Trust, Accountability, and Integrity: Board Responsibilities for Intercollegiate Athletics

The Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB) is pleased to share the results of its recent study on the engagement of governing boards in the oversight of intercollegiate athletics. As spending on athletics by colleges and universities continues to rise, accompanied by mounting public ire about ethical and moral misconduct, it is critically important that governing boards monitor and oversee the impact of athletics on the academic missions of the institutions for which they have fiduciary responsibility. The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics (KCIA), which has supported AGB’s leading work with governing boards and presidents since AGB issued its first formal statement on the topic in 2004, encouraged AGB to pursue this research to assess the challenges confronting board oversight of intercollegiate athletics. Through reports and analyses calling for more concerted involvement of institutional leadership in intercollegiate athletics from the early 1990s onward, both KCIA and AGB have contributed actively to the national dialogue.

In 2009, AGB’s Board of Directors approved a revised “Statement on Board Responsibilities for Intercollegiate Athletics,” which replaced its earlier statement issued in 2004. The 2009 statement, written with the input of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), clarified areas of board policy and oversight while clearly indicating that the administrative leadership of an institution’s athletics program should be firmly in the hands of chief executives of institutions and systems.

In this report, AGB explores what boards are really doing in the area of athletics oversight.