A blogger who launched the website NM Fishbowl has shaken one university’s athletics department to its core. And there have been massive repercussions.
As The New York Times reports, the big scoops started appearing on the blog back in January, and first involved the publishing of exit interviews by athletes within the University of New Mexico’s athletics department’s ranks. There were accusations of sexist behavior toward female athletes, stories of how athletics got in the way of studies, and maybe the biggest deal, how football coach Bob Davie had “no personal relationship with players,” despite being hailed as the guy who turned the program around.
Follow-up stories included one revealing that the university had been investigating Davie for mistreatment of student-athletes.
And everything’s being reported on by a staff of one—Daniel Libit, an ex-political reporter, based in Chicago. “I freely grant the strangeness of what I’m doing,” the 34-year-old Libit told the Times. “I’m in Chicago, and I’m writing about a team that people shouldn’t nationally care about.”
Despite putting down his roots in Chicago, Libit grew up in New Mexico and was a big fan of the university’s sports teams.
Why do what he does? Writes the Times: “Covering a relatively obscure and shallow-pocketed program, Libit said, actually helps prove his point about treating college sports as a business. ‘It brings into much starker relief financial mismanagement and the insanity of the tail wagging the dog of the university,’ he said. ‘A million dollars matters at the University of New Mexico. A million dollars doesn’t matter at Ohio State.’”
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