Kickoff Time for the NCAA

I listened with great interest to sports commentator Frank DeFord’s passionate opinion piece on NPR last week. It reiterated for me how important board oversight of intercollegiate athletics is, especially now as we enter college football season.

More than 50 university presidents will be gathering in Indianapolis today for a two-day retreat sponsored by the NCAA. They will be struggling with issues that strike at the heart of college athletics: Should revenues be distributed among wealthy institutions and the not-so-wealthy to, excuse the pun, level the playing field? What should the penalties be for rule breakers, be they coaches, parents, or, yes, athletes? Are salary caps for coaches to be implemented?

DeFord has for some time been making the case that college athletes are “amateurs” in name only. For as much money as they bring into their institutions, he believes they should be compensated, and that the NCAA is hypocritical not to do so. While I share his concerns about the future of college athletics, I can’t agree with him on the issue of amateur status. Student-athletes should be just that: students first, there to learn, and then athletes, there to play, but not to be paid.

In AGB’s 2009 updated Statement on Board Responsibilities for Intercollegiate Athletics, our board laid out its concerns about the future of college sports (particularly Division I), saying: “At some colleges and universities, intercollegiate athletics programs may be detracting from the institution’s mission. What’s more, the increasingly commercialized nature of major sports at the highest competitive levels and a widening gulf between the athletic and academic cultures at some institutions and in some communities have negatively affected the reputation and public standing of higher education as a whole.” Two years later, these concerns are as valid as ever.

AGB’s board also endorsed the findings of the Knight Commission’s report, “Restoring the Balance: Dollars, Values, and the Future of College Sports,” which last fall called for three critical steps to be taken in the world of college sports: 1) require greater transparency, including better measures to compare athletics spending to academic spending; 2) reward practices that make academic values a priority; and 3) treat college athletes as students first and foremost, not as professionals.

It is incumbent upon boards and presidents to do their utmost to protect the academic integrity and the reputation of the institutions they serve, and more fully integrating athletics into higher education is one critical means of doing so. To do so, boards should exercise appropriate oversight while avoiding micromanagement, viewing athletics with a dispassionate perspective, no matter how much of a challenge that might be.

This week, presidents will consider whether it’s time to strengthen the NCAA’s seven-year-old policies covering academic requirements for athletes. By strengthening those policies and demonstrating to the public that students come first, boards and presidents will be showing that they take seriously their greatest responsibility: upholding the mission, vision and values of higher education.