The Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics urges the presidents of universities in the Atlantic Coast Conference to reconsider their recent decision to invite three schools currently in the Big East Conference to join the ACC, creating a “super-conference” with enhanced tournament schedules and marketing opportunities. 

The Coalition has joined recent initiatives for reform of college sports, refocusing attention on the primacy of the academic mission, and the need to step back from an “arms race” that has blurred the line between college and professional sports.  We see the ACC proposal and other moves towards the consolidation of super-conferences as in direct conflict with reform goals in the following respects:

1) The plan represents a strong endorsement of the growing commercialization of college sports, which is a major target of reform.  Attempts to increase revenues and balance budgets through national marketing have led to a cycle of rising expectations and the growing arms race in college sports.  Over the full range of higher education institutions, these expectations generate such features as sharp increases in capital investment, rising athletics salaries, and expanding athletics staffs.

2) The consolidation of college sports into “major league” type structures that can raise the quality of competitive play accelerates the spread of professional standards of competition in college sports; this contributes to the widening gap between academic and athletics missions, and pervasive cynicism regarding the integrity of college athletics programs and the institutions that operate them.

3) Because the expansion would add pressure for increased season length through added post-season play and increased travel requirements for competition, it is realistic to anticipate further deflection of athletes’ efforts away from academics, undermining both the academic and student welfare goals of reform.

4) In bypassing all meaningful consultation with faculty, and adopting this plan on the basis of business models and marketing needs related to athletics departments, the ACC will undermine reform efforts to put in place the balances of shared governance that can assure the primacy of the academic mission in institutional decision making.

5) In redesigning its conference solely with an eye towards athletics marketability, the ACC would move further from alternative shared bases of geography, academic comparability, and tradition that have allowed conferences to contribute to the academic mission by creating meaningful ties among faculties and student bodies.  Designing consortia solely on the basis of market considerations makes sense for professional leagues; it is inappropriate in amateur sports based on a common link to educational values.  The opportunistic behavior of institutions that has characterized the reconfigurations of athletics conferences in recent years has contributed to the growing cynicism about the connection between athletics and academic values.

The conduct and design of athletics conferences are key aspects of addressing the severe problems of intercollegiate athletics.  Goals that existing conferences should be working towards and that should govern any conference realignments include the following:

1)      Developing academic and cultural structures to reinforce and enrich relationships among conference schools, enhancing the connection between athletics and the academic mission;

2)      Limiting the commercialization of athletics and pressures to professionalize performance standards;

3)      Working towards conference-wide standards of athletics governance at member institutions, appropriately shared among faculties, administrations, and governing boards, that ensure accurate cost monitoring and budget transparency for athletics departments among member schools;

4)      Ensuring that season schedule length and travel burdens on athletes are not increased, and, wherever possible, are reduced.

The presidents of ACC schools have been active in the movement for intercollegiate athletics reform; we call on them to play a leadership role in aligning ACC conference governance with these goals.