Game Day Rivalry: Academics vs Athletics | Mary Willingham | TEDxUCDavisSF

Mary Willingham reminds us that college sports connect Americans in two different and conflicting ways. Sports unite us in fandom, school pride, and the appreciation of spectacle. But they also unite us in an unacknowledged bond of silence--silence about the racial, economic, and educational injustices that make the whole enterprise possible.

Mary Willingham's talk, rooted in her own experience of coming-to-consciousness, reminds us of the powerful connection between the pleasing spectacle of college sport, on the one hand, and the willful blindness and collective silence about its hidden injustices, on the other hand. She insists that it is time for the fans of college sport to come out of their self-protective cocoon and face some ugly realities.

Known by many as the whistleblower of the largest academic scandal in NCAA history, Mary Willingham is an author, educator, activist and human resources professional. In 2015, she co-authored the book, “Cheated: The UNC Scandal, The Education of Athletes, And The Future of Big-Time College Sports,” which unveiled a corrupt academic system for student-athletes at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, home of the legendary Tar Heels. Her research includes studies on the NCAA and university admission procedures with regard to profit sport athletes, and their specific gaps in basic skill deficits. She is a co-owner of Paper Class Inc., a company dedicated to raising awareness about the need for NCAA reform and PCRead, a non-profit literacy organization. In 2014, she was in Taylor Branch’s Documentary, “Schooled: The Price of College Sport”, and has also appeared on HBO Real Sports and ESPN Outside the Lines. In 2015, Willingham was invited to brief congress over the failures of the NCAA to regulate college sport and the need for a commission – H.R. 2731. Last year, 2016, she appeared in Bob DeMar’s Documentary, “The Business of Amateurs”.

Willingham currently works for KIPP Delta public schools as Regional Director of Literacy.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx