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Knight Commission to Meet with NCAA President on Oct. 24 in Washington, D.C.

Policy changes being considered by the NCAA and updated financial data will frame the reform-focused discussion among higher education leaders WHO: The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, chaired by William E. “Brit” Kirwan, Chancellor, University System of Maryland, and R. Gerald Turner, President, Southern Methodist University, will be joined by Mark Emmert, president, NCAA; Robert

Best Practices for Academic Integrity in Athletics Often Not Used

The Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics (COIA) recently announced the results of a national survey about the extent that major colleges are implementing best practices to integrate athletics into the educational mission of universities. The best practices were developed by COIA as a result of concerns about the impact that problems in college sports are impacting

Do College Sports Need to Be Saved?

Minnesota Public Radio published an interview about the current status of college sports with author Taylor Branch and Knight Commission executive director Amy Perko. The discussion focused on how big money is having a greater impact on big-time college sports, from schools changing conferences to a renewed call to pay student athletes. The context of

TV Revenue Fueling Huge Explosions in Football Coaching Salaries

The Charleston Post & Courier reported on the continuing increase in the compensation of major college football coaches. From 1986 to 2010, the increase in pay for head football coaches far outpaced the increase in salaries for professors and presidents at major college football schools. Over the past 25 years, professors’ salaries at major college

The Big-Time Phoniness of Big-Time College Sports

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch published an editorial about the recent scandals plaguing college sports. The editorial referenced the recommendations in the 2010 Knight Commission report, Restoring the Balance, as a basis for the paper’s own perspective. The editorial stated: “Last summer the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics — a largely powerless think-tank made up of

Bill Friday Surveys the State of College Sports

Recently, the Independent Weekly (Raleigh-Durham, NC) interviewed William Friday, the founding co-chairman of the Knight Commission and president emeritus of the University of North Carolina System.  Friday was asked for his perspective on the state of college sports today.  A portion of the interview follows: INDEPENDENT WEEKLY: You helped found the Knight Commission in 1989

Morals, Values Sacrificed in University Settings

Catholicsports.net published a commentary from Billy Reed relating to concerns about how recent scandals in college sports demonstrate that morals and values are being sacrificed to support winning athletic teams. Below is an excerpt of Reed’s comments: “In firing football coach Butch Davis, North Carolina chancellor Holden Thorp said he had “lost confidence in our

Students in the Game

An editorial in the Raleigh News & Observer supports the NCAA’s recent adoption of a Knight Commission recommendation to tie postseason eligibility of all Division I athletic teams to minimum academic performance standards. A clip of the editorial is below: “The tension between universities’ academic mission and major athletics programs often boils down to a

Creed C. Black, 1925-2011

Today, the legacy of Creed Black was published on the website of the Knight Foundation: Creed Black, editor and newspaper publisher and the former president of Knight Foundation, has passed away. He was a courageous journalist who will be remembered at Knight Foundation as a leader, in the field of intercollegiate athletics as a visionary