At its winter meeting, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics called on university presidents leading the NCAA Division I Board of Directors to pay urgent attention to “transformational reforms” it instructed a special committee to design more than a year ago. A presentation by LEAD1, the association of athletic directors at Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools, laid out some of the plans to transform Division I athletics that would give FBS greater autonomy.
“If you think the problem of runaway spending on FBS coaches, athletic facilities and buyouts are bad now, just wait until the CFP [College Football Playoff, the postseason event that determines the national champion] pays out four times as much to FBS institutions as is does today, with no strings attached,” said Knight Commission Co-Chair Len Elmore.
Knight Commission Co-Chair Arne Duncan, former U.S. secretary of education, says the NCAA’s transformation committee has worked backwards by focusing on smaller issues, such as transfer rules. He said the initiatives presented by LEAD1 do not address the broken governance and financial frameworks of Division I sports. Duncan called for FBS reform and closer examination of the role of the CFP.
Since the CFP began in 2015, enormous amounts of money have gone to contract buyouts for fired coaches. The Knight Commission proposed solutions that would lead to more effective and comprehensive use for some of that money. Division I needs a more sophisticated and nuanced financial framework. Knight Commission CEO Amy Perko cited the discriminatory annual revenue distribution of the men’s and women’s NCAA Division I Basketball Tournaments.
“The NCAA currently awards 28% of its annual revenue distribution…based solely on men’s basketball teams’ wins and participation in the Division I Tournament,” said Perko. “By contrast, the NCAA awards zero dollars for the success of women’s basketball teams or any other women’s sport and their championships.”
The Knight Commission recommended a new framework (C.A.R.E. Model) for NCAA shared revenue and called on the NCAA to implement a gender equity principle. “That guideline would require any NCAA athletics performance-based revenue distribution to provide equal rewards for the performance of women’s and men’s teams,” said Perko.
While FBS football and NCAA Division I men’s basketball are the primary revenue generators in college sports, if intercollegiate athletics competition is going to continue to survive and thrive, there must be more effective means of revenue distribution. Women’s sports and educational excellence need to be of greater value or growth will be stymied.
