AAUW holds event for Title IX

Title IX celebrated its "official" signing date birthday over the summer, but the education initiatives about the legislation are far from over.

To set the tone for the new academic year, the State College chapter of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) organized a short, yet informative lecture on Title IX on Monday evening at the Schlow Centre Region Library.

Peg Pennepacker, the athletic director in the State College Area School District, drew upon three decades of her experience in public education to talk about the challenges of Title IX in K-12, and primarily high school education.

Pennapacker highlighted a number of issues she runs into as a Title IX consultant to schools. One is that students, parents and school administrators are often under the impression that Title IX has no implications outside of athletics. "Title IX is not a sports law; it is an education law," Pennepacker said.

She also emphasized that Title IX does not require the cut of men's and boys' sports, which is another common myth about the legislation.

In light of the recent news that a Texas high school is planning to spend $60 million dollars on a football stadium (see earlier blog post), Pennepacker also talked about the rules that apply to high schools in regards to funds from boosters. She clarified that as long as the institution receives federal funding, it is the schools responsibility to ensure there is no disparity in participation opportunities under Title IX.

The presentation was concluded with a legislative update in the State of Pennsylvania: a new section is to be added to the Pennsylvania Public School Code, which would require schools to make the data of their interscholastic athletics opportunities publicly available. You can read the bill and the article here.

A particularly significant of this Article is that, additionally to reporting participation per gender and ethnicity/race, schools will also have to disclose the total value of non-school support (boosters, alumni, etc.) and indicate how these funds are distributed per team. The Article comes into effect in 2013, while the non-school support fund reports will begin in 2015.

For resources about Title IX compliance, see the AAUW guide or our earlier Title IX blog posts. 

-- Dunja Antunovic

High school football stadium costs $60 million

While many U.S. cities are defaulting on their debts or are the verge of bankruptcy, Allen High School in Texas is set to open its $60 million football stadium later this month.

No, that is not a typo. Sixty million dollars is the correct amount.

In the throes of the Great Recession, Allen voters overwhelmingly supported a $119 million bond initiative that included funding for the 18,000-seat stadium, a new auditorium, and a “transportation, maintenance and nutrition center”, FOXSportsSouthwest.com reported.

The website reported that the district has almost 5,400 high school-age students and that the previous stadium really could not accommodate all the fans. (The article does a solid job of explaining the situation and easing the initial furor one might feel after hearing about a $60 million stadium.)

One section of the article really grabbed my attention. “The stadium itself serves more than just football. Under the east stands is an 84-yard long weight room. Under the west stands is a workout room and coaches offices for the wrestling program. There are also indoor hitting areas for the golf teams.”

Though some soccer matches will be played there as well, I am left with one question: Will female athletes get much benefit from the new facility?

The issue here is not the money spent as officials believe the stadium will be a revenue generator. Rather the concern should be whether this project helped as many athletes – male and female – as it possibly could.

-- Steve Bien-Aimé

Fifth Summit on Communication and Sport: Recap and Research Review

The latest rumor, the latest fumbled play, the latest major trade; when it happens in sports, it’s likely to happen via social media. As fans become professional bloggers and Twitter becomes a source for receiving to-the-minute news, sports organizations quickly have to adapt to changing pressures in sports communication. These and other topics were explored at this weekend’s Fifth Summit on Communication and Sport, hosted by Bradley University.

Penn State doctoral students Brett Sherrick and Melanie Formentin were among the presenters discussing everything from uses of social media, to framing of athletes and league, to critical analysis of sport cultures.

On behalf of the Curley Center and co-authors Steve Bien-Aime and Marie Hardin, Sherrick presented the results of the study “High school athletes: How are they covered?” As part of an ongoing series of projects examining the extent and impact of social media-based and traditional coverage of high school athletes, this study found that high school sports reporters frame these athletes as recruits. In general, reporters remove athletes from the academic setting, are reluctant to describe athletes in negative terms, and rarely include the athletes’ voices through direct questions.

Formentin, a second-year doctoral student, presented her work about the NFL lockout: “For all our fans who dig this game: Communication strategies during the NFL lockout.” Using critical discourse analysis and crisis communication theories to guide her analysis, she found that fans were the dominant theme of league and player association messages at the height of the lockout. Of particular interest was the consistent use of “empty” messages that were intended to appease fans while simultaneously avoiding significant discussion about the critical issues associated with a lockout.

