2007 PRESS RELEASES
Goal Completed: Degree Completion program gives former student-athlete opportunity to finish degree
Date of Release: December 22, 2007 (Press Release)
With only one quarter of classes to complete before becoming eligible for graduation, Mike McCormick, a former forward on the Ohio State men’s hockey team, was offered and jumped at the chance to play professionally in Germany.
The opportunity, presented to a select few collegiate athletes, allowed McCormick to follow his career aspirations. Yet, the native of Ontario, Canada, still regretted not having time to finish his undergraduate degree.
That is why when McCormick walked across the stage in St. John Arena at commencement Dec. 9, a weight was lifted off his shoulders as he finally closed a chapter of his life.
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Keeping Score When It Counts:
Assessing the 2007-08 Bowl-bound College Football Teams-Academic Performance Improves but Race Still Matters
Date of Release: December 3, 2007 (Press Release)
Overall academic progress continued while the gap between white and African-American football student-athletes increased slightly for the 64 Division I-A football teams playing in this year’s college football bowl games according to a study released today by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida.
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2006 Racial and Gender Report Card - Major League Soccer
Date of Release: November 15, 2007 (Press Release)
MLS earned a solid A (93.3) for racial hiring after getting A’s in the categories of MLS League Office, CEO/team presidents, professional administration, assistant coaches and players. This was the second best grade in professional sport following the NBA.
In 2004, The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) reported that Major League Soccer had gone from the industry’s first-ever F for gender in 2003 to score a B for gender in 2004. Two years later, the gender grade has dropped to a D+ with no category used to measure gender being above a D+. At a weighted grade of 64.6, MLS had the lowest grade for gender in professional sport whereas in 2004 MLS was tied with the NBA for gender as the best among the men’s professional leagues. MLS received an A+ for diversity initiatives in both categories.
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The Buck Stops Here: Assessing Diversity among Campus and Conference Leaders
for Division IA Schools in 2007-08
Date of Release: October 24, 2007 (Press Release)
As the 2007 regular season of college football passes the halfway point, the controversy over having only six African-American Division IA head football coaches continues to make headlines. While this was an improvement over the five African-American head coaches during the 2006 season, it is still far behind other college and professional sports. At the end of the 2006 season, an African-American and a Latino (Randy Shannon and Mario Cristobal) were hired as head coaches at the University of Miami (Florida) and Florida International University respectively. In the case of FIU, it marked the first time that a school had a Latino president, athletics director and head football coach.
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NCAS and Big 5 Lend a Helping Hand to Cobb's Creek Park
Date of Release: October 11, 2007 (Press Release)
The NCAS Mid-Atlantic Regional Office sponsored a “Community Service Day.”
Over 100 student-athletes from Big 5 institutions participated on September 30th at Cobb’s Creek Park in West Philadelphia.
On this particular day, team colors did not matter as student-athletes worked side-by-side throughout the event. The student-athletes spent the day clearing trails, weeding, and cutting back overgrown tree limbs and shrubs. Cobb’s Creek is a part of Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park system.
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NCAS and Big 5 Sponsor MVP Program
Date of Release: October 11, 2007 (Press Release)
The Mid-Atlantic Regional Office of the National Consortium for Academics and Sports (NCAS) recently partnered with the Philadelphia Big 5 to sponsor the Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) training program for student-athletes from all the Big 5 institutions.
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2006 Racial and Gender Report Card-National Football League
Date of Release: September 26, 2007 (Press Release)
The National Football League recorded continued progress on racial hiring practices in the 2006 NFL Racial and Gender Report Card.
The NFL improved its record for both race and gender, raising its grade for race to a solid B+ approaching an A- with a score of 88.6 points out of 100. The Institute did not issue a grade for gender in this report card for reasons explained below. In the last Report Card the NFL received a B+ for race and we did not issue a grade for gender. The NFL’s last gender grade was a D+ in the 2004 Report Card.
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2006 Racial and Gender Report Card-Women's National Basketball Association
Date of Release: July 31, 2007 (Press Release)
The 2006 Racial and Gender Report Card for the Women’s National Basketball Association showed once again that the WNBA was the best among pro sports leagues for both race and gender. The Report Card asks, “Are we playing fair when it comes to sports? Does everyone, regardless of race or gender, have a chance to score a basket and run the team?” The answer for the WNBA is a resounding “yes.”
