from a feature in Illini Guys by Matt Stevens:
When asked if prominent power conference university athletics departments want to be governed, University of Illinois Josh Whitman needed a few seconds to pause, breath and sigh before responding.
Whitman spent several minutes during his annual roundtable discussion in June promoting the idea that some governance will be required to stabilize what can only be described as a chaotic era of collegiate athletics. However, Whitman, who has taken over as the chairperson of the NCAA’s Division I Council, wasn’t naive or unaware of the contrary recent evidence to suggest his plea for stability might be falling on deaf ears when the alternative is a more competitive present and future.
“I don’t expect enforcement to happen through the existing mechanism that we’ve all known through the last decades. So, it must be a new mechanism and a new structure needs to be put in place to try and monitor this environment,” Whitman said.
Despite numerous recent examples of power conference programs working in their best interest without regulations and perceived historical ethics being considered, Whitman is still publicly advocating for some sort of governing body to put in place that all university presidents/chancellors, athletics directors and coaches can see as a sense of fair play.
“I think schools want to be governed,” Whitman said. “I think there’s an acknowledgement that we need structure. In order to have fair competition, you have to have structure. So, whether that structure exists at the conference level or the national level, there are underlying principles to athletics to sport that require some level of basic governance that creates rules and maintains an effort to create the most level playing field you can have. I’m hopeful but at the end of the day, (individual university athletics departments) are going to have to get together and make a collective decision to look in the mirror and say this is important to us to say we want structure, we want rules. If we don’t, we may keep going down the path we have been. I’m hopeful as we look to implement some of these changes, we’ll be able to unify around an approach that can have sustainability.”
When asked if prominent power conference university athletics departments want to be governed, University of Illinois Josh Whitman needed a few seconds to pause, breath and sigh before responding.
Whitman spent several minutes during his annual roundtable discussion in June promoting the idea that some governance will be required to stabilize what can only be described as a chaotic era of collegiate athletics. However, Whitman, who has taken over as the chairperson of the NCAA’s Division I Council, wasn’t naive or unaware of the contrary recent evidence to suggest his plea for stability might be falling on deaf ears when the alternative is a more competitive present and future.
“I don’t expect enforcement to happen through the existing mechanism that we’ve all known through the last decades. So, it must be a new mechanism and a new structure needs to be put in place to try and monitor this environment,” Whitman said.
Despite numerous recent examples of power conference programs working in their best interest without regulations and perceived historical ethics being considered, Whitman is still publicly advocating for some sort of governing body to put in place that all university presidents/chancellors, athletics directors and coaches can see as a sense of fair play.
“I think schools want to be governed,” Whitman said. “I think there’s an acknowledgement that we need structure. In order to have fair competition, you have to have structure. So, whether that structure exists at the conference level or the national level, there are underlying principles to athletics to sport that require some level of basic governance that creates rules and maintains an effort to create the most level playing field you can have. I’m hopeful but at the end of the day, (individual university athletics departments) are going to have to get together and make a collective decision to look in the mirror and say this is important to us to say we want structure, we want rules. If we don’t, we may keep going down the path we have been. I’m hopeful as we look to implement some of these changes, we’ll be able to unify around an approach that can have sustainability.”
