The Times Are Changing

Episode 27: Dr. Bob Dranoff (Former D-2 East Coast Conference Athletic Commissioner, Current graduate professor at St. John's University) - Both at the youth sports AND collegiate level, sports are more commercialized than ever.  - A focus on making rules and regulations that only benefit the "elite of the elite." - Trickle down effect of some new rule changes in college athletics with revenue sharing, NIL, scholarship limitations and roster changes. Will universities have to make tough decisions about cutting programs, how much funding to provide, etc? We haven't even seen the tip of the iceberg yet with some of this stuff... - The trickle down effect. When one thing in a system changes, it inevitably effects everyone at every level in some way.  - If the scholarships and secondary sports at universities begin to get cut or receive less funding, does that impact sports at the youth level? Do people scale back because this financial pay off at the end of a scholarship no longer exists? Or do people just become even MORE competitive for those limited spots? - College enrollment is down all over the country. How does this impact collegiate sports? - Are some smaller schools using athletes to boost enrollment? Do parents and kids see through this, or are they just happy to keep playing their sport? - Is it disingenuous for D3 schools to be using athletics to get kids in the door and paying $60,000 a year because they just want to keep playing their sport?  - Universities using new sports on the women's side, club side, etc. to boost enrollment. Provides more opportunities. Is that a bad thing for athletes? - When we talk about D3 sports, in some ways it is a continuation of the "pay to play" model we see at the youth levels.  - Dranoff has spent a lot of time researching how we teach leadership to athletes. And the finding in many cases is... We don't. It's dependent on individual coaches and leadership styles.  - The alarming statistics around dropout rates in youth sports (70%!!!! of kids involved in team youth sports drop out by 13) - We focus so much on individual improvement and success in sports at the expense of learning what it means to have a ROLE on a team.  - While many of us see the "problems" plaguing youth sports... our involvement with it is finite. Are people really willing to rock the boat, or change the system, when they have a kid who is only part of it for a short time?  - And a holiday HOT TAKE!

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