Bill Curry would like to bring personal integrity back to collegiate athletics. Presumably, this was his second choice for an easy retirement job, just after building a flying car that runs on SpaghettiOs.
“The thing that bothers me most is the institutionalized dishonesty in which a university has made a fundamental decision, ‘We have to cheat,’” he said. “That’s so destructive. I’m not claiming to be any more moral than anybody else. I would’ve loved to have won more games than I did everywhere I coached. But I don’t believe you have to cheat to win. When the institution sells out, you don’t win.”
It’s a wonderful sentiment, even if Curry likely won’t be invited to share his talking points any time soon on certain campuses of the SEC, Big Ten or most areas with access to major networks and cable access.
College presidents and athletic directors lost sight of their mission decades ago. They put the financial gains of TV deals over the nuisance of academic standards. They built Valhalla-like training centers and gave coaches $5 million contracts the same year they were laying off teachers.
But Curry doesn’t view this as an unplowable landscape. It’s one reason why he has partnered with Atlanta attorney Pete Wellborn (one of Curry’s former players at Georgia Tech) and public-relations company Porter Novelli to advise teams on thriving in chaos. Their company: AIM Sports Reputation Management. AIM is an acronym for advise, integrate and manage.
“Most major universities and athletic departments don’t have a crisis plan if there’s a catastrophic event,” Curry said.
So he’s offering to help. He’ll advise schools on how to anticipate, prevent and manage problems. He’ll work with staff and students on what to say and do, and what not to do and say. Maybe along the way, the train gets back onto the rails.
“There are programs that have already contacted us who are clearly in disarray,” Curry said. “But we’re not kidding ourselves. We know a lot of people are not going to want somebody from the outside to come in and tell them what to do.”
Especially if Curry’s power point is perceived to be in conflict with the primary objective of winning football games.
There is an element of lollipops and rainbows to all of this. But it’s hard not to admire the man for trying. He’s 71 years old. He played in the NFL for eight seasons and coached in college for 20 at Georgia Tech, Alabama, Kentucky and, after an extended intermission, Georgia State. It turns out he’s not cut out for porch sitting.
In many ways, Curry is an old-school guy. But he understands all the ways the NCAA has done wrong. He sees the significance of the NLRB’s ruling in favor of Northwestern athletes’ right to unionize (even if that happening remains a long shot). This grandfather of five isn’t going to give any lectures about how athletes are ungrateful for not being content with their scholarships and a meal plan.
Actually, I can’t think of a better person to run the NCAA. Problem is, he’s probably too smart for that.
Curry on the Northwestern case: “We do live in America. When human beings see somebody making hundreds of millions of dollars and you are the product, at some point you’re going to raise your hand. We distribute the wealth here.”
On the NCAA: “Trying to get them to change is like taking a tugboat and trying to move a battleship. They’re like Congress. Something may make all of the sense in the world, but they can’t get it passed. At some point, you would think sound minds have to prevail. But the NCAA — they have their moments.”
On paying college athletes: “They should receive that which is normally associated with the college experience. There’s too much nickel-and-dime stuff. These students aren’t stupid. They see how much coaches are making. Title IX makes it difficult to compensate just the revenue sports, and that’s the way it should be. But with the resources now available, it shouldn’t be difficult to come up with a solution.”
He also would like to see scholarships fully guaranteed. He said athletes should be free to transfer without penalty if their coach leaves or is fired. He would drop to his knees in thanks for a return to the freshmen-ineligible rule, but concedes that will never happen.
Curry’s quest to change the mindset of administrators seems like trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube. He’s OK with that.
“The survival of sports as we know it depends on that happening,” he said. “The overgirding sense of teaching integrity and doing the right thing has been lost in the overall fervor for championships. I don’t have delusions I’ll ride in on a white horse and change everything. But there are too many good people involved to not think it can happen.”
Here’s wishing him luck.
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