The Board of Directors of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB) voted at its board meeting November 12 to endorse the recent report issued by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, Restoring the Balance: Dollars, Values, and the Future of College Sports. The report advocates strengthening intercollegiate athletics in three ways, which are consistent with AGB’s own work on intercollegiate athletics: 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.
“The Knight Commission’s report clearly shows that the current model for intercollegiate athletics is not sustainable,” said James Weaver, AGB board chair. “In this era of heightened scrutiny of higher education spending, it is imperative that boards show leadership in this area and remain true to their fiduciary role.”
“I am so pleased the AGB Board of Directors has voted to endorse this important report, especially as the trends for institutional subsidies for athletics continue to grow,” said William “Brit” Kirwan, co-chair of the Knight Commission, and chancellor, University System of Maryland. “AGB has been a vocal advocate for appropriate board oversight of intercollegiate athletics. This is more urgent now as only 14 athletic programs turned an operating profit in 2009, while median expenses across FBS programs grew by nearly 11 percent, and the median institutional subsidy increased to $10.2 million in 2009, a 25 percent increase over 2008.”
For the full release, link here.