BY TOM MCMILLEN

4.12.2021

Later in the year we are likely to see Title IX advocates finally win their challenge against the revenue-sharing model established in  2025. The courts are expected to  rule that the legislation’s mandated revenue distributions to men only were inequitable and, in the future, under the expected ruling, female athletes would share equally in all football and men’s basketball revenue. This ruling is apt to cause considerable friction between the men and women if the men feel that the “profits off their labor” are now unfairly apportioned to women.

The past decade saw the term “student athlete” disappear as graduation rates plummeted for college athletes because most college football and basketball players sought to maximize their earning power, and time involved in practice, games, travel, and making money off their name, image and likeness resulted in athletes only sporadically fulfilling their academic responsibilities, and mostly online.

The Alston case, affirmed by the Supreme Court in 2021, has led to a new arms race to provide “unlimited educational expenses” to college athletes. The Southeastern Conference,  in 2022, was the first to approve a $25,000 postgraduate internship job for all basketball and football players. Other  conferences  followed  suit, and a plethora  of new benefits  have been extended to  college athletes, including  luxury study abroad programs  and the  latest education technology, with expenses for these programs skyrocketing each year.

Lavish sportsbooks have opened in many campus stadiums and arenas to attract new fans and provide easy access to sports betting. But the ability to easily bet on games has created intense and sometimes dangerous reactions among fans. Over the past several years, when teams have lost, the social media attacks on players have become so intense that this year round-the-clock security will be provided for many college athletes. Despite these dangers, sports betting has exploded, and real-time sports data from live college events sold to gambling companies have become a growing profit center for athletic programs. These data sales have begun to rival television revenue as a cash cow for university sports programs.

Philanthropy, institutional support, and student fees, which once represented more than $3 billion in annual support for athletic departments, have all but disappeared — donors and college administrators do not want to support these commercial enterprises. Students, especially, do not want to pay massive activity fees to support sports they cannot participate in. These teams, in students’ eyes, are professional in all but name.

When the revenue shortfalls and money required to be allocated to players, most colleges have been forced to eliminate nonrevenue sports like golf, volleyball and softball. The NCAA has stopped requiring institutions to sponsor a minimum number of sports. As a result, thousands of scholarships for student athletes in those sports have been eliminated. This change has hit men’s sports especially hard since Title IX provides some protection for women’s sports. In turns, the U. S. Olympic effort has been severely weakened, because many of the athletes who traditionally participated in the international games from from college athletic programs.

Television viewership for college sports has declined five years in a row—many fans alumni are turned off by the growing commercialism. Among these disenchanted fans are the wealthiest and most educated Americans and men over 50, the same demographics most likely to have watched in prior years.

When revenue-sharing laws were enacted in 2025, the IRS challenged the long-standing charitable status of college sports, reclassified college athletes as employees, and began to tax television and corporate sponsorship revenue, putting additional pressures on stretched athletic department budgets.

Recently the Knight Commission, the watchdog for college sports for more than 40 years, has called for a Presidential Commission on Intercollegiate Athletic to try to restore some sense of proportion to college sports and the higher educations values supposedly underlying them.

Historians conclude that the connection of college sports to the goals of higher education began to fray long before the court rulings and legislative actions in the 2020s. The arms race then  — and accelerating salaries for coaches and spending on facilities — was only intensified by the subsequents race to recruit and compensate college athletes through more and more benefits. Professionalism is now deeply ingrained in our college sports programs and has hit hard the academic credibility of many institutions. The sad fact is that college sports will never against by in sync with the mission of higher education.

Tom McMillen in CO of LEAD1 Associations, a former member of Congress, and a former member of the Knight Commission.

