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Sports
panel focuses on media influence
Four
prominent figures in intercollegiate athletics spoke about
the ethical issues athletes, coaches and administrators
face.
By
Gabe Wicklund
Reality
TV is one of the most popular kinds of shows on television,
but “the real reality TV is athletics,” NCAA
President Myles Brand said Thursday at a panel discussion
on sports ethics.
People like to see others compete in strange situations,
and that is what is compelling about athletics, Brand
said. The prevalence of media has dramatically changed
intercollegiate athletics, he said.
“I think there has been a dramatic change in intercollegiate
athletics and the way college is affected within approximately
the last decade, and the reason for that, really, is the
explosion of media,” he said.
Brand was part of a forum called Ethical Issues in College
Athletics that also featured University of Texas at Austin
football coach Mack Brown, Ohio State University athletics
director Andy Geiger, and former Southeastern Conference
Commissioner Roy Kramer. The event was moderated by Dutch
Baughman, executive director of Division I-A Athletic
Directors’ Association.
Nearly a third of Daniel-Meyer Coliseum was filled with
observers, mostly from the community.
Brand said media emphasis is put on fraud and misconduct
in athletics. He said the variety of mediums and their
desire for content has given publicity to things that
may have been overlooked in the past.
Brand alluded to former Alabama football coach Mike Price.
Price was fired after a scandal over his attendance at
a topless bar.
“In the past, it probably would have never been found
out,” Brand said. “So it’s not so much
that the ethical challenges have been newly created, but
rather that a lot of it has been much brighter than ever
before.”
Geiger said ethical decisions are being made in a different
light and news can expose mistakes more quickly.
“I think that it is really, really important when
you have such a really large, impactful decision to make
to surround yourself with the right stakeholders,”
Geiger said, “and to keep your group advising you
very, very small and make sure stakeholders are stakeholders
for the right reasons.”
Kramer said leaders in intercollegiate athletics cannot
base their decisions on the media’s enormous spotlight.
They need to act independently, he said.
“Sometimes in order to make ethical decisions we
have to almost react in a vacuum to understand what is
right and to do what is right without overreacting,”
Kramer said.
Brown said it is important for athletes not to look to
the Internet, newspaper or TV for advice. They should
look to four or five people with integrity they respect,
he said.
Integrity is “doing the right thing not because the
circumstances demand,” Brand said. “Not because
there are your interests or other interests at stake,
but because it is the right thing to do.”
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Ty
Halasz/Staff Photographer
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| NCAA
president Myles Brand, with former SEC commissioner
Roy Kramer, weighs in on ethical issues in collegiate
sports Thursday night in Daniel-Meyer Coliseum. |
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