Is this Leadership or Greed?
I know sports metaphors are over used a lot. But I feel compelled to write about Friday’s article in the www.washingtonpost.com sports section by the great writer John Feinstein on the expansion of the men’s NCAA basketball tournament.
Basically the NCAA Committee wants to expand the tournament from 65 teams to a 96 team field. A huge financial bonanza for the NCAA. Yesterday in Indianapolis the NCAA held a press conference with Greg Shaheen who is leading this expansion effort. It was his job to convince everyone how the new system will work and that they are still in the exploratory phase. Yea right! April Fools!
What was amazing to me is how he skirted around the issue of student athletes missing more class room time due to the expanded field. The kids are going to miss more school at a time when graduation rates at least at the top Division 1 schools is at a terribly low percentage. The majority of the kids in Division 1 have no chance to compete at the next level. They need degrees!
Even the Federal Government is concerned about graduation rates. They are so bad that the Education Secretary has indicated they may place minimum eligible graduation rate requirements for teams to qualify for future tournaments. What we don’t need is more Government intervention. What we do need is open, frank and honest leaders of the NCAA who need to be transparent and open and honest with the public why they are intending to expand the field. This all about greed and arrogance; two terrible and very consistent traits of leaders. We know what happens to organizations who have an iflux of these leadership characteristics : Enron, Arthur Anderson and Madoff, to name a few.
According to Edelman www.edelman.com a top PR firm and their 2010 Trust Barometer Survey, trust and transparency now drive corporate reputation as much as the quality of the products and services they provide. Is the NCAA being honest and truthful with us? I think not. Stop insulting our intelligence. We know it is all about the money.
I have no problem with organizations making money. What I have an issue with is leaders who are not open, honest and transparent with public, their employees, customers and everyone in between.
Who should care about student graduation rates, or devaluing the regular season of Division 1 basketball. You should. So should the alumni and The President’s of the Universities and Colleges of the Division 1 schools. Will they speak up or silently ignore the obvious and sit back and watch the money pour in.
Lead or Greed?