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By TOM MCMILLEN AND BRIT KIRWAN

APRIL 11, 2021 3:05 AM PT

An unsustainable spending “arms race” is occurring among the 130 colleges that belong to the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision. It is compromising their integrity and is often at odds with their academic missions. Because of booster and fan pressure to remain competitive, the arms race has led to, in just the last year, paying head coaches an average $2.7-million salary and awarding failed coaches buyouts that average nearly $8 million. This is in addition to the seemingly constant construction of new facilities, among other excesses.

This arms race will only intensify if the Supreme Court rules in NCAA vs. Alston to allow colleges to award unlimited educational expenses to student-athletes. In oral arguments last month, the court seemed poised to back such payments.

The cost of maintaining a big-time athletic program is growing at an alarming rate — as a result of this arms race.

Coaches’ compensation, facility and equipment spending, and recruiting expenses have essentially tripled over the last 13 years. The highest-paid state employees in 40 states in the U.S. are head coaches of NCAA athletic programs. The total cost of buying out coaches who have been fired exploded to more than $300 million over the past four years.

But even with nearly $9 billion in revenue pouring into FBS programs, primarily from TV contracts, only 25 intercollegiate athletic programs generate more revenue than they spend. How do the vast majority of programs keep up?

The intercollegiate athletic arms race is fueled in large part by university funding and student athletic fees that are used to buttress athletic budgets. The average institutional subsidy to athletics has grown to roughly $16 million per year per school. Mandatory student athletic fees now exceed $1,500 per year at many Division I schools, driving up the cost of college attendance.

A mechanism is needed to enable all college sports programs to simultaneously reduce their escalating spending. That tool could be a conditional antitrust exemption passed by Congress that would require college sports to cut spending in return for providing greater benefits for student-athletes and investing in more sports opportunities on campus. The exemption would enable universities to sponsor more intercollegiate athletic programs.

In March, the 130 athletic directors of the Football Bowl Subdivision, who represent the largest athletic programs in the country, were surveyed about the kind of college sports world they would prefer to see in the next five years by the Lead1 Assn., which represents the interests of athletic directors.

They were asked if they would they want a professional model in which student-athletes were employees, with collective-bargaining power; full name, image and likeness (NIL) rights; and, among other employment rights, possibly revenue sharing. In other words, a professional sports model at the collegiate level.

Or would they rather see a higher-education model where Congress provided college sports the tools to establish new policies? These policies would bring compensation of coaches and athletic staff more in line with the salaries of other university employees, eliminate excessive buyouts and end the college sports arms race.

The approach would enable investments in Olympic and other sports and increase college sports opportunities for thousands of student-athletes. Under this model, student-athletes would receive expanded health, safety and scholarship protections, full NIL rights, but no collective bargaining or other employment rights. By an overwhelming majority, the athletic directors preferred the higher-education model.

In our conversations with college presidents, support for the higher-education model is even stronger — no one we spoke to wanted to see campuses turned into professional sports enterprises. We believe that would be disastrous for higher education, as well as college sports, but that’s where the current model is leading us.

Unlike college sports, which have no mechanism to restrain costs, the NBA and NFL have tools, such as the luxury tax and spending caps on player costs, that curb runaway spending. In contrast, when the NCAA passed a rule in 1992 to rein in assistant coaches’ salaries, the courts struck it down for antitrust reasons. Without this cost control, assistant coaches often command salaries exceeding $2 million a year.

Congress is considering several bills that would allow students to profit from their NIL while requiring colleges to expand health benefits, scholarships and other protections. But this is not enough. Congress also needs to pass a conditional antitrust exemption that would reverse the NCAA arms race and reduce outsize compensation packages and other expenditures — and allow more students to compete in sports at the college level.

Based on its current trajectory, the increasing cost and professionalization of college sports will cause hundreds of non-revenue-generating Olympic sports to be cut, thousands of student-athletes in sports that don’t make money to lose their college scholarships, and student athletic fees and institutional subsidies to continue rising.

The solution is not to further professionalize college sports by adopting revenue-sharing, collective bargaining and other employment rights. Instead, avoid a college-sports tragedy and end the arms race: Create a solution that benefits all student-athletes.

