The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics on Thursday recommended the creation of a new entity, separate from the NCAA, to govern FBS football. The key takeaways for a new, separate entity that would govern FBS:
- Completely independent of the NCAA, funded by CFP revenue
- Governs the sport of football currently operating at the FBS level
- Conducts all FBS football operations, including the national championship
- Manage all issues related to FBS football athlete education, health, safety, revenue distribution, litigation, eligibility, and enforcement
The NCAA would then reorganize to govern all other D-I sports, including FCS. The reorganization would be focused around basketball, which all members of D-I sponsor, and through which the NCAA generates most of its revenue during March Madness (Michael Boylan, THE DAILY).
TIME FOR CHANGE: The commission, after surveying a wide swath of college sports stakeholders, said that it "discovered that many leaders in the industry believe the time has come for significant change." ESPN.com's Dan Murphy noted the commission decided that the "most effective way to solve a variety of problems is to separate football -- an outlier of a sport because of the vast and quickly increasing difference in the revenue it generates." The group "does not have any authority to enact change in college sports," but its leaders "hope Thursday's recommendation will serve as 'an essential first step' in what they see as a needed overhaul of how college sports are governed." The group "met with NCAA president Mark Emmert on Thursday morning to present its recommendation" (ESPN.com, 12/3). Knight Commission co-Chair Carol Cartwright said that if put into action, the commission's suggestions "would make the college football model 'more complete and unified to shape the future of the sport.'" She added that the split "would also create a 'reset opportunity' ... for schools to decide whether to transition football programs into the new governing body or remain part of the NCAA" (USA TODAY, 12/4).
DECISION MAKERS: ESPN’s Heather Dinich noted the “people who make these decisions in the NCAA for college football, they are college football." Dinich said they are the "athletic directors and the conference commissioners and the football oversight committee, they’re all Power Five people” so the recommendation for the FBS to break away “makes sense.” ESPN’s Paul Finebaum: “During the biggest crisis in collegiate sports, the president of the NCAA, Mark Emmert, has been in the Witness Protection Program. Nobody sees him, nobody hears from him, and it’s time to end this charade and big-time college football needs a commissioner or a czar or a committee of its own, not depending on the NCAA governing body” (“Get Up,” ESPN, 12/4).
