The Guardian: The case for big-time college sports helping academics remains weak

Tom Dart of The Guardian quotes Knight Commission CEO Amy P. Perko and cites the C.A.R.E. Model.

Read the full article here.

“When the College Football Playoff was created, when the conferences began their [broadcast] networks, billions of dollars of new revenues flowed into college sports and those revenues disproportionately were spent on coaches’ salaries, increasing athletics personnel, and facilities,” says Amy Privette Perko, chief executive of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, which advocates for reform in college sports.

“While there were increases in athlete benefits, [they were] clearly not to the degree that money was spent in those other areas and we know there’s still a tremendous unmet need which relates to medical expenses and additional educational benefits for athletes.”

The Commission has released a report that recommends changes to the distribution and spending of the more than $3.5bn given out annually by the NCAA, College Football Playoff and Division I conferences. “At the highest levels there’s just a continuous drive for more revenue but there’s no educational nexus that connects where those additional revenues are going to be spent,” she says.