Conflicts in Collegiate Sport

Recent events in the world of sport in the USA has brought some attention to the conflict between collegiate sport’s ethos, what it says it believes, and its pathos, the way it actually operates. The conflict is demonstrated in a number of ways I have observed. I will make an effort to outline some of these issues, how they intersect our work as sport chaplains, character coaches, and sport mentors. I will also aim to simply state the nature of the conflict. I won’t presume to have an answer to solving the conflict, but seek only to help us understand the situation and to serve wisely in the midst of such tension.

 

Ethos (what we say we believe)  //  Pathos (how we actually operate)

 

Ethos = Amateurism  //  Pathos = Professionalism

 

Ethos = “student-athletes”  //  Pathos = professional athletes

 

I have watched the growth in this conflict as coaches’ salaries have skyrocketed and student-athletes’ lifestyles have remained largely unchanged. I have seen the NCAA compliance officers at universities obsess over whether to allow a bagel to be covered with cream cheese or peanut butter; one being forbidden, the other deemed more nutritious and therefore suitable. I have seen the Final Four, run by the same cream cheese obsessed organization, make billions in revenue on the backs of their “amateur” student-athletes. We have recently seen the uproar caused by a recently retired student-athlete at a prestigious university seeking to unionize his team’s football players so they can collectively bargain for benefits, marketing rights, insurance, and presumably for cash. The International Olympic movement dealt with their conflicts between amateurism and professionalism over thirty years ago by allowing professional sportspeople to compete openly, no longer pretending that many or most of those in their movement were simply in disguise as amateurs, but operating as professionals.

 

We who live among, serve with, and care for the people of sport are daily subject to the tension wherein they live. Most simply complain about it, not even thinking about the source of the conflict they feel. Many more take sides in the conflict and amplify the arguments with their own personal experiences of the broken nature of collegiate sport. We would do well to both understand and to help them find ways to navigate these turbulent waters in a Christ-honoring way.

 

I believe that much of the conflict can be understood by the inherent folly in a Greek, dualistic mindset which separates the holy from the profane, the upper from the lower, the amateur from the professional. Much of our culture will declare one group as heroes (amateur student-athletes) while also vilifying another group (professionals athletes). Many, mostly sports fans, will turn a blind eye to the excesses of their regional collegiate sports programs, but will sling mud and aspersions toward the professional clubs and players a thousand miles away. In fact, there is little difference between the two.

 

Greek Dualism  //  Integrated Holism

 

I believe that a better approach to the whole world of sport is integrated holism. Rather than seeing people as being compartmentalized into body, mind, and spirit with little or no connection between them, seeing the competitor as a whole person with every part being integral to the function of every other part, is much more Biblical and wise. A brief reading of Genesis 1 and 2, Ephesians 4 and 5, would inform the reader in God’s view of how we function. We are created as integrated, whole persons, not as compartmentalized, fragmented persons. I believe this model best informs the best and most God-honoring organizations as well. Our ethos and pathos must become fully integrated so as to eliminate conflicts, internal and external, individual and corporate.

 

As we serve people who live in this tension, let’s help them integrate their ethos and pathos. If they hold tightly to an amateur ethic, let’s help them develop wise practices that are in keeping with their ethic. If they are professionals, let’s help them be at their best and to pursue honorable, consistent, and wise processes with people. If they live in an environment which straddles the line, let’s help them walk through the mine field of tension and conflict with grace and wisdom, seeking Jesus’ way to their goals.