Perspectives

Forbes

We Don’t Need College Sports Unions, We Need Enlightened Leadership

In his latest column for Forbes, Glen Tullman talks about the need for enlightened leadership in college sports. Read the full columnhere and an excerpt below:

“Sports have historically been a wonderful source of leadership lessons. They’ve even occasionally led the way on social issues, like racial integration – from Jackie Robinson’s baseball breakthrough to the South African rugby team’s historic world-cup victory (both celebrated in recent films) to Texas Western’s improbable 1966 NCAA basketball championship.

This is surely part of the reason that business people tend to be sports fans – we look to sports for inspiration as much as for entertainment. We appreciate that, just as with quarterly earnings reports, there is a clarity about who’s winning and losing. And we love the surprise opportunities for Cinderella stories — now an annual occurrence during March Madness.

Unfortunately sports can also be pretty uninspiring sometimes. Take the recent news that Northwestern University student-athletes want to unionize. They’re led by former football players who say the university rakes in cash – from ticket sales, TV revenue, sponsorships, etc. – while the players, all full-time students, spend 40 hours a week (at least) training, practicing and playing football. Some don’t graduate. Others suffer injuries that can nag them for life.”