Revenues from the members of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) totaled more than $1 billion in 2009-10, making the college athletic conference the first to cross the $1 billion mark, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The Chronicle considered data from the US Department of Education to total the revenue of the athletic departments at…
The Board of Directors of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB) voted at its board meeting November 12 to endorse the recent report issued by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, Restoring the Balance: Dollars, Values, and the Future of College Sports. The report advocates strengthening intercollegiate athletics in three ways,…
Amy Perko, executive director of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, responded to an inquiry from the Atlanta Journal Constitution about the use of student fees to pay for college sports. Her response was published on September 30. Perko stated: “The commission’s fundamental position is there needs to be transparency with institutional fees going to…
USA Today published an article on September 22 in which it investigated the extent that student fees were being used to help fund the expenses in college athletics. As reported, many institutions do not itemize how student fees are used. Through its own analysis, USA Today found the amounts going to athletics are soaring, and…
This opinion by Knight Commission co-chairs William E. “Brit” Kirwan and R. Gerald Turner was published in the September 17, 2010 edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “The college sports offseason was filled with news of record-breaking television revenues, lucrative multibillion-dollar television contracts and a reshuffling of athletic conference affiliations designed, in part, to maximize television…
An editorial in the Boston Globe focused on the increasing costs of college athletics, particularly how coaching salaries for non-revenue sports are beginning to surpass the salaries of university presidents and full tenured professors. The editorial considered the findings in the recent Knight Commission report, Restoring the Balance: Dollars, Values, and the Future of College…
Inside Higher Ed reported that the nation’s largest college athletics programs are relying more than ever on institutional support to balance their budgets, according to the NCAA’s annual review of college athletics revenue and expenses. According to the report, only 14 programs from the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS, formerly Division I-A) generated more revenues than…
The NCAA announced it has released a database on single-year Academic Progress Rates (APR) for Division I head coaches in six sports, including football and basketball. The database was designed to strengthen the accountability of coaches for the academic performance of their student-athletes. The Head Coach APR Portfolio this year includes baseball, football, men’s and…
Inside Higher Ed published an article about how the NCAA’s benchmark for measuring the academic success of athletic teams, the Academic Progress Rate (APR), is weaker than originally intended when correlated to recent graduation rates. The NCAA uses the APR as a tool for each Division I athletic team to account for progress toward graduation,…
On July 3, the Birmingham News quoted former U.S. Representative Tom McMillen, a former college basketball star and an NBA veteran, in response to the Knight Commission recommendations to restore balance between academic and athletic spending among universities. The News reported the Knight Comimssion findings in Restoring the Balance: Dollars, Values, and the Future of…