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Amy Perko’s Passion as a Player and Administrator Lead to Major NCAA Honor

The Fayetteville Observer recently published an article featuring the career of Amy Perko, executive director of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. Perko will be receiving a Silver Anniversary Award from the NCAA in January. As part of the article, the Observer included discussion about the past, current, and future role of the Knight Commission. 

Statement from Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics on NCAA Reforms Passed Today

R. Gerald Turner, Knight Commission Co-Chairman and President, Southern Methodist University – October 27, 2011 “We commend the NCAA for taking meaningful steps toward college sports reform today,” said Knight Commission co-chairman R. Gerald Turner, president of Southern Methodist University. “We are pleased to see proposals the Commission has championed for many years be embraced

Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics Announces Six Grants to Advance Policy and Best Practices

WASHINGTON—The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics announced the results of a competitive grants program, “Shaping policy and practice in intercollegiate athletics for the benefit of students and institutions.” The Commission received 38 applications from researchers and organizations throughout the country and selected six for funding. Details on the selected projects are below. Researchers will present

Knight Commission Calls for Examination of College Sports Governance, While Recognizing NCAA Steps Toward Reform

[ Sessions and audio with NCAA President Mark Emmert; discussion of Knight Commission's governance concerns and calls for academic eligibility for postseason ]

Amid a growing sense of crisis in college sports, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics heard evidence that the challenges colleges face are beyond the scope of current reform efforts. The Commission applauded the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s recent progress, and urged the speedy enactment of many of its proposed reforms. At the same time, the Commission said these steps alone would not ensure the integrity of sports in higher education, and emphasized the underlying drivers of conference realignment and other accelerating trends. Specifically, the Commission noted the influx in coming years of almost $14 billion in renegotiated television contracts, primarily for regular-season football, to the five richest conferences. The Commission will pursue transparency and accountability measures to ensure that these funds are used to further institutions’ educational missions and not simply to increase athletic expenditures. The Commission also will assess the complicated relationships among the NCAA, the Bowl Championship Series, Division I conferences, and their member institutions. In particular, the Commission will examine the impact of changing conferences primarily to increase revenue for football, and the impact such changes have on other sports. The Commission also announced six grants totaling $100,000 to independent scholars to study policy issues in intercollegiate athletics, with results of their studies to be released in October 2012.

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