Time is right for separating the sport of FBS football and protecting collegiate Olympic sports
[Photos and video of the sessions will be posted here by Friday, May 23.]
May 20, 2025
Indianapolis – At its meeting today, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics urged leaders to make far more sweeping changes to the governance of NCAA Division I sports than the NCAA currently has under review. Reflecting the new realities of the looming House v. NCAA settlement, the Commission reiterated its proposal for a new entity to govern the sport of FBS football, separate from the NCAA.
“FBS football is having a warping effect on all of Division I college sports,” warns Knight Commission Co-Chair Len Elmore. “The resulting loss of current and future opportunities in collegiate Olympic sports is a core failure of the Division I governance and financial model.”
Division I governance must include objective and expert oversight by adding independent directors and greater athlete representation to the division’s governing boards.
Division I leaders are considering changes to its internal governing boards and regulatory procedures, with the goal of approving a revised governance structure by July 2025. But under its preliminary proposal, the Power 4 conferences would gain even greater control over the fate of all Division I conferences and institutional athletic programs.
The Knight Commission believes that no revision of the NCAA governance structure will be complete without fixing the NCAA’s obvious mismatch of having no authority over the sport of FBS football but all the responsibility for its national costs. The national championship of FBS football, the College Football Playoff (CFP), is driving major campus financial decisions and industry-altering litigation, even though the NCAA lacks authority for that sport’s national championship and doesn’t receive a dime of its billion-dollar revenues.
For five years, the Knight Commission has recommended a new governing entity solely for the sport of FBS football and the urgency of this reform is more critical than ever. “FBS football is unlike any other NCAA sport in its revenue generation, revenue distribution, governance, and financial model,” said Elmore. “But unfortunately, FBS football’s unique role is propelling institutional decision-making that is bringing about unwelcome changes in other sports, including declining sport opportunities for athletes, poorly matched conference alignments, and gender inequities.”
At its meeting today with NCAA President Charlie Baker, the Commission also reiterated its call for independent directors and greater athlete representation to be added to the Division I governing boards.
“The presence of independent directors and college athletes on any NCAA or college sports governing body is essential to correcting the conference and institutional self-interest that has, repeatedly, pushed Division I sports to this point of great instability,” said Pam Bernard, Knight Commission Co-Chair.
Future of Collegiate Olympic Sports
The Commission also heard concerns from a panel of experts on the future of collegiate Olympic sports—namely, that Division I schools are beginning to drop teams and reduce program funding in anticipation of the House settlement. The settlement terms include future roster limits and will likely prompt programs to reallocate athletics funding to provide new and greater financial benefits to FBS football and basketball players, who make up just 15 percent of all Division I athletes.
The Commission will continue to convene and collaborate with leaders associated with the USOPC, collegiate coaches’ associations, Olympic and college athletes, athletics administrators, and policymakers to find innovative solutions to protect collegiate Olympic sports from cutbacks.
Opportunity Incentives
The Commission reiterated its prior proposal that expands incentives for collegiate Olympic sports by changing the NCAA revenue distribution formula that rewards more than $150 million annually to institutions for the athletics scholarships their programs provide. The Knight Commission’s proposal would eliminate factors related to the sport of FBS football in the NCAA distribution for two key reasons: 1) the sport of FBS football contributes zero dollars to NCAA revenue, and 2) the College Football Playoff (CFP) is not only separate from the NCAA, but also serves as the exclusive source of revenue distribution to reward FBS institutions for offering FBS football.
The expanded CFP’s distribution will soon exceed the NCAA’s annual distribution, and in two years, is projected to exceed $1 billion. Ironically, the NCAA’s outdated revenue distribution formula, created decades before the CFP’s launch, values the sport of FBS football more than any other sport. A Knight Commission independent analysis found that FBS football factors accounted for more than $60 million in the annual NCAA revenue distribution. This $60 million impact would increase the value of non-FBS football sports in the distribution formula.
The Commission plans to continue its efforts to develop solutions during a session at NACDA on June 10 in a program titled, “Protecting Collegiate Olympic Sports: An Interactive Session on What’s Next.” Registration information will be posted at knightcommission.org.
Academic Incentives
The Commission also reiterated the importance of its recent recommendation to protect and expand academic incentives at a time when Division I athletics priorities appear to be shifting away from the core values of education and opportunity.
More specifically, the Commission re-stated its position from July 2024 for the Division I Board to reconsider one aspect of its internal payment plan to fund damages for the proposed House settlement. The Knight Commission requests that the Division I Board protect the Academic Performance Fund incentives and recommends alternative approaches to funding the $10 million in payments now scheduled to come annually from a reduction of those incentives.
In 2024, the annual academic incentives in the NCAA distribution had reached nearly $50 million, eight percent of the total $650 million distributed annually to Division I institutions.
Knight Commission CEO Amy Privette Perko offered an alternative solution to secure the $10 million in damages payments instead of reducing academic incentives. She pointed out that “a simple way to provide at least $10 million in damages payments is for the NCAA to eliminate its funding for the national expenses of the sport of FBS football, particularly since the NCAA receives no revenues from that sport. The CFP can easily cover—and should cover—the national operating expenses for FBS football, such as catastrophic insurance for FBS football players, just as NCAA revenues cover national expenses for sports with NCAA championships.”
About the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics
The Knight Commission, founded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in 1989, is an independent group that leads transformational change to prioritize college athletes’ education, health, safety, and success. The Commission has a legacy of influencing NCAA policies that have helped propel record-high graduation rates of Division I athletes. The Commission’s ongoing efforts focus on governance, equity, and financial reforms, as well as providing education on the changing landscape of college sports. For more, visit knightcommission.org.
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation is a national foundation with strong local roots. We invest in journalism, in the arts and in the success of cities where brothers John S. and James L. Knight once published newspapers. Our goal is to foster informed and engaged communities, which we believe are essential for a healthy democracy. For more, visit knightfoundation.org.
Media Contact for Knight Commission: JoJo Rinebold: jojo@rineboldresults.com