Among the findings were that the league altered the availability of lockout-related information in the months following the dispute. Although data collection began during the lockout, it was not completed until a few months after the crisis had abated. At the time of the lockout, numerous articles and press releases were available examining a variety of issues related to the ongoing collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiations. Following the lockout, an “NFL Lockout” topic page was made available, but an analysis of articles revealed that negative coverage had been excluded from the list of stories. Instead, headlines featured news such as Ochocino playing soccer, travel directors preparing for no season, and players receiving permission to attend Kenny Chesney concerts. Very few articles remained detailing actual negotiation or bargaining news that occurred during the lockout. On the other hand, a search for “NFLPA” returned articles that highlighted some of the more negative aspects of the lockout such as the PA’s decertification and the crisis’ ongoing progress: players “save money and prepare for lockout”; “Union brings different in tone, opinion to CBA discussions”; “agents don’t expect immediate progress on negotiations.”

These changes were telling because they spoke directly to the crisis communication strategies used by the NFL during the lockout. Particularly, they exemplified how the league made attempts to downplay negative information while pointing blame toward the players—blame being a crisis response strategy typically reserved for victims in a crisis. More telling was that these strategies were framed within “empty” messages directed toward fans.

Early in the lockout, NFL Executive Vice President Jeff Pash was quoted saying: “We want the fans to know that we’re trying… and if we don’t get it done, we know what we’ll have let them down.” A statement from the NFL also stated: “Our message to the fans is this: We know that you are not interested in any disruption to your enjoyment of the NFL. … We have great respect for the fans.” Quotes such as these exemplified how the league maintained consistent communication with fans, but did so in a detached and hollow way.

Critical discourse analysis suggests reading these quotes not only to understand which voice is privileged in a situation, but also to understand what messages are not being delivered. Here, league attempts to control the mood about the lockout were based on accommodative messages—a crisis response strategy that focuses on accepting some level of responsibility without outright apologizing. Further, the quotes show how the league avoided addressing negative issues about the lockout. Instead of drawing attention to the topics being debated (revenue sharing, player safety) or discussing the trickle-down effects (employee layoffs, financial impacts on cities), the NFL spoke about getting “it” done and preventing “disruptions to [fan] enjoyment."

By addressing the lockout in nominalized terms and focusing on fan consumption of sport, the severity and impact of the crisis is turned into something harmless and the discussion of actual stakes are avoided. Fans were never represented via direct quotes, showing the league exercised power through a one-way relationship designed to build a sense of consensus about lockout related issues: The lockout was bad and would negatively impact fans, but the league was intent on making efforts to do what was best for fans. This strategy bucks suggestions made in crisis communication literature, which suggest organizations should take responsibility when they have caused a crisis, and should make genuine attempts to provide stakeholders with relevant and critical information as it becomes available. Instead, the NFL attempted to deflect blame for the crisis by avoiding discussions about primary issues and appeasing fans through one-way messages void of information.- Melanie Formentin

Curley Center Chat Addresses Coverage of Initial Eligibility

While NCAA rules limit when a college coach can talk about an incoming student-athlete, media members almost invariably focus on standout high school students headed for college or pursue in-depth stories about recruiting.

Along with those somewhat opposing perspectives come ethical issues that touch on everything from privacy to the potential high-stakes pressure of intercollegiate athletics. And that backdrop poses problems for everyone involved—coaches, the media and the student-athletes themselves.

The related ethical challenges, responsibilities for all parties involved and even typical outcomes will be discussed at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 28, during an online chat conducted by the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.

"Issues in Covering Initial Eligibility" is free, and people may access and participate in the session by visiting http://sportsjourn.psu.edu/chats online.

Participants include: Coquese Washington, women's basketball coach at Penn State, and Steve Wieberg, a sports writer who focuses on intercollegiate athletics for USA Today.

Malcolm Moran, the Knight Chair in Sports Journalism and Society and director of the Curley Center, will serve as moderator. The hour-long session will focus on journalism coverage of recruits, recruiting and many related issues with insights and opinions from the perspective of of a coach as well as that of a journalist.

