National Collegiate Athletic Association |
The NCAA News - News and FeaturesJanuary 19, 1998 NCAA CONVENTION -- State of the Association speech addresses change within NCAA Following is the text of NCAA Executive Director Cedric W. Dempsey's State of the Association address at the 1998 NCAA Convention.
there is an individual among us who is rare in both the length and breadth of service provided to this organization. This individual has served the membership in numerous roles on an uninterrupted basis for the last 34 years. His service began in 1964, as a member of the Nominating Committee. Since that beginning, he has served on 20 standing and special committees. And in 1973, he was elected president of the NCAA. Attaining that office has frequently marked both the pinnacle and end of service for NCAA volunteers, but for Alan Chapman, it was only the beginning. For the last 25 years, Alan has been as much a fixture of this dais as the American flag. As parliamentarian for the past 29 Conventions, he has brought stability and order to our proceedings in a way that has gained the respect of his colleagues and the absolute devotion of those who have chaired these gatherings and who have received his wise counsel and unerring rulings. Alan, I present to you this plaque as a memento of your service as parliamentarian. It reads: "Alan Chapman, Mr. Mootnicity, in recognition of his significant contributions as NCAA parliamentarian, 1974-1998." Ladies and gentlemen, Alan Chapman, Rice University. Alan, this is not the first plaque you've received from the NCAA, nor do we expect it to be the last. We look forward to your adding to those 34 years of service. And for those who don't understand the term "mootnicity," Alan has agreed to hold a class after this session. Significant change Today, as we look at the state of the Association at the end of an eventful 1997, significant change characterizes both the year and the organization. First, as soon as last year's Convention ended, the final stages of work began on our transition to a new governance structure. By creating an Executive Committee composed entirely of college presidents and by the establishment of presidential bodies at the head of governance for all three divisions, this Association has finally responded to the pleas of more than 90 years for college presidents to "take charge" of college athletics. Today's structure goes well beyond the symbolic link between the goals of college sport and the mission of higher education. College presidents -- the same men and women who are responsible for the fulfillment of their institutions' missions -- are now constitutionally mandated to lead and influence the work of the NCAA. Moreover, the entire governance structure is more broadly based. The total number of membership volunteers has grown by more than 50 percent, or in other words, from approximately 300 to 450 volunteers. That means that more of you are actively engaged than ever before in the integration of college sports with higher education. Second, the change in structure means a change in the role of the national office staff. There is a new expectation by the presidential bodies for the staff to be even more engaged in the problem-solving process. However, the tradition of quality service to the membership and execution of the membership's decisions has been and will continue to be the standard of performance by your national office. New headquarters Third, there is more change ahead for the staff and the membership as new headquarters are constructed and the national office moves to Indianapolis. For 46 years, Kansas City has been the home of the NCAA, and a good home it has been. But we must move forward. Ground will be broken on the new site in March 1998, and we expect to complete the move by the fall of 1999. Make no mistake about it; this move represents significant change -- for the staff and for the membership. Among our greatest challenges over the next few years will be the successful transition of our staff to our new office, while we fully discharge our obligations to the membership. But the move to Indianapolis also signals new opportunities. This move will place the Association's national office in a community that has worked hard to fulfill its own dream to become the amateur sports capital of the world. And it moves the national office closer to the center of our membership's population, which provides an increased opportunity as a meeting place for the membership. Significantly, the move will allow the Association to open the doors of its new headquarters debt free. When the decision was announced, we noted a savings of $50 million to the Association over the next 20 years. But we are confident that the savings to the Association will continue to grow well beyond that estimate. Fourth, as we work to make the transition to Indianapolis, we have recognized that change may be nowhere more pervasive, more predictable and sometimes more perplexing than in the area of technology. The Association's Internet site -- NCAA Online -- which we launched only a year and a half ago, has grown steadily to meet the explosive demand for information. Still, we know that this is only the beginning. The opportunities are abundant -- if not limitless -- for rapid delivery of information, exchange of ideas and even decision-making through the focused and intelligent use of new technology. In a division forum at this Convention, we will show you how the national office can continue to help the membership meet its needs for interactive communication. We must explore and exploit how we can use cutting-edge technology in the Internet, telecommunications and data exchange to benefit all our constituents. A fifth area of change that I want to emphasize is the dynamic tension between the need for increased revenues and the NCAA's mission. College sports are more popular than ever before, and that popularity has resulted in our ability to generate more revenues through gate receipts, television contracts, fund-raising and corporate sponsors. At the same time, operating costs have increased, driven largely by the impact of rising tuition on financial aid; the desire for more and better facilities; rising administrative and coaching salaries; and the cost associated with our commitment to comply with Title IX. Positioned squarely in the middle of these competing forces are student-athletes who see prosperity for everyone except themselves. They may not know of -- or appreciate -- the economic imperatives. They may wonder why they aren't participating more significantly in what may appear to be the new gold rush. I want to talk more about this topic in a few moments. These are perhaps the most far-reaching of the changes that took place in the NCAA in 1997. It truly has been an eventful year. Indeed, we can expect change to be a constant companion and a constant challenge for the rest of the millennium. Planning priorities We in the national office have begun to address these changes by developing planning priorities through the year 2001. I want to share these priorities with you, and I will report back to you on their status over the next 31Ž2 years. First, we must continue to implement the Association's new governance structure. Over the next couple of days, you will hear more from your divisional leaders regarding the first steps in this process. There are at least eight significant areas that merit focused attention.
