Complete Overview of Impact

Priority of Education

• Graduation rates of athletes have increased since 1991.
• Accountability systems for academic success are in place: initial-eligibility rules, progress-toward-degree requirements, and team-specific benchmarks and expectations to ensure athletes are on track to graduate.
• Graduation rates and other academic success metrics for teams are transparent (searchable databases for Academic Progress Rate and Graduate Success Rate)
• An academic threshold is in place for postseason eligibility requiring teams to be on track to graduate at least half of their players to be eligible.
• Treating athletes as students first and emphasizing their academic obligations is an important Knight Commission principle that has taken hold in national policies and practices to address athletics time demands and allow multiyear scholarships. Some institutions now guarantee scholarships through degree completion and have more robust programs in place to assist athletes with internships and career development.
• The NCAA changed its revenue distribution system to reward programs for their academic outcomes. As a result, between 2019 and 2032, more than $1.1 billion will be rewarded to institutions for the academic and graduation success of their teams.
• Institutions are placing a greater emphasis on academic success in coaches’ and administrators’ contracts.
• Portions of College Football Playoff payouts are awarded for meeting NCAA academic benchmarks.

Fiscal Responsibility

• Financial incentives are now tied to academic success
  • The NCAA changed its revenue distribution system to reward programs for their academic outcomes. As a result, between 2019 and 2032, more than $1.1 billion will be rewarded to institutions for the academic and graduation success of their teams.
  • Institutions are placing a greater emphasis on academic success in coaches’ and administrators’ contracts.
  • Portions of College Football Playoff payouts are awarded for meeting NCAA academic benchmarks. (See also: http://www.collegefootballplayoff.com/revenue-distribution)
• All expenditures for athletics are accounted for and reported by the university as opposed to unreported booster club expenditures that occurred prior to the 1990s.
• Financial reporting has significantly improved to account more fully for athletics costs.
• The Knight Commission makes financial data available to educate policymakers and the public about where the money in college sports comes from and where it goes.
• The Commission created an College Athletics Financial Information (CAFI) database to make financial data more transparent.

Athletes’ Health & Safety

• Reasserting its long-held principle that the health and safety of college athletes must be primary concerns of universities, the Commission has encouraged Division I leaders to ensure adequate resources are devoted to health and safety, and for universities to fully participate in the NCAA’s medical data collection for athletes.

Integrity (Governance and Institutional Accountability)

• Presidential leadership for athletics – on campus, in athletics conferences and nationally – is embedded in the governance structures.
• Changes in the NCAA national governance beginning in 2014 are consistent with Knight Commission recommendations to broaden the in put received by the Board.
• During the two decades following the Commission’s 1991 report, the NCAA’s certification process required institutions to evaluate their athletics programs against the operating principles. The certification program has now been replaced with a new institutional evaluation tool through the Institutional Performance Program.
• The Knight Commission advanced concepts that promoted greater institutional accountability for athletes’ academic success. The Academic Performance Program, which includes the Academic Progress Rate and Graduation Success Rate metrics, was adopted in 2004 to hold institutions more accountable for athletes’ academic success.