William “Brit” Kirwan, chancellor of the University of Maryland system and co-chair of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, called on colleges and the NCAA to end the practice of offering scholarships to students as young as the eighth grade. “I find the practice appalling, quite frankly,” Kirwan told the USA Today. “I certainly…
The NCAA announced that 218 teams at 123 Division I institutions will be sanctioned for failing to meet the minimum academic benchmarks measured by the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate (APR). Sanctions included loss of scholarships, reduced practice time, and a potential of post-season bans if poor APR performance continues. According to the NCAA, about 3.5…
The Bowl Championship Series (BCS), which matches the final regular-season’s top two NCAA Division I-A college football teams in a championship game separate from its Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and Rose bowls, will not change its current format at least for the next several years. This decision was reached on April 30 by the commissioners who…
The NCAA’s Basketball Academic Enhancement Group met on April 25 and discussed a variety of proposals aimed at improving the academic performance of men’s basketball players. The group is working toward enhancing off-season access by coaches to incoming players as the best chance to direct young players toward an academic setting; many of the players…
On Friday, the NCAA issued a press release acknowledging the academic success of 712 Division I athletic teams that finished among the top 10 percent in Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores of all squads in their respective sports. Although the total number of teams publicly recognized dropped by 17 percent from 839 teams last year,…
The NCAA released results of a three-year study of revenues and expenses in athletics departments. The data indicate only 16 institutions achieved positive net revenues over expenses over the three-year period studied. Generally, institutions are relying more heavily on institutional subsidies to balance growing budgets. The proportion of revenue from institutional subsidies at schools classified…
According to the NCAA, The Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics (COIA) has issued a statement in response to recently published reports by the Ann Arbor News that college athletes at the University of Michigan were being “clustered” in less-challenging academic programs and allowed to enroll in independent-study courses as a way to improve their grade-point averages.…
On April 7, the NCAA announced a new partnership with the National Basketball Association (NBA) to create a youth basketball initiative intended to nurture athletic improvement as well as the social and educational development of 6- to 17-year-old players. According to the NCAA, the new initiative will have its own president and will include board…
A Hartford Courant article quotes Knight Commission Executive Director Amy Perko: “There is a myth that exists that going to a bowl game is a financial windfall for the university.” While the University of Connecticut received $1.2 million from the Big East Conference for its participation in the Meineke Car Care Bowl, the university spent…
The Gridiron Bash, a series of concerts tied in to spring (i.e., exhibition) football games at some of the country’s largest universities, has been cancelled by its promoters after the NCAA pointed out that having athletes participate and giving them free tickets would be violations of its rules. The concerts had been scheduled to take…