It amazes me still how college athletics, for all the big, disruptive, smart minds on campuses, still reverts back to tactics that were in play 25 years ago. While we know mow much college sports can be a big business, in so many ways it is run still like a mom and pop shop, or as a club, vs. the business it should be.
Case in point. I have been on a myriad of campuses in the last few months talking and listening to students, faculty and staff. Many talk about the confusion of Name Image and Likeness, the cost of infrastructure, the challenges and opportunity of Title IX and the excitement of being around young minds with such an amazing road ahead (that’s my favorite part by the way).
Then when you talk to leadership they discuss new revenue streams and the challenges faced with balancing budgets. Yet, almost always they talk about “donors.” Therein lies the problem. College athletics is an emotional buy for many, but it is not charity, like putting dollars in a collection box at church or giving blood. It is an INVESTMENT in the future of an institution, and in the case of athletics, the Return on The Investment can be seen very clearly. It may seem subtle, but changing that mindset from giving to investing is so key for many people, and, when thinking about it that way, can make the process much more exciting and intriguing to those who viewed institutions as just charity.
I was glad to see a recent piece by Mike Vaccaro in the New York Post that talked about the subtle shift at my alma mater, Fordham University. The piece talked about the rebirth of Fordham man’s basketball and mentioned how Athletic Director Ed Kull, with a strong business background, has made the shift in mindset to investment. For people who are looking to understand how their dollars work in any kind of financial plan, the investment in shifting the words seems to be paying off, even as the Rams have risen.
The shift from we need your money to we want you to be invested in our people is exciting. The mindset of “here comes these people to hit me up for cash” is not exciting, its burdensome.
Amazing what a reframe can do, here’s to other smart minds doing the same. Investing grows, donations come and go.
