General

Is There Anything More Tedious Than The Knight Commission?

Jun 17, 2010, 9:00 PM UTC

â†µâ†µI call for the NCAA to make a lot of changes around here, like pushing back sanctions and eliminating oversigning and tightening up the APR and turning USC into even more of a smoking hole in the ground than it already is, but man, I’ve got nothing on the Knight Commission. Though it’s not actually associated with the fiery, legendary coach, the commission has both Knight’s sense of moral rectitude and his chair-throwing approach to problem solving. â†µ

â†µâ†µBut don’t take my word for it. Via the Bylaw Blog’s twitter feed, here are two for-serious suggestions made by the committee:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥Knight Commission recommends postseason bans for teams below 925 on the APR every year, not below 900 for three straight years.â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µâ†µAaand: â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥Knight Commission recommends ending all bowl games by the start of the winter/spring term.â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µâ†µThese suggestions strike to the heart of what’s wrong with the Knight Commission: the first is wildly punitive, the equivalent of dropping a major sanction on any team that falls below the APR bar for a single year. The second is complaining just to complain. Even if there was a uniform start date for the winter semester, having players spend a single week at the beginning of it at a bowl game is far less disruptive than jamming additional bowl games into the end of December when finals are going on. The Knight Commission seemingly goes out of its way to propose only things that none can take seriously.â†µ

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â†µThe full dossier of recommendations can be found at the Knight commission's site, but it's just the usual misunderstanding of economics and complaints that increased television revenue isn't being used on academics. I mean… seriously: â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥The Commission also recommends a number of cost-saving measures, including: examining scholarship offerings, such as a decrease of eight to 10 football scholarships in the Football Bowl Subdivision and limiting the number of non-coaching personnel.â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µâ†µThe commission has just spent 500 words complaining about how college athletics programs don’t spend enough money on academics and then offhandedly recommends that athletic departments slash 10 scholarships from football programs that are far more likely to be profitable than any other program and far more likely than your average crew, volleyball, or soccer team to feature kids who wouldn’t be going to college without their athletic skills. â†µ

â†µâ†µI’m all for NCAA reform of the sort that increases the accountability of schools who are bringing in kids with questionable academics. I’m happy that the NCAA appears to be entering an era when enforcement is taken more seriously. I have a long track record of advocating reform, but even I roll my eyes at the Knight Commission’s annual crabby inanity. â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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