On a sunny and 70-degree Wednesday, 50 Rotarians gathered in person and 40 via zoom to be part of today’s weekly Rotary meeting.

President Mark rang the bell to begin our hybrid meeting, and Pianist Extraordinaire, Tom Strode, watched over by the guardian Beethoven bobble head, played our National Anthem.

Shelley MacMillan presented a moving inspiration by resetting the words to the beloved music “Let There Be Peace on earth.”

Let there be peace on earth
How can we make this come true?
There must be peace on earth
There’s so much we all can do

We all have a mother…a father
So connected we should be.
Let us walk with each other—
In perfect harmony.

Let peace begin with us
Let this be our moment now.
With ev’ry step we take
Let this be our solemn vow

To take each moment and live
Each moment in peace forever more
Let there be peace on earth
And let all life spirits soar.

In keeping with the Peace theme that Shelley began, music leader Joanne Pierson brought out the official video of “We are the World,” for our club to accompany in the chorus.

President Mark welcomed today’s in-person guests Chris Shulte, Eric Arnton, Cheryl Zwyer, (welcome back to) Rick Reid, David Gordon, Robert Hensinger, and to Cliff Sheldon via zoom. President Mark thanked today’s set up team: Meeting Coordinator: Emily Olson, Zoom Support: Sara Maddock; Setup: Mark Foster; Greeter: Norma Sarkar; Attendance: Leo Shedden; Mic Runner: Barbara Eichmuller; Reporter: Mary Steffek Blaske; Photographer: Fred Beutler.

Cheers to Miriam Perry, on her 1st anniversary as a Rotarian.

Club Announcements:
1) Send Hunger Packing Update: Leo Shedden encouraged us to join with others on Saturday, Nov. 5 from 9 – 11 a.m. at Pioneer High School, to create nutritious one-package meals to be sent around the globe for emergencies.

2) STRIVE Mentors: David Keren reminded us that STRIVE began in our club in 1999 to motivate and guide high school students at Pathways by positive one-on-one relationships. STRIVE partners meet monthly with their student on the first Tuesdays of the month December through May. Mentors are prepared for their role at a dedicated training meeting. Contact David to learn more.

3) Veterans Hygiene Kits: Don Deatrick asks that we as a club raise our sights to creating 100 Personal Hygiene Kits for vets this year. Your help in donating gift bags, original chapstick, pocket combs and puzzle books – or a check – will make a difference to a Veteran living near us.
4) Peace Committee: Marcia Lane personally invited us to participate in a zoom meeting on “How to Talk to People You Disagree With,” a free zoom workshop on Nov. 13 from 3 – 4:30 p.m.
5) There will be a meeting of the Membership Committee Meeting Thursday at 5:00 p.m. at the Venue.

President Mark introduced speaker John U. Bacon who thoroughly engaged each of us in the audience on “The Past, Present, and Future of College Athletics.”

John set the stage for us by sharing a story from his book “The Greatest Comeback,” about the 1972 Summit Series where more “More Canadians,” (85%!) “saw Paul Henderson’s winning goal with 34 seconds left in game eight than saw the moon landing three years earlier. And they watched the moon landing, it’s not like they didn’t care about it. He pointed this out to Wayne Gretzky, and Gretzky said, ‘The hockey was more important.’”

Bacon noted that there are too few NCAA restrictions in place with the new Name, Image Likeness (NIL) – a method by which university athletes can market their NIL for money.
Bacon anticipates serious problems ahead, especially in football and basketball. He gives some historical context:
* since 1903, before the NCAA was formed, there already was the Stanley Cup in hockey and a World Series in baseball. College hockey and baseball players could go into the pro system through those sports’ extant minor leagues.
* Football and basketball, by contrast, have no minor leagues. The college teams themselves have over the years morphed into the only lane into the pro leagues.

We Americans are passionate about our collegiate sports. It is not just about the prowess, it is that your particular team is your tribe, that your team is your passion. The US is the only country in the world that cares so much about college athletics, as evidenced that the world’s largest football stadia are collegiate stadia. We call our collegiate football’s “National Championship,” when it has nothing to do with national professional football.

NIL issue regarding coach pay and player pay.
* Will a highly paid 18-22 year-old football student-athlete take to being coached?

* Will faculty who has a failing, yet highly-compensated student-athlete, actually fail that student?
*Will that faculty member face push back from the paying sponsor? School? Faculty? Fan base?

This is not capitalism in that collegiate-level is not fair market, in part because the collegiate-level fans are super-passionate, not rational. Bacon noted that in the NFL, 1/3 the followers are gamblers, 1/3 fantasy football players, and 1/3 fans. With collegiate football, currently 95% of the attendees are fans. NIL has the power to kill the passion of college sports.

Will this be a zero sum game? That is, will individual donors give to the athlete and not to the University where their donations have been made over the years?

The IRS will be watching the newly enriched NIL athlete as those gifts are taxable to the recipient and may put that athlete’s scholarship in jeopardy.

The new NIL puts significant power into the hands of a 17-year-old who may choose to get paid to go to whatever school gives him the most money, rather than the school that will give him the best education and degree.

Realignment of Collegiate Conferences. With the addition of USC and UCLA, our Big 10 conference of 16 now looks more like a conference instead of a league. Bacon noted that our conferences built on geographical terms make sense in terms of our cultural sense of what the Midwest is, what the Atlantic states are, what the west is. While it makes financial sense for the aligning schools who will earn $1B/year/school for tv rights, it makes it extremely difficult for students – especially in club or “Olympic” sports, tennis, golf, to participate because they will be in transit for many days to/from sporting events. Bacon also noted that the expanded, coast-to-coast Big 10 events will make it highly unlikely for young kids to watch as fans because of the time and expense of long-distance travel. This will kill the passion for collegiate sports – not this year or next, but in the next decades ahead.

The realignment will also play havoc on the MAC schools. It may even force a decision that in the future a football player chooses the Big 10, for example, to get a degree and a lane to get to pro football, or choose the SEC in order to go directly into pro football.

Bacon was asked about the MSU assault on two UM players after the UM/MSU game on Saturday. He noted that 1) if teams are trained and coached on the right behavior, they will adhere to it, even in times of stress; 2) the tunnel has been used in 600 games. Each player generally goes through the tunnel 6 times / game making it 3,600 times the tunnel has been used as it was intended. Even Michigan State who has played at the UM 60 times (x 6/game = 360) has had no assault incident for those 360 tunnel transits. Therefore, the tunnel is not the problem. 3) unhappy teams walk slowly and winning teams want to run. Therefore, there needs to be good tunnel management at the end of a game to ensure that the team that lost is in their locker room when the winning team enters the tunnel.

The club gave a huge round of applause to Bacon for the captivating talk.

President Mark reminded us that today is National Stress Awareness Day. And that next week, Nov. 9, our speaker will be District Governor Bala Murthy, speaking on “Joy of Service and Giving.”

President Mark closed with a quote from Roy T. Bennet: “More smiling, less worrying. More compassion, less judgment. More blessed, less stressed. More love, less hate.”

Respectfully submitted,
Mary Steffek Blaske