. People are questioning everything being done and that’s brought everything to the forefront.”

 

Squash is one of 42 varsity sports that is supported by the Harvard athletic department

 

CHECK OUT THE PRINT ISSUE OF SBJ THIS WEEK

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SPEED READS

  • Greg McGarity will be staying on as Georgia AD for another year, per the Athens Banner-Herald. The 66-year-old's contract was set to expire at the end of June, but was extended this afternoon "in a vote by the Georgia athletic board at its annual spring meeting" on Zoom. The 2020-21 school year will be McGarity's 11th season with the Bulldogs.

  • Several conferences are looking to save money by scheduling games closer to home, both in and out of conference. But Sun Belt Commissioner Keith Gill doesn't think it'll be so easy. "Everyone across FBS, and really in Division 1, are trying to find ways to play a little more regionally," Gill told Georgia State's "Panther Insider Podcast" today. "Those games a lot of times are more attractive for fans, easier for fans to get to, obviously easier to travel to. ... It sounds great to say, 'Hey, we'll work with Conference USA or The American and we share footprints and we'll share scheduling partnerships.' The reality is that's harder than it appears. It'll be up to our institutions to kind of figure out how they build their schedules and how they can make those things regional." 

  • Relentless Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) was at it again, grilling college presidents on their plans to reopen campuses. Purdue President Mitch Daniels was in the crosshairs today. Murphy: “You have the Iowa athletic director saying that his plan is to let everybody into the football stadium. … So, it worries me that we are contemplating putting hundreds of thousands of adults and students into stadiums, especially when the professional sports leagues don't seem to be entertaining that idea."

  • This summer was supposed to be a coming out party for the new Hayward Field at Oregon. A two-year renovation of the iconic track & field venue that increased capacity from around 10,500 to nearly 25,000 would have been on display for the Pac-12 Championships and then the U.S. Olympic Trials. The voice of Oregon track & field, Paul Swangard, talked about the new venue on NBC Sports Northwest's "Talkin' Ducks" podcast today: "The designers tried to position this facility as sort of a theatre for track & field. ... The fans will be given this incredible venue. ... There are actually seats on the surface of the track. That front row will be unlike anything else you see in a track & field venue."

 

THROWBACK THURSDAY

  • It was the first week in June 2011 that Cory Moss was promoted to the top spot at CLC. The youthful-looking Moss was already in his 17th year at CLC when he became managing director & senior VP nine years ago. He moved into the leadership position after the departure of Pat Battle and Derek Eiler during a time of significant change at the company. Moss is still in that position.

 

 

NOMINATIONS OPEN FOR SBJ GAME CHANGERS!

 

 

 

Enjoying this newsletter? We've got more! Check out SBJ Media with John Ourand and SBJ Esports with Adam Stern and Trent Murray. Also check out the SBJ Unpacks newsletterevery Monday-Friday night, as we look at how the sports industry is being impacted by COVID-19.

Something on the College beat catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to either me (msmith@sportsbusinessjournal.com) or Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessjournal.com) and we'll share the best of it. Also contributing to this newsletter is Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com).