At the mid-point of its 11th season, the WNBA once again got an A for race but slipped to a B+ for gender while maintaining an A as a combined grade. In the 2001, 2004 and 2005 Racial and Gender Report Cards it had received A’s in all three. No other professional sports league has achieved that even once.
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2006 Racial and Gender Report Card-National Basketball Association
Date of Release: May 9, 2007 (Press Release)
The Racial and Gender Report Card for the National Basketball Association for the 2006-07 season showed that the NBA remains the industry leader on issues related to race and gender hiring practices.
The NBA has had the top grade among the men’s leagues for race for all 14 previous reports over nearly two decades. Based on the total points used in the weighted scales, the NBA earned its highest grade ever for race and its highest combined grade for race and gender ever with an A+ for race and a B for gender for a combined A-. This is the first time in the history of the Racial and Gender Report Card that any men’s league achieved a combined A-. The NBA showed dramatic improvement in almost all areas for race in both the league office and at the team levels.
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First Eddie Robinson Leadership Award Recipients Announced
Date of Release: April 24, 2007 (Press Release)
In honor of the life of Eddie Robinson, the Board of the National Consortium for Academics and Sports (NCAS) is announcing an award to honor his legacy. The Eddie Robinson Leadership Award will be presented to someone in the world of sport who exemplifies the courage to always stand up for justice for the people they lead. It could be for a coach, player, athletic administrator or someone who came from the world of sport and now does great things in society.
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Date of Release: March 29, 2007 (Press Release)
Sixty years ago Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier in sport and America changed forever as a result. The Racial and Gender Report Card asks, ‘Are we playing fair when it comes to sports? Does everyone, regardless of race or gender, have a chance at bat or to operate a team?’
In the 60th anniversary year, a new milestone was achieved with the release of the 2006 Major League Baseball Racial and Gender Report Card.
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Academic Progress/Graduation Success Rate Study of Division I NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament Teams
Date of Release: March 14, 2007 (Press Release)
The University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport released its annual study, “Keeping Score When It Counts: Graduation Rates for 2007 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Division I Basketball Tournament Teams,” which compares academic progress rates and graduation success rates for Division I teams that have been selected for the men’s and women’s brackets of the 2007 NCAA Basketball Tournaments. The author of the study is Dr. Richard Lapchick, who is director of the Institute and of the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program at UCF. The study was co-authored this year by Marina Bustamante.
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Academic Progress/Graduation Success Rate Study of Division I NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Teams
Date of Release: March 12, 2007 (Press Release)
The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, at the University of Central Florida released its annual study, “Keeping Score When It Counts: Graduation Rates for 2007 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament Teams” which is a comprehensive analysis of the graduation rates of NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament-bound team. The study takes a look at Federal Graduation Rates (FGR), Graduation Success Rates (GSR), and the Academic Progress Rates (APR) for the tournament teams, as reported by the NCAA. The study compares graduation rates for all student-athletes to basketball student-athletes as well as African-American basketball student-athletes to white basketball student-athletes. Dr. Richard Lapchick, the primary author of the study, is director of the Institute and Eminent Scholar Chair of the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program at UCF. The study was co-authored this year by Marina Bustamante.
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Date of Release: February 21, 2007 (Press Release)
The students of the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program, in conjunction with the National Consortium for Academics and Sport (NCAS) and the DeVos Program both located at the University of Central Florida, today announced the launch of the Hope for Stanley Foundation dedicated to help the survivors of Hurricane Katrina rebuild their homes and lives in New Orleans. The DeVos students will help organize other sport business management students across the nation as well as student-athletes from among the 220 NCAS member colleges and universities. The New Orleans City Council is helping to facilitate the Hope for Stanley efforts.
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Date of Release: January 11, 2007 (Press Release)
With the recently concluded football bowl games, The Institute for Diversity of Ethics and Sport (TIDES) has examined the racial and gender demographics of the 119 Division IA schools. The UCF study, The Buck Stops Here: Assessing Diversity among Campus and Conference Leaders for Division IA Schools in 2007, examines the race and gender of conference commissioners and campus leaders including college and university presidents, athletics directors, and faculty athletics representatives for all 119 Division IA institutions. It also includes head football coaches, offensive and defensive coordinators, and assistant coaches. The study discusses the effect of having an overwhelmingly white and male leadership on hiring practice decisions and the effect their decisions have on the diversity in the athletics department, especially with regard to Division IA football. The study shows a high level of diversity in the athletics director’s position.
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