Related Content
•
View past issues of Athletics Administration from NACDA
•
CoSIDA's Road to Advocacy
This message was included on page 54 of the December 2020 issue of Athletics Administration Magazine, the official publication of NACDA and its affiliates. The issue highlights testing initiatives and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We all work on behalf of an industry driven by the element of competition. That’s the nature of sport.
Away from the field, court or water, however, it’s not competition but collaboration that serves as a bridge linking us all in partnership towards that mutual finish line/objective of helping our programs, teams and student-athletes achieve success.
Collaboration has served as a meaningful tool in CoSIDA’s growth for many years. We welcome opportunities to help our friends throughout the industry; in return, we’ve profited from their involvement when CoSIDA needs support in addressing our pursuits and problems.
The old fund-raising adage – you raise money by raising friends – holds true for our organization.
Clearly, that’s why the CoSIDA Executive Board of Directors was excited recently to share the news with our members of the renewed partnership agreement with NACDA, through 2029. This relationship has proved valuable in enhancing our collaborative opportunities while also growing respect for our organization throughout college sports.
Our NACDA partnership is unique as CoSIDA is not under the membership umbrella. It’s built in what our agreement terms a “hybrid” relationship that is similar, yet different, from others in the NACDA family. We function with our own independent full-time management staff and board governance structure while also developing our specific educational calendar. Without question, the relationship with NACDA serves our purpose both on the collaboration and advocacy fronts.
CoSIDA has been successful in leveraging that NACDA involvement into collaborative efforts with other organizations such as NACMA, N4A, MOAA and also Women Leaders in College Sports. CoSIDA has built a strong alliance with national governing bodies, the NCAA and the NAIA, in support of its Academic All-America program. We have nurtured relationships with national governing bodies representing two-year colleges and with U Sports in Canada. We have nearly 50 corporate partners who support CoSIDA in a variety of ways. They include conferences, bowls, national networks, coaches associations, college football award organizations and other national stakeholders of influence such as the National Football Foundation (NFF), College Football Playoff (CFP) and USA Basketball.
Recently, CoSIDA partnered with both the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) and United States Basketball Writers of America (USBWA) to develop pandemic-related protocols in media operations. It was important for our groups to work together in a collaborative approach for all to effectively function under the current challenging climate.
We face numerous challenges in the months ahead as we support the dreams of student-athletes; it will take the collective effort of everyone to make the college athletics enterprise rise to meet the difficulties resulting from our extraordinary conditions.
Borrowing a term associated with competition, this is clearly a moment where teamwork among all of us representing college athletics associations is essential in facing these new challenges.