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Notre Dame AD Swarbrick & Northwestern President Emeritus Bienen say if student-athletes are eventually deemed employees of their schools, both could withdraw from the current structure of college athletics, Swarbrick notes the importance of the student first in the student-athlete model for the Fighting Irish, SMU Prez Turner believes it's too early to make predictions on the potential implications of a final NLRB ruling in favor of unionization at Northwestern - link
Northwestern AD & Chair of the DI Council Phillips with strong comments on the state of college athletics, "We've gotten to the point where it is time for a timeout and everything should be on the table. Nothing's sacred. Let's do the right thing for our student-athletes." Talks further about the one-and-done rule in MBB as he believes college has let the NBA dictate the rules, does not want to be a minor league for professional sports, more - link
Ohio State AD Smith also covers a handful of topics from the Big Ten meetings, believes grad transfers should still be allowed, but the conversation should stop being couched in earning a graduate degree because that's obviously not happening, not sure how a school can restrict a student-athlete who has completed all his undergrad requirements from transferring to any school they'd like, torn on an early FB signing period, supportive of current overall model for student-athletes - link
Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics meetings took place yesterday in Washington D.C., nearly an entire D1.ticker could be dedicated to comments from higher education leaders, most interestingly, three oversight suggestions were made to stabilize college athletics, the creation of a Presidential Commission to oversee the industry, an antitrust exemption for the NCAA, which seems highly unlikely, & group licensing for student-athletes, more - link (article), link (video from session #1), link (video from session #2), link (more coverage)
Illinois Prez Killeen not rushing to judgment in situation involving abuse claims against FB HC Beckman by former student-athletes, but also committed to the need to "get to the bottom of it," AD Thomas confident the Illini's brand is being built with integrity & doing things the right way, Chicago law firm Franczek Radelet will help to investigate both the FB & WBB developments - link, link
Learfield & Butler ink a 10-year deal that will start in 2015-16, continues collaboration between the two as the Bulldogs already work with Learfield Licensing Partners & ANC Sports, Cheaney named GM of the new Butler Sports Properties, heads over to Indianapolis after stint selling at Indiana, Learfield Prez Brown points to the strong Midwestern presence for his company that made the Butler opportunity attractive - link
Sun Belt Conference meetings wrapped-up in Montgomery yesterday & there's belief that the league could be waiting to see what happens with UAB to determine a potential expansion, statement from conference notes general conversation on the topic of alignment did occur, but no further details will be released, Sun Belt & Missouri Valley could be landing spots if the Blazers leave C-USA, New Mexico State another possible play, coincidentally entry & exit fees were adjusted, more - link
In an article updating his writing plans for the summer, San Jose Mercury News columnist Wilner says the Pac-12 "desperately needs the deal (AT&T-DirecTV) to be approved by federal regulators," a decision on that front is expected by the end of the current fiscal quarter, AT&T brass is feeling good about approval, still no guarantee that Pac-12 Networks would immediately show up on DTV - link
If UAB chooses to discontinue FB the decision could mean the school losing 12% of its overall African-American male population, point mentioned in the College Sports Solutions report & detailed in a piece by Sportsday Now, more details from the review point to a difficulty in replacing the student-athletes as only 289 African-American males were rejected admission last year - link
Watch: @Win_AD hosted a Google Hangout earlier in the week with North Carolina AD Cunningham where he detailed a new management model based around the popular rubik's cube with each side representing a facet of athletic department oversight & each individual square a sub-topic, overall point is how in today's age of management how one decision impacts so many different areas, so much more - link
Traveling abroad & attending sporting events continues to surge as a report from TiqIQ & Ticketbis notes the increase of ticket purchases to international games, NFL & NBA games mentioned as highly popular for those visiting the States, soccer also a major draw for travelers, nearly half of World Cup tickets last year were bought by those from outside Brazil, more - link
Penn State AD Barbour says she doesn't believe the Nittany Lions have any sort of culture issue as cited in reports following the Sandusky scandal, continues to learn more about the positive tenure of longtime FB HC Paterno, thinks the Paterno legacy will be celebrated at the right time, overall has been impressed with the level of connectedness student, staff & alums feel for the school - link
