Knight Commission
Encyclopedia
The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, often referred to simply as the Knight Commission, is a panel of members of the American
academic, athletic
and journalism
communities, with an eye toward reform of college athletics
, particularly in regard to practices in recruiting
for football
and basketball
teams.
The commission was founded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
, which was itself founded by brothers John S. Knight
and James L. Knight
, members of the founding family of what became the Knight Ridder
newspaper
and broadcasting
chain. The commission first met in 1989 after a series of scandals in college sports. The founding co-chairmen of the commission were Reverend Theodore M. Hesburgh, president of the University of Notre Dame
, and William C. Friday
, former president of the University of North Carolina
.
Currently, the commission serves as a de facto watchdog group which seeks to reform issues in college sports, mainly relating to excesses in recruiting, gender equity, and academic problems of student athletes. As an independent commission, it has no official connection to governing bodies such as the National Collegiate Athletic Association
, the primary sanctioning body for college sports in the United States, or any government agencies. But because of its blue ribbon
panel and high profile within the news media
, the commission's work carries considerable influence within college sports as a whole.
s and put into the hands of college presidents.
One notable recommendation in A Call to Action was that the NCAA restrict participation in postseason playoff
s to teams whose graduation rate is 50 percent or greater.
A survey released at the meeting, titled, "Presidential Survey on the Cost and Financing of Intercollegiate Athletics"revealed the subsidies provided by most FBS institutions to their athletics budgets are rising more quickly than educational budgets. This, together with other opinions revealed in the survey, underscored the Commission's urgency to address the escalating costs of college sports through collective action, which requires support from presidents, NCAA leadership, university boards of trustees and conferences across the country. The Commission stated its intent to make its own recommendations in a report scheduled to be released next spring. At its meeting, the Commission considered the survey findings, additional research published in its online report, College Sports 101 , and the testimonies made by higher education and college sports experts during public meetings held by the Commission over the past year.
, chancellor, University System of Maryland
and R. Gerald Turner
, president of Southern Methodist University
and founding chairman of the NCAA Certification Committee, which itself came about largely through the work of the Knight Commission.
Other better-known members:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
academic, athletic
Sport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
and journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
communities, with an eye toward reform of college athletics
College athletics
College athletics refers primarily to sports and athletic competition organized and funded by institutions of tertiary education . In the United States, college athletics is a two-tiered system. The first tier includes the sports that are sanctioned by one of the collegiate sport governing bodies...
, particularly in regard to practices in recruiting
Recruiting (athletics)
In college athletics, recruiting is the term used for the process whereby college coaches add new players to their roster of student-athletes each off-season. In most instances, it involves a coach extending an athletic scholarship offer to a player who is about to graduate from high school or a...
for football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
and basketball
College basketball
College basketball most often refers to the USA basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association . Basketball in the NCAA is divided into three divisions: Division I, Division II and Division III....
teams.
The commission was founded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is an American private, non-profit foundation dedicated to supporting transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts....
, which was itself founded by brothers John S. Knight
John S. Knight
John Shively Knight was an American newspaper publisher and editor.He was born in Bluefield, West Virginia to Charles Landon Knight and Clara Scheifly. He attended Cornell University but never graduated, leaving early to enlist in the Army. While at Cornell he was a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa...
and James L. Knight
James L. Knight
James Landon Knight was an American newspaper publisher and founder of the Knight Ridder group of newspapers....
, members of the founding family of what became the Knight Ridder
Knight Ridder
Knight Ridder was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. Until it was bought by The McClatchy Company on June 27, 2006, it was the second-largest newspaper publisher in the United States, with 32 daily newspapers sold.- History :The corporate ancestors of...
newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
and broadcasting
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
chain. The commission first met in 1989 after a series of scandals in college sports. The founding co-chairmen of the commission were Reverend Theodore M. Hesburgh, president of the University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
, and William C. Friday
William C. Friday
William Clyde "Bill" Friday He was born in Raphine, Virginia and raised in Dallas, North Carolina. He served as the head of the University of North Carolina system from 1956 to 1986....
