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Big-time athletic programs are not entirely unlike nation-states. Everyone wears the colors, says the pledge, and sings the school anthem. Everyone worships the logo, recites the fight song, and reports up the chain of command….

This is what makes college athletics galvanizing and wonderful. And also, for anyone who has been inside it, it’s what can make college athletics frightening. When you’re inside, you’re often a rah-rah believer. Blind acceptance exists that coaches and administrators, those who have established the institution’s culture, possess absolute authority. They’re accountable only to one another or not at all. The bad stuff can be handled internally, must be handled internally, unless it’s so bad it seeps out the office door.

Is it a coincidence that Penn State is responsible for two of the most inflammatory college scandals of the last quarter-century? Women’s basketball coach Rene Portland “resigned” amid charges of anti-gay discrimination. She had coached successfully at Penn State for 27 years. The Penn State administration - Curley was Penn State’s athletic director then, too - allowed Portland to run her program in whatever way suited her personal beliefs. She scared lesbians into the closet and revoked scholarships based on sexuality.

Just look the other way. Nothing to see here. Sound familiar?

But Penn State is no more guilty than other powerhouse athletic departments and universities. Believe this: These things could have happened anywhere. It’s the protective cocoon of big-time athletics.

The longer you reside within that cocoon, the more entrenched you become in the culture. Administrators and coaches often morph from humans who react with humanity into vassals charged with protecting the institutional image. Preserving legacy and mystique are placed ahead of a child’s - or a woman’s - pain.

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Outside the Arena: College sports bubble can warp values | Philadelphia Inquirer | 11/10/2011

Kate Fagan, who wrote this essay, was a basketball player at the University of Colorado while the university’s football program was under investigation.

I think the dynamic she experienced there is true not just of big-time college athletics but any powerful institution where there is pressure to maintain the image of the institution at all costs, even if that means covering up crimes by subordinates.

(via dendroica)

(via dendroica)