Tom McMillen is CEO of Lead1 Assn. and a former U.S. representative from Maryland. He played basketball for the University of Maryland from 1971 to ’74. Brit Kirwan is former chancellor of the University System of Maryland and former president of Ohio State University. They both served on the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics.

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by Thomas Neumann

Tom McMillen was a member of the 1972 U.S. men’s basketball team that suffered one of the most agonizing defeats in Olympic history.

The U.S. basketball program was 63-0 in Olympic competition entering the gold medal game against the Soviet Union in Munich on Sept. 9, 1972. But the rest of the basketball world had been gaining ground on the Americans during the era before NBA players were allowed to compete in the Games

So when the U.S.S.R. built a 10-point lead in the second half of a low-scoring game, it began to look as if history would be made. Still, the Americans relentlessly chipped away and took a 50-49 lead with three seconds left on two free throws by Doug Collins. The Soviets inbounded but then held the ball with one second left as head coach Vladimir Kondrashin demanded a timeout. Officials reset the clock to three seconds and gave the ball back to the U.S.S.R. on the Soviet baseline.

The U.S. successfully defended the ensuing inbounds pass, and time expired. But then FIBA executive Renato William Jones came down from the stands and ordered the clock once again be reset to three seconds. This time, McMillen was set to defend the inbounds pass, but he said Bulgarian referee Artenik Arabadjian told him to back away from the baseline even though no rule required him to do so.

“I was on the ball, and if you notice in the video, the referee is motioning for me to get off the line,” McMillen said. “He didn’t speak English, and he’s motioning to me. Under international rules, as long as the guy had room to go back, then I didn’t need to get off the line. And I knew that was the rule, but this guy who doesn’t speak English is pushing me back. So, what do you do? You don’t want to get a technical. … The last thing you want to do is get a technical foul and have the game end like that.”

With no defender in his face, Soviet guard Ivan Edeshko was able to freely lob a full-court pass to big man Aleksandr Belov, who deftly caught the ball and put in the winning layup.

To this day, conspiracy theories abound. It was, after all, the height of Cold War tension between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. Jones, an Englishman, was thought by some to be sympathetic to the Soviets. It has also been alleged that referees were bribed or threatened by Soviet interests. The U.S. players refused to accept the silver medals, which still sit in a vault at the IOC.

“You got the feeling if that game was close, we were gonna lose it,” McMillen said. “The powers that be were destined to make us lose it. That’s the part that’s hard to swallow.”

McMillen went on to play 11 NBA seasons and serve three terms as a U.S. congressman from Maryland. He is currently the president and CEO of the Division 1A Athletic Directors’ Association.

Ultimately, in McMillen’s view, there is no shortcut to recovery from the agony of defeat. The sting can only fade with time.

“You’ve got to get up, kick the dust off and get going again,” McMillen said. “I don’t live this thing. It’s kind of like ‘Groundhog Day.’ It comes back every four years. People bring it up every Olympics. I don’t think about it otherwise.”

With that in mind, here are nine other agonizing Olympic disappointments, including the recent scary cycling spill in Rio:

1984: Mary Decker, track and field

Mary Decker is consoled by a track official after falling — or getting tripped — during the 3,000 meters at the 1984 Olympics. JEAN-CLAUDE DELMAS/AFP/Getty Images

An American competing in front of a partisan crowd in Los Angeles, Mary Decker was the strong favorite to win gold in the 3,000 meters. She had won gold at that distance at the 1983 world championships, and there was no reason to believe she wouldn’t do the same in the Olympics. Instead, she was involved in a memorable collision with barefoot runner Zola Budd, a South Africa native competing for Great Britain. Some observers suspect Budd deliberately tripped Decker, while others believe it was an accident. After the race, Decker put the blame squarely on Budd. Watch the video and decide for yourself.

