Meetings and Events

Amid mounting pressures on college sports, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics vowed it would intensify its efforts to promote changes that better align athletic programs with institutions’ educational missions. The Commission again emphasized its commitment to efforts that address health and safety, athletic opportunities and financial issues that are putting at risk what is known as the collegiate model.

Concerned that external forces and legal decisions threaten the future of college sports, the Commission urged that the new NCAA governance structure adopt prior Commission recommendations to act first to protect the integrity and sustainability of the collegiate model.

The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics heard passionate dialogue during a meeting here on a range of issues facing college sports, particularly issues of academics and well-being for college athletes. The Commission also announces latest update to its athletic and academic spending database

The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics met in Washington, D.C. to hear research reports from higher education experts and scholars that reaffirmed the need for different policy approaches and stronger board oversight in college sports.

Research findings highlighted the widening divide in college sports between the “haves” and “have-nots,” and its potential impact on institutional finances, student tuition and fees. The divide also reveals itself in votes on NCAA rules that impact athlete well-being, academic standards and “the collegiate model.”

Amid a growing sense of crisis in college sports, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics heard evidence that the challenges colleges face are beyond the scope of current reform efforts. The Commission applauded the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s recent progress, and urged the speedy enactment of many of its proposed reforms. At the same time, the Commission said these steps alone would not ensure the integrity of sports in higher education, and emphasized the underlying drivers of conference realignment and other accelerating trends. Specifically, the Commission noted the influx in coming years of almost $14 billion in renegotiated television contracts, primarily for regular-season football, to the five richest conferences. The Commission will pursue transparency and accountability measures to ensure that these funds are used to further institutions’ educational missions and not simply to increase athletic expenditures. The Commission also will assess the complicated relationships among the NCAA, the Bowl Championship Series, Division I conferences, and their member institutions. In particular, the Commission will examine the impact of changing conferences primarily to increase revenue for football, and the impact such changes have on other sports. The Commission also announced six grants totaling $100,000 to independent scholars to study policy issues in intercollegiate athletics, with results of their studies to be released in October 2012.