Northwestern’s Combe Family Vice President for Athletics & Recreation, Derrick Gragg recently taught a class on the ethics and issues regarding intercollegiate sports administration. The class, called “The Business of College Sport,” is part of the minor in business institutions offered by the Harvey Kapnick Center for Business Institutions and open to all undergraduates regardless of their major or school.
Gragg’s class covers wide ranging topics including integrity and institutional control, Name, Image and Likeness legislation and policy, and social justice consciousness. According to Gragg, the class’s primary goal was to ensure students “developed a better understanding of the inner workings of college athletics and how the business works.”
“I feel a responsibility to share that with the younger generation,” he said. “I think the best administrators are those who really understand why we’re in the business. We make decisions based on what’s best for the student-athlete.”
Before working at Northwestern, Gragg served as the athletics director at the University of Tulsa and had been the NCAA senior vice president for inclusion, education and community engagement.
Learn more about Gragg’s class in Northwestern Now’s article, “Lessons in the business of college sports.”