By Craig Morgan, thesundevils.com Writer
TEMPE, Ariz. -- In a trailer for his book on the topic, Arizona State president Michael Crow highlights some key tenets of the New American University.
"We've got to find a way in which the discovery oriented university, the research university, the discovery oriented knowledge enterprise has the ability to be very broadly engaged with society, to be very deeply representative of all the talent from society and to find a way to advance all of that talent to some level of success," Crow said.
Ken Shropshire aims to achieve those goals as the first adidas Distinguished Professor of Global Sport at ASU, a newly endowed faculty position created with a contribution from Sun Devil Athletics partner, adidas. The new center will create, support and encourage collaborative, multidisciplinary inquiry and translate complex sports-related research to broad audiences through multiple media platforms, forums and global gatherings.
Shropshire will hold a joint faculty appointment at the W. P. Carey School of Business and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He said the new international sports center will be global in scope, with programs in the works in South Africa and other African nations, as well as an existing program in Germany and other U.S. centers in Santa Monica, Calif. and Washington D.C.
The center will also be inclusive on a local scale, engaging Valley business and government leaders, as well as university administration, faculty, various departments and students across disciplines. One of the key targets of this center is the Sun Devil student-athlete.
"We want to move the public away from this conversation about better compensation for student-athletes to better education," said Shropshire, whose book "Miseducation of the Student Athlete: A Manifesto for Change" is due out in November. "Maybe it doesn't happen in four, five or six years. Maybe it's 10 so we create a more realistic way for them to focus on both athletics and education, but how do we get them to earn meaningful degrees and to have meaningful direction in life?"
Shropshire said that many of the center's ideas are in the embryonic stage since the center will be launched later this year, but he stressed the student-athlete education piece that focuses both on completing the degree and transition to whatever is next in life, whether it's coaching or another profession, because he doesn't feel enough emphasis has been placed on that aspect of collegiate sports.
Among the ideas in consideration:
-- Lifetime scholarships: "As we contemplate being able to focus on courses while playing at the collegiate level, maybe you spread it out so you anticipate it's going to take longer than five years," Shropshire said. "With the funding in place, it becomes a more realistic way to focus on both athletics and education."
-- Have student-athletes take part in academic boot camps before they enroll in school to prepare them for the academic requirements they will face. "This could be determined by individual institutions or by broader mandate from the NCAA," Shropshire said. "A lot of these will be perceived as advantages -- that coaches would use the extra time to coach their sport -- so the regulation component of this would be important as well."
-- Financial incentives for coaches and Athletic Directors based on graduation rates: "This was already a great intervention but we're beginning to see that sometimes the degrees that student-athletes are encouraged to pursue aren't meaningful degrees so again, this would have to be more closely scrutinized," Shropshire said.
-- Place a greater emphasis on online education after student-athletes have graduated. As an example, Shropshire cited women's professional basketball players, who often play two seasons -- one in the WNBA; one overseas -- to make financial ends meet.
"Their situation means they can never get back to a campus, but maybe they can pursue that master's degree online," he said. "ASU could be a beacon location that says 'we can help you think through this in a way no one has before.'"
-- Collaboration with pro sports league to better track the factors and best practices that have allowed some athletes to better transition away form their sport into other professions: "We want to develop a better database of what people should tell their players, what agents should tell them, here's what families should know," Shropshire said.
Beyond those ideas, Shropshire hopes to engage student-athletes in the actual work.
"On the most basic level, we hope to employ research assistants and writers and we're hoping student-athletes will be involved in those areas, as well as many other projects," he said.
Shropshire is a longtime friend and former Stanford football teammate of Vice President for University Athletics Ray Anderson. ASU initially engaged Shropshire as a consultant on related topics, but as the discussion evolved with Crow and Anderson, and as Shropshire decided he wanted to pursue other ventures after announcing his retirement as director of the Wharton Sports Business Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania, the move felt right.
"I had worked at a great research center within the business school, but I couldn't do much outside of it," Shropshire said. "As I looked around the country, there were a lot of great centers, but all of them were centered within different schools, a lot of them in the college of management, some more sociology, some kinesiology, but none across the entire university. This is a unique opportunity and I view it as a great opportunity to be in a space I already understand."
Anderson said Shropshire's influence on Sun Devil student-athletes will be broad and impactful.
"Ken's various experiences in sport as a student-athlete, lawyer, talent agent, scholar, teacher, author, consultant, boards of directors member, among others, will provide ASU students access to perhaps the most educated sports professional on the planet," Anderson said.
