Keeping Faith: Introduction

Keeping Faith with the Student-Athlete: A New Model for Intercollegiate Athletics

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• Letter of Transmittal
• Introduction
• Reform
• A New Model
• Putting Principles into Action
• Principles for Action
• Appendix A: Acknowledgements
• Appendix B: Meeting Particpants
• Download a PDF of this publication

Introduction

At their best, which is most of the time, intercollegiate athletics provide millions of people—athletes, undergraduates, alumni and the general public—with great pleasure, the spectacle of extraordinary effort and physical grace, the excitement of an outcome in doubt, and a shared unifying experience. Thousands of men and women in the United States are stronger adults because of the challenges they mastered as young athletes.

But at their worst, big-time college athletics appear to have lost their bearings. With increasing frequency they threaten to overwhelm the universities in whose name they were established and to undermine the integrity of one of our fundamental national institutions: higher education.

The Knight Commission believes that intercollegiate athletics, kept in perspective, are an important part of college life. We are encouraged by the energy of the reform movement now under way. But the clamor for reform and the distinguishing signals of government intrusion confirm the need to rethink the management and fundamental premises of intercollegiate athletics.

The Commission’s bedrock conviction is that university presidents are the key to successful reform. They must be in charge—and be understood to be in charge—on campuses, in conferences and in the decision-making councils of the NCAA.

We propose what we call the “one-plus-three” model, a new structure of reform in which the “one”—presidential control—is directed toward the “three”—academic integrity, financial integrity and independent certification. With such a model in place, higher education can address all of the subordinate difficulties in college sports. Without such a model, athletics reform will continue in fits and starts, its energy squandered on symptoms, the underlying problems ignored.

This is how these recommendations can help change college sports:

PRESIDENTIAL CONTROL

1. Trustees will delegate to the president—not reserve for the board or individual members of the board—the administrative authority to govern the athletics program.
2. Presidents will have the same degree of control over athletics that they exercise elsewhere in the university, including the authority to hire, evaluate and terminate athletics directors and coaches, and to oversee all financial matters in their athletics departments.
3. The policy role of presidents will be enhanced throughout the decision-making structures of the NCAA.
4. Trustees, alumni and local boosters will defer to presidential control.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

1. Cutting academic corners in order to admit athletes will not be tolerated. Studentathletes will not be admitted unless they are likely, in the judgment of academic officials, to graduate. Junior college transfers will be given no leeway in fulfilling eligibility requirements.
2. “No Pass, No Play” will be the byword of college sports in admissions, academic progress and graduation rates.
3. An athlete’s eligibility each year, and each academic term, will be based on continuous progress toward graduation within five years of enrollment.
4. Graduation rates of student-athletes in each sport will be similar to the graduation rates of other students who have spent comparable time as full-time students.

FINANCIAL INTEGRITY

1. Athletics departments will not operate as independent subsidiaries of the university. All funds raised and spent for athletics will go through the university’s central financial controls and will be subject to the same oversight and scrutiny as funds in other departments. Athletics foundations and booster clubs will not be permitted to provide support for athletics programs outside the administration’s direct control.
   
2. Contracts for athletics-related outside income of coaches and administrators, including shoe and equipment contracts, will be negotiated through the university.

Institutional funds can be spent on athletics programs. This will affirm the legitimate role of athletics on campus and can relieve some of the pressure on revenue-producing teams to support non-revenue sports.

CERTIFICATION

1. Each year, every NCAA institution will undergo a thorough, independent audit of all academic and financial matters related to athletics.
2. Universities will have to withstand the scrutiny of their peers. Each NCAA institution awarding athletics aid will be required to participate in a comprehensive certification program. This program will verify that the athletics department follows institutional goals, that its fiscal controls are sound, and that athletes in each sport resemble the rest of the student body in admissions, academic progress and graduation rates.

The reforms proposed above are designed to strengthen the bonds that connect student, sport and higher learning. Student-athletes should compete successfully in the classroom as well as on the playing field and, insofar as possible, should be indistinguishable from other undergraduates. All athletes—men or women, majority or minority, in revenue-producing and non-revenue sports—should be treated equitably.

In order to help presidents put the “one-plus-three” model into effect, the Commission proposes a statement of principles to be used as the basis for intensive discussion at each institution. Our hope is that this discussion will involve everyone on the campus with major responsibilities for college sports. These principles support the “one-plus-three” model and can be employed as a starting point on any campus wishing to take the recommendations of this document seriously. We recommend incorporating these principles into the NCAA’s certification process and using that process as the foundation of a nationwide effort to advance athletics reform. Ideally, institutions will agree to schedule only those colleges and universities that have passed all aspects of the certification process. Institutions that refuse to correct deficiencies will find themselves isolated by the vast majority of administrators who support intercollegiate sports as an honorable tradition in college life.