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Knight Commission to Meet Oct. 27 to Discuss Publicity Rights, Fantasy Games, and Commercialism

FOR RELEASE —October 1, 2008 CONTACT AND RSVP: Katie Reardon, Widmeyer Communications, 202.667.0901 x150 or katie.reardon@widmeyer.com Media Advisory KNIGHT COMMISSION TO MEET OCT. 27 AT NATIONAL PRESS CLUB IN WASHINGTON, D.C. TO DISCUSS ATHLETES’ PUBLICITY RIGHTS, COLLEGE SPORTS FANTASY GAMES, COMMERCIALISM AND FINANCES Who: Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics chaired by William E. “Brit” Kirwan,…

Tackling college football fantasy leagues

Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics co-chairs William E. Kirwan and R. Gerald Turner authored an opinion piece, below, published in the Los Angeles Times on August 30, 2008. This weekend, Terrapins, Trojans, Mustangs and more take to the gridiron, kicking off the college football season. This week also marks the start of a new era…

Cost to see 2008 major college football games

On August 22, the Oregonian produced a list of the price to attend home football games at every school in the six original Bowl Championship Series Conferences, and Notre Dame. The list included prices for tickets to marquee and regular season games, concessions, and parking. The cost ranged from as high as $108 to attend…

A Tribute to Former Knight Commission Chairman Thomas K. Hearn

We are deeply saddened by the news that our friend and colleague Thomas K. Hearn passed away yesterday at his home in Winston-Salem. Hearn was a founding member of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and served as the Commission’s chairman in 2005 and 2006. Recognized as one of the nation’s top university presidents during…

NCAA won’t challenge fantasy football, will keep status quo on beer ads

Despite calls to take a strong stand against the use of athletes’ names in an online fantasy football game in violation of NCAA rules, the NCAA announced that it does not believe it can challenge the actions due to its interpretation of a judicial ruling involving fantasy leagues and Major League Baseball players. The NCAA…

Higher Ed Watch Blog Calls for More Budget Transparency

Echoing many of the prior recommendations made by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, New America Foundation’s Higher Ed Watch blogger Lindsey Luebchow called for the NCAA, and possibly Congress, to provide more transparency and more detailed information about athletic spending. Since the Knight Commission reconvened in 2003, it has consistently called for improvements to…

Recruiting expenses increase significantly for major college sport programs

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that nearly half of NCAA Division I athletics departments doubled their recruiting budgets from 1997 to 2001.  Additionally, “the 65 biggest spenders shelled out a total of more than $61 million in 2007, an 86-percent increase from 10 years before.” The Chronicle’s analysis is based on financial data reported…

The relationship between academic policies and APR calculations

Inside Higher Ed published a point of view by Todd Diacon, Faculty Athletics Representative at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, in which he discussed the relationship between individual institutional academic policies and the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate (APR).  While Diacon notes that the APR provides a useful opportunity for institutions to examine how their…