Dan Coonan

We all watched over the last six months as the various defenses offered up by some Trump loyalists in Congress to the President’s Ukraine actions retreated rapidly with the news of each passing month. What began as a flat denial of any wrongdoing in the end had fully evolved into “yes, he did it and it was inappropriate or wrong, but it just doesn’t rise to the level of impeachment.” I’ll call this the “Lamar Alexander position.”

Throughout my nearly 25-year career in intercollegiate athletics I’ve often been asked if the athletes should be paid given all the money generated in the industry. That wasn’t such a difficult question to answer in my early years in the field. I’d typically respond by saying that few athletic departments actually produce a profit, and the revenue from football and basketball funds opportunities for athletes in the other sports that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. I’d then add that very few people in the industry were getting rich off of this, and most athletic department staffers work hard, keep long hours and for the most part don’t make a whole lot.