, former president of the University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina
Chartered in 1789, the University of North Carolina was one of the first public universities in the United States and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century...
.
Currently, the commission serves as a de facto watchdog group which seeks to reform issues in college sports, mainly relating to excesses in recruiting, gender equity, and academic problems of student athletes. As an independent commission, it has no official connection to governing bodies such as the National Collegiate Athletic Association
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
, the primary sanctioning body for college sports in the United States, or any government agencies. But because of its blue ribbon
Blue ribbon
The blue ribbon is a term used to describe or symbolize something of high quality. The usage came from The Blue Riband, a prize awarded for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by passenger liners—and prior to that from Cordon Bleu which referred to the blue ribbon worn by a particular order...
panel and high profile within the news media
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
, the commission's work carries considerable influence within college sports as a whole.
First report: Keeping Faith with the Student Athlete
The commission issued its groundbreaking report, Keeping Faith with the Student Athlete: A New Model for Intercollegiate Athletics, in 1991. In the report, the Knight Commission proposed a major overhaul in the way colleges run their athletic departments, proposing what it called the “one-plus-three” model — in which the “one,” control by the college president, is directed toward the “three” goals of academic integrity, financial integrity and independent certification. The report was influential in the implementation of many reforms by the NCAA, including a major restructuring within the NCAA itself, when in 1996 the governance of the association was taken away from college athletic directorAthletic director
An athletic director is an administrator at many American colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and related staff involved in intercollegiate or interscholastic athletic programs...
s and put into the hands of college presidents.
Second report: A Call to Action
In 2001, the commission issued its second major report, largely detailing what had transpired in the ten years since Keeping Faith was issued. A Call to Action: Reconnecting College Sports and Higher Education reiterated almost all of the original report's recommendations, while taking note that roughly two-thirds of the reforms recommended in Keeping Faith had been implemented to one degree or another. A quote from the section titled "Ten Years Later," subtitled "The Arms Race":A frantic, money-oriented modus operandi that defies responsibility dominates the structure of big-time football and basketball. The vast majority of these schools don't profit from their athletics programs: At over half the schools competing at the NCAA's Division I-A level in 1999, expenses exceeded revenues by an average of $3.3 million, an increase of 18 percent over the previous two years. On the other hand, for the 48 Division I-A institutions where revenues exceeded expenses, the average "profit" more than doubled, increasing 124 percent from $1.7 million to $3.8 million from 1997 to 1999.... Too much in major college sports is geared to accommodating excess. Too many athletic directors and conference commissioners serve principally as money managers, ever alert to maximizing revenues. And too many have looked to their stadiums and arenas to generate more money.
One notable recommendation in A Call to Action was that the NCAA restrict participation in postseason playoff
Playoff
The playoffs, postseason, or finals of a sports league are a game or series of games played after the regular season by the top competitors, usually but not always with a single-elimination system, to determine the league champion or a similar accolade.In the U.S...
s to teams whose graduation rate is 50 percent or greater.
Current work
The Knight Commission held its last public meeting http://www.knightcommission.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=418%3Aoctober-26-2009-university-presidents-united-in-call-to-curb-athleics-spending-says-major-knight-commission-survey&catid=22&Itemid=12 on October 26, 2009 in Miami. The meeting focused on the financial aspects of intercollegiate athletics, particularly the unsustainability of the economic model and the increasing levels of compensation of college football and basketball coaches.A survey released at the meeting, titled, "Presidential Survey on the Cost and Financing of Intercollegiate Athletics"revealed the subsidies provided by most FBS institutions to their athletics budgets are rising more quickly than educational budgets. This, together with other opinions revealed in the survey, underscored the Commission's urgency to address the escalating costs of college sports through collective action, which requires support from presidents, NCAA leadership, university boards of trustees and conferences across the country. The Commission stated its intent to make its own recommendations in a report scheduled to be released next spring. At its meeting, the Commission considered the survey findings, additional research published in its online report, College Sports 101 , and the testimonies made by higher education and college sports experts during public meetings held by the Commission over the past year.
