The NCAA and Whistleblowers : 30-40 Years of Wrongdoing and College Sport and Possible Solutions

The purpose of this article is to explore specific examples of individuals on college campuses who took the step of blowing the whistle by exposing wrongdoing over the last thirty to forty years in the context of college sport. The article briefly discusses a history of whistleblowing in the United States, reaching back to the False Claims Act (FCA). The article offers prominent, modern examples of whistleblowers in the context of intercollegiate athletics, particularly-but not exclusively-to instances of academic fraud, including those emanating from the 1980s, 1990s, and post-2000. As the article demonstrates, there could be a heavy price to be paid for revealing wrongdoing in college sports which includes a broad spectrum of unsavory revelations and allegations. Indeed, the list of examples of revelation of wrongdoing runs deep. The article demonstrates that reporting allegations of wrongdoing impacts the organization to a tremendous degree and often strikes a huge blow to the whistleblower. As a basic solution, the article offers that NCAA or its member institutions should consider establishing whistleblower policies to protect those who report wrongdoing, thereby formalizing a structure and possibly minimizing the negative impact on the individual and the organization. Finally, the article provides how a few schools have developed whistle-blower policies, and how the establishment of a formal policy might benefit all the players involved in intercollegiate sport by attempting to mitigate the immediate effects against the whistleblower and, possibly, viewing the whistleblower as a protected organizational asset rather than a villain