Why Consistent Messaging in Crisis is Important to Organizations
Whittier College's decision to drop football and men's lacrosse was not really about injury risk
Since the pandemic began in March 2020, I have closely studied which sports programs universities have added or discontinued, as well as the messaging behind those decisions. So, when Division III Whittier College announced on Tuesday, November 15 it was cutting several sports, including football and men's lacrosse, I read with interest the open letter on the Whittier website.
Jointly signed by Miguel Santana, the board chair, and Linda Oubre, the university’s president, the letter suggested the decision to cut both football and men’s lacrosse was due, in large part, to the potential for traumatic brain injury resulting in CTE.
I am not a lawyer, but it would seem to me the mere inference, without acknowledging any facts, that football and lacrosse are associated with CTE would potentially open the university to litigation from former players. Although, the recent court ruling in Gee v. NCAA might make this a non-issue.
I retweeted a post from Matt Kinnear of Inside Lacrosse on November 16 expressing bewilderment at the connection between lacrosse and head injuries. While Kinnear referred to data (albeit from 2015) showing a 48 percent decline in lacrosse head injuries, I cited this 2022 article from USA Lacrosse Magazine examining the quick and wide adoption of the Q-Collar by lacrosse players, most notably Michael Sowers of the PLL Waterdogs, Princeton, and Duke.
In the original letter on the Whittier site, four reasons are given under the heading “Why the decision was made?” (which, as written, is not a question, but I digress): declining participation in high school, declining attendance in college football, the potential for head injury, and the expense to sponsor these sports.
We can debate at length whether the first two reasons are actually true, or merely convenient spins on widely distributed narratives, but that really is not the focus here. What is, and what should have been the focus, was the expense, particularly for lacrosse which is the only NCAA sponsored program in the Pacific time zone. When Whittier’s closest geographic competition is Colorado College, of course the school’s travel costs are going to be high. That rationale makes sense and can be easily understood by all.
On Sunday, November 27, Nathan Solis authored a lengthy story about the decision in the Los Angeles Times, including many quotes from Santana. Absent, however, from this story and Santana’s quotes was any mention that the potential for head injuries had any role whatsoever in the decision to cut the sports.
Similarly, stories from Leo Stallworth on ABC7 in Los Angeles and Lesley Marin on CBSLA, who interviewed Santana, focus primarily on expense. Stallworth does not mention injury risk at all while Marin’s story only ties injury risk to football, not lacrosse.
Santana and Oubre obviously know their campus situation better than I do, but the takeaway here is that in a time of crisis or significant negative news, what people in positions of authority say matters. It is nearly impossible to appease all stakeholders when deciding to cut a college sport. Therefore, how the news is delivered, and what is said, will go a long way to explaining a decision.
An underlying theme throughout the Handbook of Risk and Crisis Communication (published by Routledge) is consistency of the message is critical in communicating the organizational position on an issue, and helping interpret fact from rumor. When messaging changes, organizational credibility is easily questioned.
Why the change in message from the official announcement to the Los Angeles Times and television stories? Perhaps Santana received pushback after the initial announcement and deliberately avoided the topic of potential head injury while being interviewed by Solis and Marin. Or perhaps the reporters chose to emphasize cost as the primary reason for the decisions.
The biggest loser, outside of the athletes who no longer have a team on which to compete, is the sport of lacrosse. High school lacrosse in California, particularly Los Angeles and San Diego, is exploding and Whittier’s discontinuance of the sport will deprive the area of any varsity men’s lacrosse programs. According to Inside Lacrosse, roughly 30 Division I men’s commits in the 2023 class have ties to California. Heck, the 2023 World Lacrosse Championships are scheduled for San Diego next June.
If Whittier was sincere in protecting athletes from injuries, it would have cut soccer instead of golf. But Whittier is keeping its men's and women's soccer teams, a sport in which there is a prevalence of head injuries and concussions. Why? Soccer rosters are bigger and attract more tuition-paying students than golf and this is vital for enrollment-driven institutions.
Tying sports cuts to CTE was lazy at best and, it does not appear, to be the driver for the decision.