Vision of future is as narrow as membership gap is wide

Scott Cowen, president
Tulane University
New Orleans Times-Picayune

"I think that Division I-A athletics is getting further and further away from the academic missions of our universities. I think the BCS arrangement was one gigantic step to try to put a bigger gap between the haves and the have-nots. So you have six conferences in the BCS sharing the vast majority of the money with everybody else getting the crumbs. And yet we are supposed to compete at the same level.

"I would not be surprised if the BCS was challenged in court and found to be illegal, a cartel. Nobody's done it because everybody's afraid to do it. No individual school wants to take up the legal responsibility to do it, and then everybody who's in a non-BCS conference lives in the hope they'll become a BCS conference and they don't want to offend anybody by doing it.

"The BCS has been one of the worst things to happen in the last decade to Division I-A. It's really created a gap there.

"(What adds to that gap) is what's going on in the NCAA. The NCAA has exacerbated an already bad situation by changing the membership criteria, effective in 2004. The net result of it is to make it even more costly to remain in Division I-A. In our case, we're having to add another women's sport.

"Either it's conscious or unconscious, but I think there's an effort out there to divide this up between the haves and the have-nots, and the have-nots are increasingly being squeezed. I think someday someone will have the courage to challenge that in the courts and hopefully get that changed. And then hopefully the NCAA will come to its senses, and not increase the barriers to being in Division I-A but perhaps lower them. But right now, the trend line is not good."

Diversity

Bob Minnix, associate director of athletics
Florida State University
Miami Herald

Discussing University of Notre Dame football coach Tyrone Willingham's impact on the issue of minority hiring in football:

"He's been thrust into a situation like Tiger Woods in golf, where he is a minority in a place where they haven't been. (However, Willingham) recognizes the burden, and he understands it. I think what we're seeing with him is that Ty has started the de-colorization of the game. Once you start winning, it's amazing how color starts to fade."