The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss Chancellor Robert Khayat To Serve As President Of The SEC
July 20, 2001
Robert Khayat makes the balance of academic integrity and high-quality athletics programs look like an easy hand-off rather than a desperate Hail Mary pass.
The University of Mississippi chancellor, who recently completed a campaign that attracted $525.9 million to UM campuses for academics, is serving a two-year term as president of the Southeastern Conference, arguably one of the strongest and most tradition-steeped athletics conferences in the nation.
His story has all the elements of a well-read fairytale. Because of an athletics scholarship to Ole Miss, where he was a football and baseball standout, Khayat -- from a family of four children -- was able to pursue a college education. A professional football career with the Washington Redskins gave him the financial means to attend law school. A career as a law professor coupled with his athletics experience led to his serving as the first president of the NCAA Foundation.
Add a Masters of Law from Yale University, then consider his stellar six-year tenure as chancellor of his alma mater. Figure in prestigious honors, such as NFL's Career Achievement Award, and you understand why he is undaunted by the challenge of balancing academics and athletics in his own higher education career and in the two-year SEC leadership role.
"I would say in addition to faith, family and formal education, athletics has had a tremendous influence on my value system," Khayat says, discussing the SEC post from his Oxford campus office. "One of the great lessons you gain through athletics competition is your inadequacy. Equally important is learning discipline, and teamwork teaches cooperation, mutual support and respect.
"I tell people I live my life by the 25-second rule," Khayat continues. "In football, you are aware ofthe clock and that the ball will be snapped in 25 seconds. You really have three choices: to play, to get run over or to leave the field. I think that's the way it is with life. We can get out there and participate, we can stand around moaning and groaning, while life goes right over us, or we can sit on the sidelines and watch life pass us by. That may be a stretch of the rule, but that's how I see it."
In his role as SEC president, Khayat works closely with conference Commissioner Roy Kramer and an executive committee of other leaders in academics and athletics, as well as NCAA representatives and other conferences. Recently the Ole Miss chancellor participated in a national discussion on the Knight Foundation's Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics report calling for campus chief executives to band together and take charge of college sports.
"Our purpose is to protect and defend the integrity of college athletics," Khayat says. "It's easy to allow commercialism to push athletics in directions that may be financially rewarding but may not be consistent with the values of amateur athletics. We want to give young men and women the extraordinary experience of competing at the highest levels, before large crowds, in beautiful arenas and on television. But we must maintain the balance between academic quality and athletics opportunities."
According to the latest NCAA figures, Ole Miss has the highest graduation rate in football at 79 percent. It was the only NCAA Division I school to have its football team appear in a bowl game, its men's basketball squad advance to the Sweet 16 and its baseball team compete in the NCAA regionals this past year. In addition, Ole Miss was the only SEC Western Division school to advance to post-season play in football, basketball and baseball -- all in the same year that the UM faculty was granted a coveted chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's oldest and most prestigious undergraduate academic honorary.
"Chancellor Khayat has been one of the most active SEC chief executive officers, playing a major role in the shaping of conference policies," says SEC Commissioner Kramer. "As a former student-athlete in the conference, he has an unusual and insightful understanding of the student-athlete. This perspective has certainly enhanced his role as president of the SEC, where he has taken on the mantle of leadership for the conference as it addresses the many and complicated issues relating to the role of intercollegiate athletics in higher education."
ESPN's Ron Franklin, an Ole Miss alumnus, has known Khayat for many years.
"They couldn't have selected a better person," Franklin says of Khayat's presidency. "The reason Robert is the most natural selection is that he has excelled in athletics and academics -- he's seen both sides of the coin." And while the football play-by-play commentator believes Khayat balances academics and athletics "extremely well," Franklin says what is "paramount" to the chancellor is Ole Miss' academic reputation.
UM's Director of Intercollegiate Athletics John Shafer is one of many pleased to see Khayat lead the SEC.
"The 12-member SEC is strong because of its unity and because of its competitiveness in all sports on a national level. More so than other college presidents, Dr. Khayat has a great insight into the relationship between academics and athletics. He is extremely knowledgeable of the league from a student-athlete's and an administrator's perspectives, and his NCAA experience is very beneficial," says Shafer.
Khayat insists the key to balancing academics and athletics is three-fold: the commitment of a university to ensure that there are no compromises made with regard to requirements and expectations, a similar commitment within a university's athletics department and effective communication with athletes on the importance of being involved in the full college experience.
But the chancellor never downplays the effect of athletics programs on a university's overall momentum.
"If administered with integrity, athletics can build community," Khayat says. "It brings people together -- both those on and off campus, it gives them something to rally around, it lifts the spirit of the community. People like to win, and a successful team can have a very positive impact on a school."
And what goes through his mind when he sees Ole Miss teams win?
"Any sport that I know anything about requires practice, practice, practice," Khayat says. "When I was 10, my father taught me to place kick. From that time on until I was 28, hardly a day passed that I didn't kick a football many times. When there's success, I know our athletes are feeling this great sense of reward for the investment of time and energy."
On the Ole Miss campus -- where The Grove is bisected by a Walk of Champions dedicated to students who excel on the playing field and in the classroom -- there is admiration for the popular student-athlete turned respected chancellor.
"Disregarding his athletics background, Dr. Khayat's influence on me has been immeasurable on a daily basis," says Head Football Coach David Cutcliffe. "But the chancellor's understanding of athletics does enable us to better communicate some of the problems we face on a day-to-day basis and some of the opportunities that lie ahead."
Cutcliffe and other UM coaches also appreciate the chancellor's support at games. Khayat, the faithful fan, admits a love for "the spectacle of sports -- the color, the enthusiasm, the excitement and the skill." But does the Academic All-American and Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer ever long to dive back into the heat of a game?
"Football is a very different game, these players are bigger, faster and stronger. I played in a simpler time," Khayat says, smiling wistfully. "But I do miss baseball. I would really like to squat behind home plate and catch batting practice sometime."