Laurie Priest, director of athletics
Mount Holyoke College
Athletic Administration

"As an institution, sport serves an important social function in supporting conventional social values. In particular, sport is a training ground where boys learn about being men. Young boys learn, at an early age, that participating in athletics is an important, if not required, part of developing a masculine identity and gaining acceptance among peers. Homophobia, like other forms of oppression, serves the dominant societal group by establishing and maintaining power over those who have been disenfranchised, or denied their rights. ...

"Everyone gains when each person is judged, not on the basis of sexual orientation, but by his or her athletics abilities, the sense of fair play and the respect shown for themselves and their opponents. Sport has much to teach about life, and the willingness to tackle issues of societal justice on playing fields can have a significant impact on the quality of life for all students. Homophobia pervades the culture, and everyone, regardless of sexual identity, risks experiencing its harmful effects."

Voluntary workouts

Grant Teaff, executive director
American Football Coaches Association
USA Today

"There needs to be a tightening of the rules. We have volunteer workouts with no supervision. The NCAA doesn't want a coach coaching. But the NCAA is making a concerted effort to do what's best for the student-athletes and maybe to do what's best for the student-athlete we have to get away from predetermined concepts. You're going to have workouts because the competition is so great."

Athlete conduct

Tim Curry, sports sociologist
Ohio State University
New York Times

"Universities look at (misconduct off the field) as single incidents. They say so-and-so made a terrible mistake, and the person will be dealt with, and that's it. You don't get a sense of this as a systemic problem. They're not seen as a system of compliance, so they just keep recurring."

Women's sports

Joan Cronan, director of women's athletics
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Athletic Administration

"There have been so many changes over the past 25 years that I have a hard time even thinking about how far things have come. The thing I am proudest of is the trend of people feeling that women's athletics is important and critical within the athletics program. I think the interest in improvement in all the competitive levels and the ability to market and develop programs also are great achievements. It's exciting to see the corporate world become truly interested in what's happening in women's athletics.

"In traveling, when I am asked what my job is, I always answer: 'Women's athletics director at the University of Tennessee.' The response usually is that the person's daughter or granddaughter plays or does something with sports. That indicates a tremendous interest out there in women's sports, which will create huge opportunities for all women's athletics programs in the future."

Division I-A football playoff

Gary Barnett, head football coach
University of Colorado, Boulder
Fort Worth Star Telegram

"I wouldn't change (the BCS). I want to preserve the bowls, if we can, as part of college football. I choose to look at football differently than I choose to look at basketball. It certainly isn't what the fans want, but sometimes fans don't understand no matter how small a bowl, it's big to those two schools in that bowl.

"If you resort to an eight-team playoff, all you do is set up a situation where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. You widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots and eliminate the parity that has been making the game more interesting.

"For me to be in favor of a playoff, you need to have it available to enough teams where a school can land a spot and really boost itself to another level like you see in the basketball tournament. Otherwise, you're just going to have the same handful of teams year after year."