Maricica Puica of Romania went on to win the race. Decker suffered a hip injury and was unable to continue, while a shaken Budd finished seventh. Decker and Budd have since reconciled and participated in the filming of “The Fall,” a 2016 documentary about the incident.

1988: United States men’s basketball

The U.S. men’s basketball team at the Seoul Olympics included collegiate stars David Robinson, Danny Manning, Mitch Richmond and Dan Majerle in what turned out to be the final Games without NBA players. Entering their semifinal match against the Soviet Union, the Americans held an 85-1 all-time record in Olympic competition — the only loss coming in the disputed 1972 gold medal game. These Americans, however, were unquestionably outplayed by a Soviet team led by future NBA players Sarunas Marciulionis and Arvydas Sabonis and lost 82-76 in the semifinals. The U.S.S.R. went on to beat Yugoslavia in the gold medal game, and the U.S. beat Australia to win bronze. Rules were changed to allow NBA players into the Olympics beginning in 1992, when the original Dream Team rolled to the gold medal.

1988: Roy Jones Jr., boxing

Roy Jones Jr. almost quit boxing after losing a decision to South Korea’s Park Si-hun in the 1988 Seoul Games. AP Photo/Ron Kutz

In one of the most controversial judging outcomes in Olympic history, American light-middleweight Roy Jones Jr. lost a 3-2 decision to South Korean fighter Park Si-hun, who was competing on home soil in Seoul. Jones had dominated each of the three rounds by most accounts, and was in fact named outstanding boxer of the Games by an overall group of referees and judges. The three judges who determined the outcome of the Jones-Park bout were later accused of accepting bribes. Jones and U.S. coach Ken Adams were incredulous afterward. “I’ve been in boxing about 30 years, and that’s the worst decision I’ve seen in my life,” Adams said. The 19-year-old Jones was so disillusioned that he said he was retiring from the sport. Jones reconsidered and went on to become one of the best boxers in history, winning world championships in multiple weight classes. Now 47, he still competes professionally and is scheduled to fight Saturday in his hometown of Pensacola, Florida, against journeyman Rodney Moore.

1992: Derek Redmond, track and field

The pain was apparent on Derek Redmond’s face as his father helped him get around the track at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. AP Photo/Denis Paquin

Derek Redmond entered the Barcelona Olympics as the British record holder in the 400 meters. He also was a member of Great Britain’s gold medal-winning 4×400 relay team at the 1991 world championships. Backed by those credentials, he won his heats in the first round and quarterfinals in Barcelona, but he pulled up after tearing his right hamstring in the semifinals. Redmond’s father then rushed down from the grandstands and memorably helped his hobbled son around the track to complete the race. Although Redmond isn’t officially credited with having finished the race, footage of the event became a staple of inspirational Olympic moments.

1992: Ibragim Samadov, weightlifting

Russian weightlifter Ibragim Samadov was the defending world champion in the light-heavyweight class, and he represented the Unified Team in the wake of the fracturing of the Soviet Union. He finished in a three-way tie for first with combined lifts of 370 kilograms (815.7 pounds) but was awarded bronze on a technicality for weighing in a fraction of a kilogram heavier. Samadov threw his medal to the floor at the awards ceremony and was suspended indefinitely by the International Weightlifting Federation. He didn’t compete in another Olympics.

2004: Yang Tae-young, gymnastics

South Korean gymnast Yang Tae-young won the bronze medal in the all-around at the Athens Games, finishing behind Paul Hamm of the U.S. and fellow South Korean Kim Dae-eun. It was only afterward that it became apparent Yang had been incorrectly docked one-tenth of a point — more than enough to lift him into first place. However, the International Gymnastics Federation asserted that South Korea didn’t protest after the meet, and so the result wouldn’t be overturned. Instead, federation president Bruno Grandi asked Hamm to relinquish the gold as an act of sportsmanship. The U.S. Olympic Committee turned down the request, saying the mistake was the federation’s responsibility.

