BY JOHN S. NICHOLS
John S. Nichols is a professor of communications at Penn State University and a member of the steering committee of the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics.
“Intercollegiate athletics are seriously undermining the core academic mission of many universities, and the current rash of off-field misbehavior by athletes is just one indication.
“As a longtime Penn State faculty member and an activist in a national movement for athletics reform, I am keenly aware of and concerned about the problems faced by educational institutions competing in big-time sports — particularly my own university.
But while media attention to this issue is certainly needed, the harshly critical report about the Penn State football program that aired last Sunday on ESPN’s ‘Outside the Lines’ painted a misleading and unfair picture. …”