In addition, the user-friendly format of the online chats allow for abundant interaction and questions from participants all over the world. Others involved with intercollegiate athletics, fellow journalists, college students and sports fans all may ask a question, comment or follow along by simply navigating to the chat online.

The Curley Center explores issues and trends in sports journalism through instruction, outreach, programming and research. The Center's undergraduate curricular emphasis includes courses in sports writing, sports broadcasting, sports information, sports, media and society, and sports and public policy, which is cross-listed with the Penn State Dickinson School of Law.

Conference realignment: Not the only story in college sports

While shuffling in the Big 12, ACC, and other conferences has grabbed sports headlines this week, we wonder if the story with far bigger, more profound long-term implications for the future of sports in the educational setting isn't the recent NCAA decision about coverage of high school athletes by the Longhorn Network -- owned by ESPN -- and the important issues raised in ESPN's proposal to put such programming on this network.
The reason for the NCAA decision to ban the network from airing high school games is obvious: The potential conflict-of-interest related to recruiting. But as college sports networks become part of the stable of offerings of a mega-media company like ESPN, the power of the NCAA to regulate them becomes significantly weakened. At the same time, the allure of cheap programming that high school sports provides is just too attractive for outfits like ESPN to ignore.
As John Ourand pointed out in a Sports Business Daily story last week: "High school programming on television and online is exploding at such a rate that new rules seem outdated almost immediately."
Our concern is with the bigger implications of this explosion in high school coverage. How will the growing media spotlight on younger and younger athletes in scholastic programs impact the way these programs are treated in the educational setting? We already see the problems and challenges caused at the collegiate level as sports have moved away from their educational mission to an ethic around performance and revenue-generation.
And ultimately, that might be the biggest story we're seeing in college sports right now.
--Marie Hardin

Preserving 'amateur' nature of high school sports

High school sports could slowly be creeping toward mirroring the collegiate levels and that would be a bad sign for “amateur” teen athletes.

The University of Texas has started its own sports network and it tried – unsuccessfully -- to gain permission to broadcast high school games (see NCAA statement). Not only could that give Texas an unfair advantage in recruiting, it could start a slippery slope that could forever change American sports.

College sports is a big business worth billions annually -- and that kind of money attracts unsavory characters. Maintaining the “purity” of amateur athletics requires extraordinary efforts from colleges and tremendous discipline from players. However, as evidenced by the abundance of recent violations, scandals and scathing allegations, college sports has been tainted by money, too.

If millions -- and perhaps billions of dollars -- reach high school athletics, is there any hope that it will escape the myriad problems college sports have had?

The media have not been silent about the growing concerns regarding prep sports – for example: George Dohrmann's recent book Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit and the Youth Basketball Machine and in older books such as Sole Influence: Basketball, Corporate Greed, and the Corruption of America's Youth by Dan Wetzel and Don Yaeger.

The economic potential of high school sports in terms of broadcasting, merchandizing, etc., is tantalizing. But the NCAA and other amateur governing bodies must stand strong and allow high school sports to remain for the kids – amateurs who play for the love of the game and don’t have millions of dollars riding on every pass, jump shot or swing.

-- Steve Bien-Aimé

HS sports: 'one of the next great markets'

According to rankings, the biggest high school football game in the country tonight will be played in South Florida tonight and will -- courtesy of ESPN -- be aired for the nation to watch. Marketers from Nike and other major brands will be watching because, as an article in the Sun-Sentinel notes, they have "targeted high school sports as one of the next great markets." Nike moved into one of the high schools this week with a full-force marketing campaign aimed at students.
The Sun-Sentinel article suggests that ESPN's exposure of high school sports on a national level may be a "win-win" situation, as schools' travel costs are covered and they get a small sum of money for playing. But Fred Grimm of the Miami Herald correctly takes ESPN to task for exploiting the cheap labor at the high school level. He points out the obvious: ESPN is cultivating a potential goldmine by contriving "big-time" high school matchups, selling the audience and avoiding the astronomical rights fees it pays for college sports.
The implications are sickening. Do we really want to import the problems with academic integrity we have at the college level into public schools? As Grimm writes, "On Friday night, during ESPN's Old Spice High School Showcase Presented By Nike, the commodities will be offered up on national television, along with after-shave and athletic apparel."
On a related note, ESPN has also announced plans to launch a Web site devoted to coverage of girls' high school sports (beyond what it provides on RISE). Again, such a branded ("W") site could be a moneymaker for the net by allowing it to sell eyeballs not typically attracted to its products in large numbers. But it is likely that this idea will end up on ESPN's scrap heap: Making a female-focused, sport-focused media product that sells is an exceedingly difficult proposition (just ask the editors at SI Women or at Real Sports, for instance).

