NCAA Update

This comes courtesy of Max Utsler at Kansas. Seems the NCAA has come up with a new definition of "scholarly inquiry": as long as your research doesn't criticize the NCAA, you can inquire all you want--

Several months after it canceled a planned scholarly conference on college athletics, the National Collegiate Athletic Association has announced plans for a new colloquium in conjunction with its 2008 annual convention in Nashville next January, to fill what it called a “void in research activity related to sport in the context of higher education.” Myles Brand, the NCAA’s president, quietly canceled a meeting scheduled for last month, saying that the quality of papers submitted had been inadequate. The action ruffled some feathers among those who had chosen to submit papers, and prompted speculation that association officials hadn’t liked the critical nature of some of the submissions. The NCAA’s announcement of the new event said its theme would be “College Sports: A Legitimate Focus for Scholarly Inquiry,” and noted that it would feature “invited scholars of international repute” — suggesting that submissions would not be welcomed.