Cedric Dempsey, president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) visited USM last week to meet with coaches and administrators and spoke to students on issues the student athlete faces, as well as the future of college athletics.
Dempsey has been visiting many Division III campuses across the country, and Athletic Director Al Bean’s persistance brought Dempsey to this one. Division III schools are near and dear to Dempsey as he graduated from Division III Albion College.
The NCAA is the organization of the colleges and universities in this country which speaks and acts on collegiate athletics’ matters at the national level.
“It has been called a more complicated bureaucracy than the United States government,” Dempsey joked.
Dempsey has held his position at the NCAA since 1994. However, at the end of this calendar year Dempsey will retire after 52 years in intercollegiate sports as player, coach, athletic administrator and president of the NCAA.
In one speaking engagement, Dempsey addressed what he believed to be the biggest issue in the NCAA right now: the dilemma of decisions being made based on financial situations, which may not be in the direct interest of the student. Although this is mainly a problem for Division I schools, Dempsey expressed concern that this problem could ripple throughout the organization.
“There is sometimes an imbalance of education and business responsibilities. . There is an arms race to stay up and be competitive. Only 48 schools in Division I have accomplished this goal. Others are spending more than they are generating,” Dempsey said.
Dempsey says that this financial issue is driving a lot of the other problems in the NCAA.
Dempsey also addressed concern for athletes leaving school early for the pros, and discussed the fact that some children are being scouted as young as seven and eight years old. He said the NCAA does not have the ability to control that, but is using all of the resources available to help young athletes “make good, solid judgements” about their futures.
Another financial issue Dempsey regarded was the current Bowl system for football championships.
“At one point I favored the old Bowl system. It was a way for schools and communities to celebrate football. Now the BCS (Bowl Championship System) is over-commercialized marketing events.”
One of the major goals Dempsey sees for the future for all three NCAA divisions is encouraging athletes towards academics with incentives to complete degree programs instead of just taking the classes to keep them eligible in their sport.
Alive Editor Elise Adams can be contacted at [email protected]