ESPN to 'tread lightly' in covering youths

ESPN President George Bodenheimer, speaking at a Penn State Forum today, was asked about coverage of high school sports, an area where ESPN continues to expand. He said he believes ESPN has a social responsibility to help protect the integrity and mission of scholastic sports -- and avoid being an "800-pound gorilla." 'We're going to be in it and tread lightly," he said. But at the same time, he argued that the net must be in the game. Large-scale coverage and interest in high school sports is already here, he added.

Sprinting toward the 'big-time' model

The movement of scholastic sports toward the college and professional sports models, in terms of media, marketing, and -- time will tell -- values, continues with the announcement in Sports Business Daily yesterday that "MSG Varsity" will launch Sept. 24 to 3 million CableVision subscribers in New York. The RSN-lookalike will feature a daily news show, a reality show, a call-in show, quiz show and games. MSG Varsity will include an "interactive" channel (where viewers can opt for different games) and a fully loaded Web site.
Who will get the advertising revenue? SBJ writes, "Cablevision is not paying the schools a rights fee for the programming, but describes its relationship as 'an unprecedented partnership' that will see the New York media company donate video equipment, Web templates, training and scholarships to schools that participate."
I hope someone keeps an eye on the 'unprecedented partnership' -- and exactly how the "equipment, training and scholarships" take form.

High school sportainment the ESPN way

SI this week examines "March Madness" in high school basketball, focusing on the recent ESPN RISE national tournament. The tourney "represented the NCAA tournament sensibility brought to high school," Phil Taylor writes.
The article goes on to describe the big business emerging from the marriage of big media and scholastic sports. ESPN, in particular, has made a high-profile push into publicizing youth sports. The talent is free and the rights fees are almost as cheap.
Is that where we want high school sports to go? As a culture, we long ago decided to allow collegiate athletics to mimic the pro model (except for, as Andrew Zimbalist points out, the fact that athletes are unpaid and the NCAA can claim non-profit status). Do we want scholastic sports to mimic the college model? What are the implications for athletics in education at the primary and secondary level? Who profits -- and who loses? Parents, educators, activists, politicians -- everyone needs to be in on this conversation.

Prep sports: In 'an encouraging twilight'

In a New York Times article yesterday about the allure of high school football, sportswriter Jere Longman writes wistfully about the tradition of Thanksgiving-Day games among high schoolers. Although Longman concedes -- and a companion article about steroid use among athletes confirms -- that high school football is "not pure," Longman adds: "It is still a game, not yet a business."
The operative word may be yet.. Longman writes that prep football is in an "encouraging twilight" -- a hopeful metaphor for the way things are changing. High-profile rankings and a funding system for youth sports that is increasingly squeezing out lower-income students are two factors in the evolution of youth sports into a money-driven model. (Mark Hyman's blog, Youth Sports Parents, is a great way to follow the evolution. His latest recommends that we consider banning youth sports tournaments on national holidays.)

Converting HS football to revenue

I've written in a number of posts about the growing focus on high school sports as a revenue-producer for media properties such as ESPN and FSN. Although we've seen increased focus on high school sports by newspaper companies through focused Web sites and weekly tab editions, Gannett's new "Grid" may be the most ambitious multimedia effort. Gannett Broadcasting's VP for new media, Kerry Oslund, in an e-mail interview with Al Tompkins, described the effort to air football games across the country as a relatively inexpensive one, bolstered by help from Mogulus and highschoolsports.net.
Talk about programming on the cheap with potential to deliver eyeballs from a national audience -- this is it. A ranking system of high school teams -- delivered by USA Today -- is used to promote matchups.
The question that must continue to be asked about this kind of broadcasting of scholastic sports is one that focuses on the real cost. How will the "big-time" framing of young athletes impact the academic mission of high school sports? How can we ensure that the problems plaguing college sports (written about in books such as Counterfeit Amateurs)don't transfer to the high school level -- where oversight beyond the district level is virtually nil?

