A packed McCormick Tribune Center forum learned Wednesday afternoon that money was sitting “Beyond the Box Score.”
The lecture, co-sponsored by the Northwestern Department of Athletics and Recreation, was a part of the larger Crain Lecture Series held by the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. The event was moderated by ESPN’s Rachel Nichols, Medill ‘95, and covered many topics in collegiate athletics. The three-man panel, which consisted of Sports Illustrated’s Stewart Mandel, Medill ‘98, NU football coach Pat Fitzgerald and The New York Times’ Pete Thamel, spoke on social media, recruiting and pay-for-play in a conversation that kept circling back to money.
The pay-for-play debate was center stage as the panel discussed what the right move is in regard to financially compensating collegiate student-athletes. Fitzgerald said he wants to make sure his players are happy and successful, but that it gets complicated with issues including gender and “revenue sports,” or sports such as football and men’s basketball that tend to bring in significant profits. Mandel called for players like senior forward John Shurna, who have jerseys with their number on them sold at stores, to get a cut of the action. Meanwhile, Thamel had the most extreme view of all: Get out of the United States.
“(Pay-for-play) opens up a Pandora’s box,” Thamel said. “The simple answer is if you want to get paid and you’re good enough to get paid, go to Canada and play in the (Canadian Football League). It’s very cut and dried for me. You know what you’re signing up for.”
During the social media portion of the discussion, Fitzgerald addressed a recent tweet from his account about NBA star Jeremy Lin that sparked a national controversy. The coach said he is concerned with how social media has warped people’s perception of facts and how that has led to incidents like the one that happened to him. Mandel said the benefits of a platform like Twitter also come with negative aspects.
“(Twitter) has leveled the playing field and it gives opportunities for young journalists, people who don’t have the forum of Sports Illustrated or The New York Times, who do good work to have that work get seen,” Mandel said. “On the flipside, anyone with an Internet connection can put stuff out there, and it’s getting harder and harder for the average fan to discriminate.”
The event was one of very few sports journalism-related activities Medill has hosted this year. Another such event was in November, when the school hosted a Q and A session with ESPN journalist Mike Wilbon, Medill ‘80, at Ryan Field.
Fitzgerald said he was on board since the very beginning for Wednesday’s lecture because he loves to interact with students on campus.
“It was really neat,” Fitzgerald said of the lecture. “It was great that a lot of (the panelists) were ascended from Medill student to journalists. That was really appropriate and really neat.”