Boise State AD Coyle covers a couple of topics, most around his basketball programs, still working really hard on upgrades to Taco Bell Arena that could include new scoreboards & ribbon board signage, likes the coaching stability for both teams, works with MBB HC Rice on scheduling & notes the difficulty of getting good non-conference home games, won't comment on his own involvement at Pittsburgh - link
Oregon gets another $6m from alum Sanders to complete its new Softball stadium that will bear his late wife's name, originally received a $10m gift from Sanders to launch the project that has an overall price tag of $16.5m, former HC & administrator Sisley is also matching all other commitments up to $200k, facility will include 1,500 permanent seats with room for more during postseason play & new support digs for the program - link
Nevada Baseball has surged under HC Johnson as the Wolf Pack claimed the regular season Mountain West crown, the department's first outright championship since 2009, AD Knuth says the success shows other programs it's completely possible to win in Reno, Knuth equally impressed with how Johnson's team interacts with the community, glad to see student-athletes being instilled with professional qualities Johnson brings to the table - link
Penn State is the latest to create a Fan Council that will include five committees, Game Day Experience, Communications, Facilities, Sales & Ticketing, as well as Redemption & Retention, will meet at least once every quarter, overall group will number 25 with each serving on one of the noted committees, one-year terms for members, Asst. AD for Marketing Keen excited to engage - link
Key members of Wisconsin's administration will play important roles in next year's Men's Hockey Frozen Four even though it will be played in sunny Tampa, building on the relationship between former Deputy AD Frazier & Tampa Bay Sports Commission boss Higgins started back in 2012, Assoc. AD King & Sr. Assoc. AD Doherty will help to execute the event, effort will be compensated, but King notes the importance of exposure for the Badgers brand - link
Technology is at the forefront of the Minnesota Vikings new stadium, team is developing an app to engage with fans the moment they start planning their day-of trek to the game, an additional $14m was added to the construction budget to install 1,200 more flat screen TVs in the facility above & beyond the original 800, in-house wi-fi capacity will allow all 65k fans in attendance to have internet access at the same time, more - link
Big Ten ADs discussed the developments at Illinois as Minnesota AD Teague wonders if leaders are in touch enough with student-athletes, pure number of players means there are going to be issues from time to time in this regard, Rutgers AD Hermann points to establishing an open door culture for her student-athletes, Northwestern AD Phillips notes the strong & positive voice of student-athletes - link
More federal tax documents come to light, this time it's at Pittsburgh as MBB HC Dixon earned $3.2m last year making him the highest-paid university employee, then-FB HC Chryst's compensation was $1.6m, former AD Pederson's pay was $892k with a base salary of $588k, former Chancellor Nordenberg, of conference realignment fame, earned $849k - link
Sports Business Journal announced finalists for its Athletic Director of the Year award that will be presented today at its annual Sports Business Awards in NYC, Kentucky's Barnhart, Clemson's Radakovich, Baylor's McCaw & Arkansas AD Long all involved, Radakovich says the recognition is a testament to student-athletes, his staff & the entire Clemson Family - link
Comedian Colbert delivered the commencement address at Wake Forest & took at shot at Demon Deacons athletics in the process, "Still, while Wake has been a trailblazer, this is a school that respects tradition. Traditions like rolling the Quad with toilet paper after big wins. And this is actually an eco-friendly tradition because, looking at this season's win-loss record, you guys saved a lot of paper." - link
HC moves: Portland AD Leykam parts ways with 18-year Baseball HC Sperry after a 12-42 (7-20) campaign, Sperry went 347-601-1 overall during his tenure, Leykam committed to enhancing the Pilots program (link); Clemson AD Radakovich says it won't take long to make a decision on the future of Baseball HC Leggett once the Tigers season is complete, excited about the program's late season surge that included a sweep at Florida State last weekend (link)
Higher Education developments: Miami received a $55m commitment from the Miller family that pushes the school past its $1.6b goal for the Momentum2 campaign, Millers have now given $221m to the school that includes their name on the medical school; Son of Akron Prez Scarborough takes to Twitter to defend the school's branding move toward 'Ohio's polytechnic university,' ends up getting into it with an alum who thinks the university was belittled in the process - link, link
