National Collegiate Athletic Association
NCAA News Archive - 2000
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A call to reduce arms
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The NCAA News
The goal is simple for coaches in intercollegiate athletics: Motivate and teach student-athletes through participation in college sports to develop tools necessary for a successful life after college graduation. Oh, and win a few games, too.
Quite a few games, if recent history is any indication.
At least in the high-profile sports of football and men's and women's basketball, the goal of sticking with the educational mission may be only as successful as the team's record.
"Very few coaches in big-time sports can survive losing while being good teachers," NCAA President Cedric W. Dempsey acknowledged.
In men's basketball alone, there were 45 coaching changes in 1998-99, and 55 more last year. Jim Haney, executive director of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, predicts there will be at least 40 more this year, most of which will be firings.
"The need to win is very real," Haney said. "It doesn't take much for a coach to know what he has to do. Coaches have a role in mentoring student-athletes and promoting and marketing basketball, but most are keenly aware that if they don't win, they don't keep their jobs."
It's the same in football, according to Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association. "Coaches know their emphasis should be on academics, graduation rates and the quality of youngsters they bring into the program," he said, "but coaches also realize that they can do all of the above and still lose their job because they didn't win enough football games."
That's a difficult paradox to solve. Some might even say it's hypocritical to hold coaches accountable for fostering academic principles and then cut them loose because mounting losses cut into the school's ticket sales and marketability.
Yet, as Teaff points out, it's the nature of the beast. Most institutions strive for academic values, but unfortunately the higher value often is measured in the win column. And the reality is that winning generates the funds that are needed for every aspect of the university in order to keep its constituents happy. "A happy constituency has a happy checkbook," Teaff said. "And most constituencies are happier when their teams are winning."
Ernie Kent, men's basketball coach at the University of Oregon, said though the juxtaposition of maintaining the educational mission and winning games often is stressful, most coaches are quick to say the former trumps the latter.
"It's a delicate balancing act," he said.
"Yes, I was hired to win basketball games, but I'm also hired to develop and graduate young people so that they have an opportunity to have success in their lives after they've left the university.
"It can be done, but it comes with a mentality that goes far beyond just winning and losing. As a head coach, you need to have that mentality because if you don't, it's going to reflect upon graduation rates and those kinds of things. It's something that's dear to my heart -- I'm going to do everything in my power to graduate my players. The winning is important, but I'm going to graduate my players."
Haney and Teaff said Kent's philosophy rings true with the vast majority of basketball and football coaches -- that's it's a matter of mentoring first, and then if the wins come later, that's fine.
"Coaches are role models, mentors, teacher and leaders," Haney said. "They have a chance to impact people's lives. Ultimately, winning and losing determines whether they keep their job, but the mentoring is why they got into the profession."
And that's the way Teaff approaches his position, too. He said they key is to not let coaches forget those basic truths.
"The way we can effect change is to properly train, teach and motivate coaches to never get away from the concept that they are teachers, and that the experiences that kids have in athletics should ultimately enhance their lives once they leave athletics," said Teaff. "That shouldn't change. I don't think it will change. But there is an environment that we can't change.
"The only thing we can control is how we do our business -- the kind of role models we are and the representation we give to the institutions, no matter what size they are. We can't change the way the world focuses in on college athletics, but we are an integral part as coaches and we will have an impact."
--Gary T. Brown