A Petition for Congressional Intervention in Intercollegiate Athletics
By Ken Reed
A petition supported by Champion Women, an advocacy organization for girls and women in athletics, and the Drake Group, an organization that works for academic integrity in intercollegiate athletics, is currently posted on Change.org.
The petition calls for a bipartisan Presidential Commission “to identify and examine issues of national concern related to the conduct of intercollegiate athletics and to make recommendations for the resolution of such issues.”
The petition claims the NCAA has failed to address numerous critical issues confronting intercollegiate athletics.
The reason is clear: big-time intercollegiate athletics is a win-at-all-costs (WAAC) and profit-at-all-costs (PAAC) entity, not an educational entity.
Moreover, the petition nails the reason why the NCAA won’t change and a Presidential Commission is needed:
“The NCAA is currently controlled by a small group of highly-commercialized athletic programs that set national policies to serve themselves; thereby making the organization incapable of reforming itself.”
Drake Group member, Allen Sack, a professor at the University of New Haven, says his organization strongly supports this effort.
“The Drake Group, an organization to which I have belonged for 16 years, has supported some sort of congressional effort to disclose information that would help to assess whether the NCAA actually accomplishes its stated mission of maintaining athletes as an integral part of the student body, and retaining a clear line of demarcation between college and professional sports,” according to Sack. “If you support a bipartisan president’s commission to examine this issue please sign off on this petition.”
Please take a look and give it serious consideration.
— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans
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"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- League of Fans Sports Policy Director Ken Reed quoted in Washington Post column titled "What happened to P.E.? It’s losing ground in our push for academic improvement," by Jay Mathews
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
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