An NCAA committee that was charged with a "wide-ranging examination of the future of major-college sports released a series of recommendations" yesterday that could "lead to an array of significant changes for the association’s most visible athletics programs," according to Steve Berkowitz of USA TODAY. The suggestions "will be subject to approval" by the D-I BOD. Those suggestions include:
- Increase the number of schools in NCAA D-I championships to "25% of the schools sponsoring a given sport, if the sport is sponsored by more than 200 schools." In men’s and women’s basketball, this could "set the stage for the possible increase in the fields from the current 68 to nearly 90.”
- Change D-I’s revenue distribution system so that it "would account for athletic performance in sports other than men’s basketball." For decades, conferences’ collective performance in the men’s basketball tournament has been the "determining factor in how one of the largest pools of money is divided."
- Create sport-by-sport “management committees” that would “oversee sport-specific rules and policies in assigned areas.”
- Enhance athlete health and welfare measures, including "requirements that schools provide medical coverage for athletically related injuries for at least two years after completion of play."
- Reconsider "requirements for schools to be members" of FBS so they include “elements that ... directly link the student-athlete experience to expectations for FBS membership criteria” (USA TODAY, 1/3).
TO EXPAND OR NOT TO EXPAND: THE ATHLETIC’s Nicole Auerbach wrote asking each sport to implement a postseason big enough to include 25% of the institutions that sponsor it "may end with different results for different sports." What "makes sense for one may not for another." What happens to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament is a "question nearly everyone in college sports has posed at some point in the last six months," and answers "vary depending on who you talk to" (THE ATHLETIC, 1/3). CBSSPORTS.com’s Matt Norlander cited sources as saying that there is "not a lot of momentum" for expansion of the NCAA men's basketball tournament "in the near future.” There remains the possibility the the event "doesn't expand at all.” If expansion ever did happen, it might mean an "increase on a minor scale: going from 68 to 72” (CBSSPORTS.com, 1/3).
