Searching for the Soul of College Sport

Until somewhat recently, the NCAA used to run a commercial with a line that defined the spirit of college athletics:

“There are over 400,000 NCAA student-athletes, and just about all of them will be going pro in something other than sports.”

It was a promise that the value of the game wasn’t found in the scoreboard or the broadcast rights, but in the person the game produced. 

This past week, as Illinois State University – my alma mater – announced the cancellation of its men’s tennis program, that promise felt like it finally rang hollow. It was a program that I gave much of myself to and, in return, it gave me much so much more.  It altered the trajectory of my life. 

I understand the strategy and economics—the balancing of Title IX, the pressures of NIL, and the hard math of revenue versus non-revenue sports. I get it. I am a strategist, and part of my work is to help organizations make tough decisions and prioritize around a North Star. The trouble is, it is now very clear as to what the NCAA sees as its North Star – and it is not what it used to be.

We have to be honest about the shift: the landmark House v. NCAA settlement and the revenue sharing that it created, the emergence of the transfer portal, and the explosion of NIL have fundamentally transformed NCAA athletics. What was once a character-building and people-forming enterprise has been restructured into a minor league athletic revenue-building business. In this new landscape, where schools are tasked with finding millions of dollars for direct revenue sharing with athletes, the role of non-revenue sports has been recalibrated from a mission-critical investment in humans to a line-item expense to be managed.

On a personal front, it feels as if a part of my own history evaporated. This program was a place I gave a great deal to, and in return, it gave me the foundation of who I am today. It was where I learned that resilience, team spirit, and sportsmanship are the real professional skills that carry you through life.

Of course, this isn’t just about my alma mater or my experience. I am merely a small example of the lives changed through the old system.  Today, we are witnessing a systemic erosion of the soul of college sport. In just a few years, roughly fifteen NCAA Division I men’s tennis programs have vanished. This isn’t just a mid-major conference struggle; it’s a contagion reaching the highest levels, from Iowa in the Big Ten to Arkansas in the SEC. It forces us to look at the horizon and ask: where is the NCAA going, and what is it actually trying to solve for?  I am guessing we all really know the answers to those questions.  Maybe it is just me that doesn’t want to acknowledge them yet. 

The implications go beyond the loss of a roster. As someone committed to the future of racket sports, player development, and our coaching pipeline, I see a critical development engine being dismantled. These programs are the training grounds for the next generation of leaders and coaches. When you cut the program, you don’t just lose eight players, a coach and a graduate assistant; it’s bigger and more strategic than that.  These cuts have the capability of strangling the future of the sport’s leadership.  At bare minimum, without these programs, we must think now on how we will fill the gap in the player and coach development pipeline.  

I am certain that the first fifteen division one men’s tennis programs we have lost are just the beginning.  Illinois State is just the most recent example of non-revenue sports being squeezed out of the equation. Based upon the current and likely future financial model of college athletics, there will now be a major gap in player and coach development among non-revenue sports that remains to be filled.