2004: Vanderlei de Lima, marathon

In one of the most bizarre moments in Olympic history, a defrocked Irish priest attacked race leader Vanderlei de Lima at the 22-mile mark of the 2004 marathon in Athens. AP Photos/Koji Sasahara

Vanderlei de Lima held the lead at the 22-mile mark of the men’s marathon in Athens and stood to become the first Brazilian to win gold in the event. Enter a defrocked Irish priest named Neil Horan, who tackled de Lima into the crowd of spectators. By the time de Lima was freed, his 25-second lead was gone. He held on to win bronze behind winner Stefano Baldini of Italy and Meb Keflezighi of the U.S. De Lima was selected to light the cauldron at the opening ceremony of the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

2008: Ara Abrahamian, wrestling

After winning a bronze in Greco-Roman wrestling at the Beijing Olympics, Swedish athlete Ara Abrahamian rejected the medal by dropping it on the mat in protest. Abrahamian had been incorrectly assessed a penalty that changed the complexion of a match he lost to Andrea Minguzzi of Italy. Abrahamian was denied a video review afterward, and wrestling’s governing body also refused to hear his protest. Abrahamian was ultimately disqualified for his act, and his bronze in the light-heavyweight class has been expunged from the record books.

2016: Annemiek van Vleuten, cycling

Netherlands cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten had her Olympic dream end painfully Sunday when she crashed violently on a steep descent while leading the women’s road race. She suffered three fractured vertebrae and remains hospitalized in Rio de Janeiro. Predictably, she disappointed by what transpired and shared her thoughts on Twitter.

I am now in the hospital with some injuries and fractures, but will be fine. Most of all super disappointed after best race of my career.

— Annemiek van Vleuten (@AvVleuten) August 8, 2016

Dutch teammate Anna van der Breggen ultimately won the gold medal. Similarly, the two leaders of the men’s cycling road race, Vincenzo Nibali of Italy and Sergio Henao of Colombia, crashed on the same descent the previous day. After Nibali and Henao were knocked out of action, Greg Van Avermaet of Belgium went on to capture the gold.

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A three-term Maryland congressman, Rhodes Scholar, U.S. Olympian and NBA basketball star, and successful entrepreneur, McMillen was a founding member of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and served from 2007 to 2015 on the University System of Maryland Board of Regents, which oversees the 12 campuses of the system. As regent, he made the university system a pioneer in athletic oversight, creating its first Workgroup on Intercollegiate Athletics. This oversight entity, unique in higher education governance, is responsible for examining athletic programs and policies as well as the board’s oversight and accountability processes. The Workgroup provides the board of regents with information such as athletic-department budget projections and athletes’ graduation rates, all of which are vital for board decisions on resources.

In 2013, McMillen coauthored a USA Today op-ed with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, bringing nationwide attention to the huge disparity between academic and athletic bonuses for NCAA coaches. McMillen then led the effort to establish a new Maryland system board policy (the first in the country) requiring teams to meet a minimum academic threshold before any coach can be paid a bonus—a policy endorsed by the Secretary of Education.

McMillen has consistently underscored a trustee’s obligation to produce value for students, their families, and taxpayers. When administrators and an athletic conference pressured the system board to approve, without substantive deliberation, a multimillion conference agreement with significant impact on university and state resources, McMillen was the sole regent to vote in opposition.

McMillen has also been a national spokesman for active trusteeship. In 2014, he was one of 22 signatories to Governance for a New Era, a blueprint for higher education governance, the product of a summit facilitated by ACTA and chaired by Benno Schmidt, City University of New York board chairman. And in 2015, McMillen hosted “Best Practices in Athletic Oversight” as part of ACTA’s Higher Ed Now web series for trustees.

ACTA is a nonprofit organization devoted to empowering college and university trustees on behalf of academic freedom, academic excellence and accountability in higher education.The Martin Prize is named after ACTA’s first president and former University of Colorado professor, Dr. Jerry L. Martin, and is presented to acknowledge exemplary efforts by college and university trustees on behalf of the public interest.

