Welcome to reality. Welcome to the world of scandals and fraud. Welcome to the world of sports.

From academic fraud to player and coach misconduct, ethical issues are being challenged every day in the sports world. Organizers of a panel discussion called Ethical Issues in College Athletics hopes for these issues to be addressed at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.

The panel will give a behind-the-scenes look at ethics in athletics and the responsibility players, coaches and administration play in it.

“It’s an opportunity to grow and to learn and to compare and contrast,” athletics director Eric Hyman said.

The panel is made up of four prominent figures in college athletics: NCAA President Myles Brand, former commissioner of the Southeastern Conference Roy Kramer, Ohio State University athletics director Andy Geiger and University of Texas football coach Mack Brown.

Dutch Baughman, executive director of the Division I-A Athletic Directors’ Association, will moderate the discussion.

“There needs to be more discussions like this one across the country,” Brown said. “I think it is great that TCU is a leader in trying to get the panel in where we are and where we need to go.”

Geiger hopes that the dialog in the panel will provoke thought about the structure of personal core values.“I don’t think in this culture that there is a subject more important to think about than ethics,” Geiger said.

Hyman began forming the panel nine months ago as part of the annual Martin Lectureship in Values and Ethics series, which began last year with a panel of corporate leaders discussing ethics in business.“This doesn’t happen at very many college campuses to have these kinds of people come,” Hyman said.

Brown said the media and public have become increasingly focused on athletic scandals.

“I think more emphasis needs to be put on where we want to go with the ethics in college athletics,” Brown said. “Where we are trying to get in some cases rather than where we are.”Baughman, a TCU ranch management graduate, said moderating the discussion is a chance to give back to his alma mater.

“I think the most important thing for students to get out of this is to reach a better understanding of the scope of the considerations that an athletics director has to make,” Baughman said. “They just don’t shoot from the hip. It is a detailed process.”

Each panelist will make a five-minute statement regarding an issue of his choosing. From there, Baughman will lead the discussion by describing hypothetical situations and asking panelists related questions.

Panelists will answer questions from the audience in the last half-hour.

Hyman wants the panelists to discuss how they deal with issues they are confronted with on a daily basis, what decisions they come to about them and how they operate in a business sense in their areas of responsibility.

“By listening and learning and growing as a person it will help us make better decisions in the future,” Hyman said.