The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) today hosted a forum of college sports administrators discussing the factors which have or can impact the cancellation of fall sports competition.
But as the flyer indicates and in spite of recent headlines over the last two weeks, the panel did not include representation from any of the NCAA’s Division I and II historically black athletic conferences, all of which have canceled sports for the fall.
The omission didn’t sit well with Kentucky State University President M. Christopher Brown II, who in a letter obtained by the HBCU Digest, blasted NACDA leadership for the lack of racial diversity and conferences which have actually suspended competition.
The letter in full:
First, let me say that I am typically pleased with the work of NACDA in providing colleges and universities with well-informed professional staff for our athletics programs.
However, the proposed panel below in yesterday’s announcements is extremely tone-deaf and problematic. With the exception of the Ivy League, the timely suspension of fall intercollegiate athletic competition was initiated by Division II and then Division I HBCU athletic conferences – SIAC, CIAA, MEAC, and SWAC.
The absence of any commissioners from the sector leads me to believe that either NACDA staff is either intentionally whitewashing the robust data on the impact of COVID-19 in African American communities that led all four HBCU NCAA sports leagues to cease traditional fall seasons and/or oblivious to the national context related to racial reconciliation that has brought down statues, renamed campus facilities, and portends to reacquaint 5-star players with HBCU campuses.
Granted, we all work within the silos of our professional networks. Notwithstanding, it is reasonably expected that NACDA would pursue an affirmative duty to reach beyond the proposed non-representative panel to provide a session representative of the landscape (if not the preponderance of the student-athletes impacted). Clearly, NACDA found a ready cadre of “minority” collaborators for the McLendon Initiative.
Again, NACDA traditionally does very good work. However, the announcement yesterday and the selection of late-comers to the party to lead the session is beyond troublesome.
In an email, NACDA Chief Executive Officer Bob Vecchione extended an opportunity to Brown to discuss the session, but no further comment was offered by KSU or NACDA officials.
Commonly, the impression caused by omissions like this is that racism fuels an effort to eliminate black presence from national conversations. But something more heartbreaking may be the root cause; that black colleges and black people aren’t even remembered or considered as leaders or stakeholders in these conversations.
It is entirely possible that NACDA leadership had heard of the CIAA, SIAC, MEAC, and SWAC canceling sports, and never considered that its member presidents, commissioners, or athletic directors would provide value-added to a session on canceling sports — because they rarely think of black colleges beyond issues of diversity or racial equity in executive hiring.
The dramatically disparate impact on African Americans and the black athletes at the greatest risk of infecting each other and their communities are at the core of any conversations on Covid-19 and college sports. The billion-dollar sports power structure in the middle of that reality considers black people as competitive commodities first in players and coaches, and in a distant second, a talent pool for low-level administration in diversity, player support, or community outreach.
If the trend will stop, it will take crises like coronavirus and police killing caught on film to make it possible. But as NACDA has proven, even those things may not be enough.
