NCAA hire bolsters academics

Last year, IU President Myles Brand wrote a guest editorial for the NCAA about the need to slow down the "arms race" in college athletic departments.\nApparently they liked what he wrote.\nBrand, now the president-elect of the NCAA, criticized big time athletics and called for "academics before athletics."\nThe message the NCAA sent in luring Brand from higher education is that they agree.\nNearly one year ago, the Bloomington Faculty Council passed an intercollegiate athletics resolution, originally proposed by Brand, that puts an emphasis on academics instead of athletics.\nAfter accepting his position with the NCAA Thursday, Brand expressed the importance of academics within college athletics.\n"I want to be sure our athletes receive the best education," Brand said. "I think that is the job of the NCAA, to integrate athletics with academics."\nDespite his stance on college athletics, officials say Brand always supported student athletes and athletic programs.\nIU Athletics Director Michael McNeely said Brand supported the athletics department's goals of expansion and growth during his tenure.\n"I think Dr. Brand's sense of the importance of students being students first is most high, then being competitive athletes gives good balance that he can take with him to NCAA," McNeely said. "The important part of his experience is being the president of a major Division I Big Ten institution."\nBrand's editorial for the NCAA outlined his worries of the importance college athletics has had and what it has grown to represent in recent years.\n"This enormous interest in college sports has led to growing commercialization and the blending together of intercollegiate athletics with entertainment," Brand wrote. "That has an impact on the entire institution, and the public's perception of it."\nConsidering Brand's views, he is expected to bring change to the world of college athletics.\nRobert Eno, BFC president, said he thinks there won't be remarkable changes in the future, but there will be fewer competitions, especially post-season tournaments that make "more losers than winners."\nEno said Brand will likely reduce the commercial, business and sponsorships that are seemingly growing within intercollegiate athletics, narrowing the gap between college athletics and professional establishments.\n"(Brand) was committed to a meaningful change and fought to see a diminishing and end to the arms race," Eno said. "He had excellent direction, and his appointment is excellent for the NCAA"