Presidential Retreat Recap

The dust has settled and there appears to be momentum behind some of the ideas discussed at the NCAA Presidential Retreat earlier this week. Here are several recaps of the retreat and subsequent Board of Director’s actions:

• Division I Leaders Call For Sweeping Changes (NCAA.org)
• Summit Could Spark Major NCAA Change (Pat Forde, ESPN.com)
• Increase in Academic Cutline Approved (Dana O’Neil, ESPN.com)
• Check the Sky for Pigs: NCAA’s APR Ruling the Result of Common Sense (Stewart Mandel, SI.com)
• NCAA’s Well-Intentioned APR Increase Still Has Major Flaws (Andy Glockner, SI.com)
• NCAA’s Talk of Reform Only Skims Surface (Pete Thamel, NY Times)

These are all informed takes on the Presidential Retreat, all with varying degrees of confidence in or skepticism of the results. As always, time will tell. I personally think they did better than expected in terms of potentially actionable items. Whether the momentum for change can be sustained in the coming weeks/months is the key.

-Carl

Future of Intercollegiate Athletics?

NCAA President Mark Emmert will be facilitating the presidential retreat.

Today and tomorrow in Indianapolis (at a place where, according to Frank Deford, “time has been instructed to stand still”) a representative group of about 50 college and university presidents will come together at the behest of NCAA President (and former university president) Mark Emmert, to discuss the issues facing Division I athletics.

The impetus for this meeting of the minds seems to be the convergence of a number of factors: President Emmert entering his second year at the NCAA helm, a perceived (or real) climate of wrongdoing, financial shortfalls, competitive equity and the increasing presence of commercialism in what was once a truly amateur endeavor. Critics and naysayers (especially those in the media) continue to push the idea that college athletics under the NCAA is “broken”. Views on how to “fix” the NCAA are abundant, but there is no consensus.

Emmert himself acknowledges that times have changed, and therefore change is needed. “It’s time for creative solutions to the significant issues facing intercollegiate athletics,” said Emmert. “In order to protect student-athlete success, the collegiate model, amateurism and competitive equity, there must be substantive change to the enterprise.”

But what does this really mean? In the past decade the NCAA has made the philosophical decision that university presidents should be the ones leading and setting the agenda for college athletics. After all, that is the way it is on each campus (in theory). Emmert and his predecessor Myles Brand were both sitting presidents prior to their terms at the NCAA, and the ultimate leadership of the NCAA, it’s Executive Committee, is made up of university presidents.

So if change is going to happen, it is going to happen from the top down, and be initiated by presidents like the ones in Indianapolis today and tomorrow. Will there be swift, sweeping reforms? That remains to be seen (and given the governance structure, which caters to slow, deliberate decision-making, I am skeptical), but if it is to be it will be because the presidents at this meeting decide that something needs to happen, now.

I for one am excited to see what discussion and ideas come out of this event. I am also hopeful that this will not be a fruitless exercise that yields only discussion, but will also yield a new direction for the NCAA. I think it’s time.

If you want to follow along with the retreat, click here. If you have questions you want answered submit them to @InsidetheNCAA.

-Carl