A second priority for the next three years is the management of NCAA 2000 -- the transition to the new national headquarters. This is more than just a move to a new city. We have to oversee the design and construction of a new workplace environment, debut the new Hall of Champions, and relocate the staff and office. We must create the best possible headquarters for this Association. We'll be working to establish a corporate and a civic partnership with the city of Indianapolis. And during this transition, we will strive to maintain workplace effectiveness and the quality of service you expect. A third priority will be to develop and implement a coordinated public relations plan designed to enhance public support and understanding of the NCAA's mission, role, challenges and achievements. The Association has a number of public relations challenges where the public believes, rightly or wrongly, that our institutional practices fall short of our high ideals. For example:
The first step in developing a sound public relations plan must include survey research focused on the perceptions of key NCAA constituents. It must include message development and testing, and then implementation of a comprehensive communications plan that conveys the NCAA story. A fourth and very important priority is balancing the Association's mission and values with marketing and promotional initiatives. The leadership has made it clear that it is important to strengthen our marketing efforts:
Maintaining balance At the same time, it is imperative that we monitor the level of commercialization to maintain a balance with our mission. This isn't new territory. In 1922, in his State of the Association comments to the 17th annual NCAA Convention, Gen. Palmer A. Pierce, the first and longest-serving president of the NCAA, warned the delegates of the effects of commercialization. He said, "The enormous receipts tend to make of this modern, intensely spectacular game a great business proposition -- one to be conducted for the money that is in it rather than for the benefit it can and should be to the educational life of our colleges." Sounds pretty familiar to us 75 years later, doesn't it? In all our programs, we must be mindful of both the fiscal imperatives and our responsibility to our mission. That brings me to the final, and clearly the most important, priority -- our mission, to keep the interests of student-athletes at the heart of NCAA decision-making. It is in times of change such as now that we must return to first principles -- for us, the centrality of the student-athlete. As a member of the secretariat of the higher education organizations, I participated in a strategic planning retreat a few weeks ago. A clear message that emerged from that retreat was that we are in the midst of a learning revolution. In this paradigm, the institution exists for the student. It is a paradigm in which the focus has shifted from teaching to learning, and from the teacher to the learner. The parallel to our enterprise is obvious: intercollegiate athletics must exist for the student-athlete. And so, it is to this first principle that we must continually return. We exist because there are student-athletes. This is the priority that must be first on the agenda for all of us. Today, our revenues have grown far beyond anything Gen. Pierce and his generation could have imagined. The budget this year is $267 million, 85 percent of which is returned to the membership in the form of direct dollars, championships and services. We have done much to add to the welfare of student-athletes. We have created the special assistance fund, the academic-enhancement fund, catastrophic-injury insurance, and the postgraduate and degree-completion scholarships. Through these funds, we distribute more than $36 million annually for student-athletes. But not all student-athlete interests are financial and not all problems can be solved with money. Therefore, I solicit your support in making sure in the next three years that we focus on the five following student-athlete interests. The first focus: I want to make sure that we are committed to a continuing dialog with student-athletes. We cannot learn until we listen, and we cannot make wise decisions until we understand. I ask you, is your student-athlete advisory board operating? Are you providing your student-athletes an opportunity to be heard in an open and nonthreatening environment? If the answer is no, I'd encourage you to focus on these matters. The second focus: I want to make sure that we are committed to the academic success of our student-athletes. We must not be afraid to evaluate our initial- and continuing-eligibility requirements. At the same time we need to ensure that our practices promote academic success. For example, are you monitoring the balance between the time your student-athletes are engaged in their athletic and their academic pursuits? I ask you, are 16 basketball games in a five-week period during exams appropriate? Or is a situation in which athletes are only on campus six days within a two-week exam period acceptable? We must make sure our practices align with our ideals. The third focus: I want to make sure that we are contributing to the development of student-athlete life skills -- skills that bring meaning and purpose and fulfillment long after life on the playing field is finished. We now have 201 institutions participating in our life skills program. Does your institution have a commitment to this program? If not, I encourage you to evaluate your efforts and have one up and running by this time next year. The fourth focus: I want to make sure the NCAA leads by example with regard to issues of inclusion and diversity. Everyone benefits from diversity of thought, experience and leadership. This is especially true for young student-athletes as it relates to diversity within our coaching ranks. In your last recruitment for a coach, what steps did you take to increase the ethnic and gender diversity of your staff? Our performance in this area leaves much to be desired. We must all re-double our efforts. And, finally: I want to encourage the discussion that has begun on the appropriateness of the term "amateur" as it applies to today's student-athletes. Does the very term with all its symbolic and historic meanings place unfair perceptions and unnecessary limitations on student-athletes? I encourage those committees reviewing this topic to propose a new paradigm that reflects current reality vis-a-vis what it means to be a college eligible student-athlete. In conclusion, let me emphasize that addressing these five challenges is critical if we are to meet our mission, our core values, our first principles. I encourage each of you to take up these challenges as we begin 1998. The truth is, win-loss records and profit-and-loss statements will be forgotten. In the end, we will be judged by the world, our peers, ourselves and those student-athletes who pass through our doors on how successfully we fulfill our mission. I thank you.
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It is rare that we use this particular forum to honor individuals who have volunteered service to the NCAA. But