TEMPE, Ariz. -- In a trailer for his book on the topic, Arizona State president Michael Crow highlights some key tenets of the New American University.
"We've got to find a way in which the discovery oriented university, the research university, the discovery oriented knowledge enterprise has the ability to be very broadly engaged with society, to be very deeply representative of all the talent from society and to find a way to advance all of that talent to some level of success," Crow said.
Ken Shropshire aims to achieve those goals as the first adidas Distinguished Professor of Global Sport at ASU, a newly endowed faculty position created with a contribution from Sun Devil Athletics partner, adidas. The new center will create, support and encourage collaborative, multidisciplinary inquiry and translate complex sports-related research to broad audiences through multiple media platforms, forums and global gatherings.
Shropshire will hold a joint faculty appointment at the W. P. Carey School of Business and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He said the new international sports center will be global in scope, with programs in the works in South Africa and other African nations, as well as an existing program in Germany and other U.S. centers in Santa Monica, Calif. and Washington D.C.
The center will also be inclusive on a local scale, engaging Valley business and government leaders, as well as university administration, faculty, various departments and students across disciplines. One of the key targets of this center is the Sun Devil student-athlete.
"We want to move the public away from this conversation about better compensation for student-athletes to better education," said Shropshire, whose book "Miseducation of the Student Athlete: A Manifesto for Change" is due out in November. "Maybe it doesn't happen in four, five or six years. Maybe it's 10 so we create a more realistic way for them to focus on both athletics and education, but how do we get them to earn meaningful degrees and to have meaningful direction in life?"
Shropshire said that many of the center's ideas are in the embryonic stage since the center will be launched later this year, but he stressed the student-athlete education piece that focuses both on completing the degree and transition to whatever is next in life, whether it's coaching or another profession, because he doesn't feel enough emphasis has been placed on that aspect of collegiate sports.
Among the ideas in consideration:
-- Lifetime scholarships: "As we contemplate being able to focus on courses while playing at the collegiate level, maybe you spread it out so you anticipate it's going to take longer than five years," Shropshire said. "With the funding in place, it becomes a more realistic way to focus on both athletics and education."
-- Have student-athletes take part in academic boot camps before they enroll in school to prepare them for the academic requirements they will face. "This could be determined by individual institutions or by broader mandate from the NCAA," Shropshire said. "A lot of these will be perceived as advantages -- that coaches would use the extra time to coach their sport -- so the regulation component of this would be important as well."
-- Financial incentives for coaches and Athletic Directors based on graduation rates: "This was already a great intervention but we're beginning to see that sometimes the degrees that student-athletes are encouraged to pursue aren't meaningful degrees so again, this would have to be more closely scrutinized," Shropshire said.
-- Place a greater emphasis on online education after student-athletes have graduated. As an example, Shropshire cited women's professional basketball players, who often play two seasons -- one in the WNBA; one overseas -- to make financial ends meet.
"Their situation means they can never get back to a campus, but maybe they can pursue that master's degree online," he said. "ASU could be a beacon location that says 'we can help you think through this in a way no one has before.'"
-- Collaboration with pro sports league to better track the factors and best practices that have allowed some athletes to better transition away form their sport into other professions: "We want to develop a better database of what people should tell their players, what agents should tell them, here's what families should know," Shropshire said.
Beyond those ideas, Shropshire hopes to engage student-athletes in the actual work.
"On the most basic level, we hope to employ research assistants and writers and we're hoping student-athletes will be involved in those areas, as well as many other projects," he said.
Shropshire is a longtime friend and former Stanford football teammate of Vice President for University Athletics Ray Anderson. ASU initially engaged Shropshire as a consultant on related topics, but as the discussion evolved with Crow and Anderson, and as Shropshire decided he wanted to pursue other ventures after announcing his retirement as director of the Wharton Sports Business Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania, the move felt right.
"I had worked at a great research center within the business school, but I couldn't do much outside of it," Shropshire said. "As I looked around the country, there were a lot of great centers, but all of them were centered within different schools, a lot of them in the college of management, some more sociology, some kinesiology, but none across the entire university. This is a unique opportunity and I view it as a great opportunity to be in a space I already understand."
Anderson said Shropshire's influence on Sun Devil student-athletes will be broad and impactful.
"Ken's various experiences in sport as a student-athlete, lawyer, talent agent, scholar, teacher, author, consultant, boards of directors member, among others, will provide ASU students access to perhaps the most educated sports professional on the planet," Anderson said.