Past The 'Keeper

Photo courtesy of Steve Klein

Tom O’Connor, the athletic director at GMU talked about what it takes to be involved with a division I athletics program and what he expects out of his student-athletes.

What should intercollegiate athletics be about?

• Quality and balance. Be the best, meaning not only on the playing field but also in the classroom.
• Sportsmanship — the core value of intercollegiate athletics.

Sportsmanship involves yelling at the refs, getting a technical foul, etc.

• Have fun. The athletics department is similar to the “toys and games department” at a retail store.

Why?

Because it’s fun. Everybody enjoys going into the toys and games department and O’Connor wants everybody to feel the same involving athletics.

He referenced sports as a “side door” rather than the “main door” of the university. He truly believes that learning in the classroom is the main door and the most important aspect of being in a university.

The memorable 2006 Final Four run helped bring visibility to GMU and brought indirect marketing to the university with around $1 billion in free marketing and advertisement.

At first the criticism and attention that GMU had was negative from the media and as they had success, it turned into positive attention.

The sports budget — which I was apparently confused about — is frozen, not cut. All the money that the athletics has comes from people who pay to watch and also from outside donations. The coaches salaries and scholarship money was not cut. It stayed the same. But rather than flying to Dallas to play a team, they will just go to Baltimore to play someone else instead. O’Connor wants to focus on getting the basic human needs fulfilled first and foremost before anything else.

These are:

• Clothing
• Shelter
• Food
• Good equipment to play with

For GMU to have a football team, the money would come from student fee’s rather than tuition. But at this point in time, O’Connor hasn’t received the necessary funding from alumni to begin a football program at Mason. And if it does, he wants it to be big-time.

Let’s not think small. Think big.

Tom O'Connor speaking at GMU (Photo courtesy of Steve Klein

When the jerseys are put on and the games begin, George Mason University student-athletes become performers — but their lives beyond the sport are very similar to the typical college student.

A university-wide phenomenon has the typical student believing that student-athletes are spoiled with benefits.

Though for the most part, the truth is quite the opposite.

“We hold our student-athletes to high standards,” said GMU’s assistant vice president and athletics director Tom O’Connor. “Many people don’t know this but on average, student-athletes at Mason have a higher overall GPA than our non-athletes on campus. They aren’t spoiled.”

O’Connor, who spoke at GMU Thursday, defended the notion that student-athletes receive more benefits in the classroom than the typical Mason student.

In addition to being held to similar high standards in the classroom, GMU student-athletes also use the same facilities on campus as every other student.

Student-athletes are most notably seen working out next to the typical Mason student at GMU’s gym facilities, including the RAC, the Aquatic and Fitness Center, and Skyline.

“I live in the Student Apartments, which is right by the RAC, and I love working out in that place,” said Chase Miller, a sophomore on Mason’s soccer team. “The facilities on campus are awesome and I have no problem running on the treadmill next to a non-athlete.”

In addition to sharing the same facilities, student-athletes go through the same housing registration process as every other student on campus.

“We don’t get benefits when it comes to housing,” said Dustin Butcher, a junior on the GMU soccer team. “We have our scheduled time that we have to register just like everyone else and if we don’t get it done, we are stuck with the same issues as them.”

That schedule caused problems this semester that every student was worrying about — including the student-athletes.

“There was a glitch in the system with the high amount of people registering at the same time,” Butcher said. “My roommates and I all had to wait and wonder if we would get the room we wanted, just like the other people on my floor who don’t play sports. And it turned out that we didn’t get it.”

While nearly all student-athletes and non-athletes had to deal with those same housing issues, the players on Mason’s basketball team didn’t have the same worries as the rest of their fellow students.

“I will admit that the basketball team gets some extra benefits that the typical student and student-athlete doesn’t receive,” said O’Connor. “And to be honest, it comes from a business and recruiting standpoint so we can bring better players into the program and get more revenue at games if we do well.”