Context Of The 90s : Before the changes were made

In the collegiate realm, by the 1990s, most high-profile sports coaches enhanced their status as celebrities rather than as educators, complete with endorsements and special contracts to supplement their base salaries. To increase the seriousness of this concern, athletic programs at all institutions, including the most conspicuous ones, faced a paradox of prosperity. Despite unprecedented revenues, most teams and programs were not financially self-supporting. Even at the Division I level of NCAA competition, the future funding of intercollegiate athletics faced dubious fiscal fitness. The consensus was that overemphasis on athletics was most prevalent in the relatively small number of big-time programs at large universities. Yet significant, systematic research sponsored by the Mellon Foundation in 2000 suggested otherwise. William G. Bowen and James Shulman’s study, The Game of Life: College Sports and Educational Values, complicated the profile with their findings. They found that: even at–or, perhaps, especially at–academically selective and relatively small-sized colleges and universities, the demands on student-athletes’ time were substantial (College Athletics, 2000).” This described demand for athletes and the historical period laid the foundation for the promotion of smaller schools’ athletic programs and facilities such as Trinity University, which brings us to the narrative of Ron Calgaard.