by Chevonne Mansfield, American Athletic Conference Director of Communications / CoSIDA Board of Directors
I recently attended the Big 12 Conference’s State of College Athletics Forum on behalf of CoSIDA. It was my first non-convention trip as a member of the CoSIDA Board and I was pretty excited when I got the email from President Eric McDowell asking if I was able to attend the significant media event in New York City.
The Big 12 administrators - including fellow CoSIDA Board member Rob Carolla, our organization's Third Vice-President and the Big 12 Director of Communications - assembled an all-star panel to discuss the current state of college athletics.
Panelists included Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, journalist and University of Maryland professor Kevin
Blackistone; Kansas State athletic director John Currie; Armen Keteyian, lead correspondent for "60 Minutes Sports" on Showtime; Dr. Donna Lopiano, former Executive Director of the Women's Sports Foundation and former women’s athletic director at University of Texas and current president of Sports Management Resource; West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck; New York Times sports columnist Juliet Macur; University of Texas men’s athletic director Steve Patterson; Judge Ken Starr, president and chancellor of Baylor University; and former Denver Broncos and University of Texas running back Selvin Young.
NBC broadcaster Jimmy Roberts moderated the forum.
The two-hour discussion was spirited and lively as panelists had a broad conversation on possible NCAA governance changes and issues surrounding a student-athlete’s name, image and likeness. NCAA autonomy among the top five revenue generating conferences was discussed within that context. The forum as a good precursor to voting that took place the next day; on Thursday, Aug. 7, the NCAA Division I Board of Directors passed a new model giving the five conferences authority to create some of their own legislation.
I attended the networking reception in the Trianon Ballroom immediately following the panel event. The panelists joined the reception and mingled with attendees after making themselves available to media. Lots of VIPs and sports media members were there and I spotted several national media outlets – CBSSports.com, ESPN.com and The Wall Street Journal, to name a few. I also ran into some of my favorite Twitter follows, veteran sports PR consultant and media strategist Joe Favorito (
@joefav) and Andrew Giangola of IMG College (
@IMGCollege). Favorito is a former sports information director and a big supporter of CoSIDA.
Before I left the Hilton, I made sure to say hi to Kevin Blackistone. I’m a big fan of his work and a frequent viewer of ESPN’s Around the Horn. We had a nice chat and he was kind enough to take a picture with me.
More information and the video presentation from the State of College Athletics Form is available at:
http://www.big12sports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=10410&ATCLID=209578619.