Current commission members
As of 2008, the commission's co-chairs are William English KirwanWilliam English Kirwan
William English "Brit" Kirwan is currently the third Chancellor of the University System of Maryland . Prior to that, Kirwan was the 26th President of the University of Maryland, College Park and the 12th President of Ohio State University...
, chancellor, University System of Maryland
University System of Maryland
The University System of Maryland is a public corporation and charter school system comprising 12 Maryland institutions of higher education. It is the 12th-largest university system in the United States, with over 125,000 undergraduate, 43,000 graduate and roughly 13,000 combined full-time and...
and R. Gerald Turner
R. Gerald Turner
Robert Gerald Turner is the President of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Previously he served as Chancellor of the University of Mississippi .-Education:...
, president of Southern Methodist University
Southern Methodist University
Southern Methodist University is a private university in Dallas, Texas, United States. Founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, SMU operates campuses in Dallas, Plano, and Taos, New Mexico. SMU is owned by the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church...
and founding chairman of the NCAA Certification Committee, which itself came about largely through the work of the Knight Commission.
Other better-known members:
- John J. DeGioiaJohn J. DeGioiaJohn J. "Jack" DeGioia became the 48th and current President of Georgetown University on July 1, 2001. Since graduating from the university in 1979, he has served both as a senior administrator and as a faculty member...
, president, Georgetown UniversityGeorgetown UniversityGeorgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States... - Val AckermanVal AckermanValerie B. "Val" Ackerman was born on November 7, 1959 in Lakewood Township, New Jersey but grew up in Pennington, New Jersey, United States. She is an attorney, sports executive, and former basketball player...
, president, USA BasketballUSA BasketballUSA Basketball is a non-profit organization and the governing body for basketball in the United States. The organization represents the United States in FIBA and the men's and women's national basketball teams in the United States Olympic Committee... - Michael F. AdamsMichael F. AdamsMichael F. Adams is the president of the University of Georgia in the U.S. state of Georgia.Adams began his career in education as faculty at Ohio State University 1973-1975. He later served as vice president for university affairs at Pepperdine University 1982-1988...
, president, University of GeorgiaUniversity of GeorgiaThe University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States... - Len ElmoreLen ElmoreLeonard J. "Len" Elmore is an American sportscaster, lawyer and former National Basketball Association player....
, attorney, ESPNESPNEntertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
analyst and former standout basketball player for the University of MarylandUniversity of Maryland, College ParkThe University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
, the NBA and the ABA - Janet Hill, vice president of Alexander & Associates Inc., wife of former Dallas CowboysDallas CowboysThe Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...
player Calvin HillCalvin HillCalvin G. Hill is a retired American football running back who had a 12-year NFL career from 1969 to 1981. He played for the Dallas Cowboys, Washington Redskins and Cleveland Browns...
and mother of Grant HillGrant Hill (basketball)Grant Henry Hill is an American professional basketball player who most recently played for the Phoenix Suns. As a collegian with Duke University and early in his professional career with the Detroit Pistons, Hill was widely considered to be one of the best all-around players in the game, often...
of the NBA'sNational Basketball AssociationThe National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
Phoenix SunsPhoenix SunsThe Phoenix Suns are a professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association and the only team in their division not to be based in California. Their home arena since 1992 has been the US... - Judy WoodruffJudy WoodruffJudy Woodruff is an American television news anchor and journalist.Woodruff is a Board Member at the IWMF .-Broadcast journalism career:...
, correspondent and anchor for NBC NewsNBC NewsNBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...
, CNNCNNCable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
and PBS