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by Kyle Ringo
Daily Camera
August 30, 2015
CU Boulder Press Release
CU-Boulder Department of Athletics Explores Creation of Sports Governance Center
Not long after he took over as athletic director at Colorado in 2013, Rick George and senior women’s administrator Ceal Barry were invited by professor Roger Pielke Jr. to sit in on his class and watch students debate topics in sports.
George was enthralled by the differing perspectives and the reactions students had to learning more about the issues. Not long afterward, George and Pielke began discussing an idea that is now taking shape in earnest.
CU will announce Monday the proposed creation of the CU Sports Governance Center, an academic unit within the athletic department where research will be conducted on major issues in the sports world today and in the future. It could include anything from issues behind the FIFA scandal to concussions to the NCAA to sports marketing and more.
“The sky is the limit as far the research is concerned,” Pielke said.
The long-term goals of the project are to develop a teaching program that could evolve into a certificate students can earn while at CU, participate in collaborative research and become a source for the public for unbiased research on major issues in sports.
College athletics have gone through major changes in recent years from conference affiliation changes to major rules changes and a major expansion of support and benefits for student athletes. George and Pielke believe a center like the one they’re proposing at CU could have had a major impact on those discussions in recent years if it had been conceived earlier.
“I think the great thing for us is to be able to have the research on these topics that we’re facing as we move forward,” George said. “I think it will be really helpful to a lot of people. I don’t have to research them and people on my staff don’t have time to research a lot of the different issues, but if we have a tool to do that it could be great for us and other people. Read more …
