“Collegiate Sports – A Real Life Thriller”

Tampered documents, suspensions, suspicions, ineligible players, denials, identity switching. Sounds like a TV movie but it is what collegiate sports have become.

In about a month, the top 2 collegiate leagues will begin their season and more than basketball being talked about are the controversies that have plagued what is suppose to be the most glamorous leagues in the country.

The UAAP and the NCAA are definitely a commercial and financial success. The television station that covers both leagues is definitely looking to make up for the drastic drop in revenues it experienced when many advertisers backed out after La Salle was suspended from the UAAP last year. I am pretty sure that they will achieve this and then some.

With so much at stake, shouldn’t both collegiate leagues protect its product? In marketing, planning is extremely important and maintaining brand equity is a must. So how come we are experiencing this sudden surge of controversies?

In my humble opinion, I believe that the NCAA has taken the right step in keeping the integrity of their league. In a previous article I mentioned that the NCAA Board is answerable to an executive committee composed of the Presidents of its member schools. This is a very effective way of making sure that each member’s reputation is protected and who better to do this than the Presidents of the schools.

In the recent PCU controversy, the NCAA cleaned its own house. Compared to the press mileage that the La Salle controversy received, the PCU incident quickly died a natural media death. The NCAA Board acted swiftly and assertively in its decision.

The UAAP on the other hand has held on to its Board of Directors set-up, which is proving to be ineffective. The reason is that the league has become so popular and having it run in a clandestine manner makes its fans quite frustrated. While each member of the Board of Directors is definitely and rightfully there to protect the institutions that they individually represent, who is then left to independently protect the league as a whole? A Commissioner is appointed every season but the position seems to have very little power to protect the league.

I have always wondered who owns the UAAP? Is it the member schools? Is it the Board of Directors? Regardless of its ownership, it has a responsibility to its stakeholders to maintain the highest standards of integrity and sportsmanship. The athletes, fans, member schools and sponsors deserve nothing less than this.

It may be about time for the UAAP to re-evaluate its present set-up, simply because it has not kept up with the growth of the league’s popularity. It has to realize that the personality of the league as a whole has to be separated from the individual members.

In this case, the whole is always greater than the sum of its parts. For the league to continue its phenomenal growth, the members have to accept the fact that for the individual members to have successful sports programs, they to make certain that an independent UAAP management body needs to be established.

Your opinions?