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by Michael Smith

Tom McMillen, the former congressman and regent at the University of Maryland, is the new voice for athletic directors at the highest levels. Now he’s going to spend the next few weeks days figuring out what that means.

McMillen was introduced in Dallas last week as the new president and CEO of the Division 1A Athletic Directors’ Association, the lesser known of the two trade groups that represent ADs.
Tom McMillen, a former University System of Maryland regent, is the new CEO of CEO of the Division 1A Athletic Directors’ Association, the lesser-known of the two trade groups that represent ADs.
After the announcement, he returned to his home in Washington, D.C., with no office, no staff and a blank slate for how to turn this association into a stronger advocacy group that will represent ADs across its 126 schools in 10 FBS conferences. The group’s headquarters will move from Dallas to D.C.
That voice might be directed at the NCAA, Congress or any other entity that might play a role in reshaping college athletics during what McMillen described as a tumultuous time, given the new autonomy structure within the NCAA and ongoing antitrust lawsuits.

“Collectively, they can be a very important voice in the repositioning of college athletics,” McMillen said.

McMillen, 63, has given himself 45 days to establish a strategic plan for the association. He’s going to use that time to talk to athletic directors and establish a deeper understanding of their needs from a trade group. The strategic plan will chart the course for the association’s future, and it might involve a name change from the cumbersome and sometimes confusing moniker the group has used since it was formed in 1986. McMillen has not decided if he’ll hire an outside firm to conduct a rebranding or handle it internally.

He’ll also look to grow the association’s revenue streams, which essentially consist of dues and sponsorships.

“I have a lot going on, but this is an interesting challenge,” said McMillen, who is chairman and CEO of investment firm Washington Capital Advisors while also serving as a director for the boards of RCS Capital and Nexstar Broadcasting Group. “I’ve been involved in college sports my whole life, one way or another, and I see this as a chance to give back and make a difference in college athletics.”

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Former Maryland standout C. Thomas McMillen has been selected to lead the Division 1A Athletic Directors’ Association.

The association, is a not-for-profit membership organization comprised of the directors of athletics at the 126 NCAA Division 1A institutions.

McMillen will be a key component in the restructured organization, which will move its headquarters from Dallas to Washington, D.C. He is expected to help member athletics directors better navigate the rapidly changing landscape of college athletics as the association expands increases advocacy, lobbying, business analytics and professional training.

“I have always advocated for the student-athlete, and this opportunity will allow me to continue that work,” McMillen said in a statement. “The 126 athletic programs that constitute the Division IA Athletic Director’s Association are a powerful force in meeting the needs of student athletes — and we want to do even better in helping those student athletes in the future.”

McMillen replaces Dutch Baughman, the 1A Association’s longtime executive director and previously the director of athletics at Oregon State, Virginia Tech, and Furman and also an associate commissioner of the former Southwest Conference.

McMillen was a founding member of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, and a regent in the University of Maryland System.

McMillen currently is chairman and CEO of the investment firm Washington Capital Advisors. He serves as a director of RCS Capital, a full-service investment firm, and of Nexstar Broadcasting Group, a media and broadcast company.

He was chairman and is is now treasurer of the National Foundation on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. He was the United States Representative for Maryland’s 4th Congressional District for three terms.

Copyright © 2015, The Baltimore Sun

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Today ACTA launched “Best Practices in Athletic Oversight,” a video discussion introduced by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. The video records the dialogue between University of Maryland Regent, Rhodes Scholar, Olympian and former Congressman Tom McMillen and Brit Kirwan, University System of Maryland Chancellor and co-chair of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. In the video, McMillen, who has had tremendous success championing the idea that student-athletes are students first—reiterated the importance of trustee oversight in college athletics. Watch the full discussion.

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