High school gears up for TV debut

The Washington Post today outlines the pregame buildup for a local school football team (Good Counsel, in Montgomery County, MD) that will be on national TV this Thursday night.
Preparations for the Thursday-night game will include all the tasks and costs involved in crowd management and security for an event sure to draw thousands of extra fans (on a school night, no less). The tasks are being handled by school administrators who are usually paid for other duties, and the school must also dole out money for extra police officers and preparation of school grounds for the crowd.
The payoff? $1,000 from ESPN -- a paltry sum in relationship to advertising revenues for the network -- and extra ticket and concession sales. The game will also give Good Counsel national name recognition, although the article doesn't explore how such exposure furthers the academic goals of Good Counsel.
The game is one of 19 scheduled to air on ESPN this fall.

A primer for sportswriter wannabes

Joe Gisondi, who teaches sports journalism at Eastern Illinois University, has moved his blog, which provides reporting and writing tips for aspiring sportswriters. Gisondi, who also advises the student paper at Eastern Illinois, provides examples from college newspapers from around the U.S. His blog includes links to many college newspaper sports sections and to high school sports coverage on major newspaper Web sites. It's worth bookmarking for anyone who teaches sportswriting.

Paying attention to youth sports

A new Ad Council campaign is one of the newest indicators of the problems emerging in high school sports as they continue to develop into a big business. Remember the days when prep sports really were "pure"? As LA Times writer Eric Sondheimer recently observed about high school basketball: "It's now about branding opportunities, exposure to recruiters and media, and preparing for future stardom."
The Ad Council campaign, which uses YouTube to reach young athletes, takes aim at steroid use. If you're interested in keeping up with youth sports issues, bookmark Mark Hyman's blog, which is current and informed.

August excitement: Not only in Beijing

Although the world will turn its eyes to the Olympics next month, many parents and communities in the U.S. will also be putting their attention on their local football stadiums. High school basketball players will wait for the spotlight -- but not long, and they've already been playing in high-profile, commercialized camps all summer.
I know that the appeal of scholastic sports is in their love-of-the-game, not-corrupted-by-money aura, but one has to question that image in light of the big business they are quickly becoming. Jacob Leibenluft's "Great Basketball Exodus" on Slate.com, which refers to a senior's decision to go pro in Europe in hopes of then jumping to the NBA, refers to lawyers, "basketball factories," and the prospect of big-dollar contracts for young players as though the are an established part of the high school sports world.
His focus -- on the prospect of NBA hopefuls forgoing college for a Euroleagues, is troubling. He speculates on the media's role in making it more lucrative for teens to go this route. And he doesn't sound far-fetched. After all, as cable nets have focused more on high school sports (cheap programming that can be promoted with media-generated rankings), Leibenluft's suggestion that the nets might follow young players across the Atlantic is plausible. The implications of that for high school sports, the NCAA and the NBA, he argues, are worth pondering.

High school sports on TV: The price

New York Post columnist Phil Mushnick's column, "ESPN, schools invite trouble," is a little over the top, but it informs a larger point about the increasing commercialization, mediation and exploitation of high school athletics by big-time networks like ESPN. Mushnick sounds the alarm about a 9 p.m. high school game in Jersey City, a place he describes a "very tough town" and no place an ESPN exec would want his child after the game was over.
I think that even though Mushnick pushes the envelope a bit, he points to the way coverage of high school sports at the national level can alter the educational values for which scholastic sports were designed. The price for cheap sports programming will become very high if educators and parents do not protect the athletes and the integrity of their sports programs.

Big-time prep sports: The price of coverage

Robert Andrew Powell's call for a boycott of big-time high school football in Slate magazine should be a must-read for anyone who hasn't thought critically about the implications of putting the national media spotlight on high school sports. Sure, it's cheap programming in comparison to the pricetag for airing college and pro games. High school sports also represent the purest of sports values to many Americans. But adding ESPN to the mix is a sure guarantee that any hope of retaining those values will disappear as quickly as cheap beer at a fraternity party.