It seems that the UW-Madison has a mess on its hands. Just the other day, it announced that it was hiring Shawn Eichorst as UW-Madison’s new athletic director. Apparently no African American candidates were interviewed or considered as finalists including Sean Frazier who is a former UW-Madison deputy athletic director who has been the athletic director for Northern Illinois University. Marcus Sedberry, a UW-Madison deputy athletic director who served as the interim athletic director until Eichorst was hired this week also was not a finalist and wasn’t interviewed.

While I have had no interactions with Sedberry, I did interact with Frazier several times when he was UW-Madison’s deputy athletic director. He was trying to make sure that UW-Madison’s athletes of color were connected to the community in the little time that they had. UW-Madison athletes began showing up to help with 100 Black Men of Madison’s Back to School picnic around this time. And Frazier arranged for me to interview a UW football player who was also involved outside of his football duties.

Frazier was concerned with the entire student athlete and their futures. While football is why they were here, Frazier was again concerned for the whole person. Only 1.6-2.0 percent of college players make it to the NFL. I feel that Frazier was concerned for the other 98 percent and that there was more to their collegiate experience than just being cannon fodder for those who make it into the NFL and then cast aside.