Canisius Athletics: A Conversation with President Stoute

By: The Griffin

On Friday, Sept. 19, The Griffin had our annual lunch with President Steve K. Stoute to start the academic year. Below is a series of questions and answers regarding Canisius Athletics, but for a full recap of all topics discussed in The Griffin’s conversation, please see the News section.

Q: Can you elaborate on some of the changes that you’re seeing in other universities that are most likely going to affect Canisius?

A: “The NCAA has been focused on some antitrust protection because we are where we are today because of a never ending stream of lawsuits and courts and judges who sided with the plaintiffs. And it’s not sustainable for the NCAA and the member institutions. And so where we are today is that student-athletes are permitted to earn money off of their name, image and likeness. Unfortunately, how that is being administered is being driven by the autonomy for competence. I am not going to sit here and say that student-athletes shouldn’t have the opportunity to earn money off of their name, image and likeness because any of you can. You can go out and earn money off of your name, image and likeness. And so restricting them from doing it when other students can, there was some fairness argument in there, which is what the court ultimately said. You can’t prohibit this one group of students from doing it. In institutions like ours that are committed to students as student-athletes, as students first who are pursuing their education and a degree and athletics as complementary to that, we go our own way and we continue to support athletics in that regard. That’s what I think we need to see. And we’re very far from that, unfortunately.”

Q: With the addition of the acrobatic and tumbling team, how does that help better the athletic program in general?

A: “It is one of the fastest-growing sports in the country. We have 31 young women who are going to compete on that team in a year. And so one, it’s added to our enrollment. We’ve been able to recruit students who want to compete in that sport at a high level. I think it’s going to be a pretty exciting sport to watch and support. It’s going to enrich the experience as well, not just for those students, but for their peers. That’s our view on it – how do we continue to respond to the data, to the changing environment, even in athletics, and provide opportunities that students want to participate in. So that’s what really drove acrobatics and tumbling.”