“For years spending within college athletics has continued to escalate while instructional spending has remained stagnant and even decreased at many institutions,” said William E. (“Brit”) Kirwan, Knight Commission co-chairman and chancellor of the University System of Maryland. Long before the global economic crisis began making headlines, higher education and intercollegiate athletics have been struggling…
FOR RELEASE —October 1, 2008 CONTACT AND RSVP: Katie Reardon, Widmeyer Communications, 202.667.0901 x150 or katie.reardon@widmeyer.com Media Advisory KNIGHT COMMISSION TO MEET OCT. 27 AT NATIONAL PRESS CLUB IN WASHINGTON, D.C. TO DISCUSS ATHLETES’ PUBLICITY RIGHTS, COLLEGE SPORTS FANTASY GAMES, COMMERCIALISM AND FINANCES Who: Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics chaired by William E. “Brit” Kirwan,…
Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics co-chairs William E. Kirwan and R. Gerald Turner authored an opinion piece, below, published in the Los Angeles Times on August 30, 2008. This weekend, Terrapins, Trojans, Mustangs and more take to the gridiron, kicking off the college football season. This week also marks the start of a new era…
On August 22, the Oregonian produced a list of the price to attend home football games at every school in the six original Bowl Championship Series Conferences, and Notre Dame. The list included prices for tickets to marquee and regular season games, concessions, and parking. The cost ranged from as high as $108 to attend…
We are deeply saddened by the news that our friend and colleague Thomas K. Hearn passed away yesterday at his home in Winston-Salem. Hearn was a founding member of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and served as the Commission’s chairman in 2005 and 2006. Recognized as one of the nation’s top university presidents during…
Despite calls to take a strong stand against the use of athletes’ names in an online fantasy football game in violation of NCAA rules, the NCAA announced that it does not believe it can challenge the actions due to its interpretation of a judicial ruling involving fantasy leagues and Major League Baseball players. The NCAA…
In articles published July 31 in USA Today and the Chronicle of Higher Education, Knight Commission Executive Director Amy Perko called on the NCAA to take action to protect college athletes from being exploited by a fantasy league using their names without permission and for commercial purposes. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that Perko…
Echoing many of the prior recommendations made by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, New America Foundation’s Higher Ed Watch blogger Lindsey Luebchow called for the NCAA, and possibly Congress, to provide more transparency and more detailed information about athletic spending. Since the Knight Commission reconvened in 2003, it has consistently called for improvements to…
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that nearly half of NCAA Division I athletics departments doubled their recruiting budgets from 1997 to 2001. Additionally, “the 65 biggest spenders shelled out a total of more than $61 million in 2007, an 86-percent increase from 10 years before.” The Chronicle’s analysis is based on financial data reported…
LINK HERE for PDF of the letter