Executive Summary
There are three primary rationales for intercollegiate athletics: it can
contribute to personal development reinforcing academic excellence; it can
contribute to community and institutional loyalty; it can broaden positive
interest in and public support for higher education. The Coalition on
Intercollegiate Athletics strongly supports these goals. However, these
values cannot be realized if we abandon the principle that personal
development through athletics participation and academic achievement are
inextricably linked. The Coalition, as a faculty-governance based alliance
devoted to athletics reform, has developed proposals and guidelines to help
faculty and others on campus fulfill their responsibilities with regard to
the impact of athletics on academic standards and integrity. Some of the
basic principles and major proposals are summarized in this brief overview.
(All proposed NCAA bylaw changes are noted as such below.)
1. Admissions.
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At many schools, there is a different admissions process for athletes, and
faculty may not have adequate information to confirm its academic
integrity. The Coalition recommends that campuses examine the processes by
which scholarship athletes who do not meet minimal academic criteria are
granted admissions.
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Faculty governance bodies should work with their administrations to
develop policies concerning these processes, and procedures through which
faculty governance bodies can be informed of their implementation.
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Campuses should collect and analyze data on the academic performance of
all athletes, to better assess the range of admissions qualifications
appropriate to athletes, including athletes who enter as transfer
students.
2. Scholarships.
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Under the current one-year renewable structure of athletics scholarships,
athletes may be legitimately concerned that their continued access to
education depends on sports success. This can create a conflict of
incentives that may lead to an emphasis on athletics at cost to
academics. The Coalition recommends that NCAA standards require that
there be a presumption of scholarship renewal for a period of five years,
or until graduation, and that scholarships be revocable only by the chief
academic officer. [NCAA bylaw proposal, Section 2.1]
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Because the rationale for merit scholarships based on athletic, rather
than academic qualifications is not strong, the Coalition recommends that
a reassessment be made of the feasibility of converting athletics
scholarships to a need basis.
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The Coalition believes that “pay for play” proposals to compensate
athletes beyond scholarship support are inconsistent with the principles
of amateur sports on which intercollegiate athletics is based; it is
concerned that the conduct of college sports in other respects may be
creating a context in which maintaining amateur values will not be
possible.
3. Curricular Integrity.
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The campus faculty bears primary responsibility for ensuring that academic
programs conform to high standards of integrity in curriculum and student
evaluation. Reports of differential academic treatment of athletes by
faculty have persisted for years and occasionally been confirmed, but
without detailed data on athlete enrollment patterns and grades, faculty
governance bodies have no way of routinely assessing the integrity of
campus programs in this regard or remediating problems that may exist.
The Coalition therefore proposes that campuses collect data on the
academic performance of athletes by course section, and convey that
information to their campus faculty governance bodies, protecting the
anonymity of individual student records. [NCAA bylaw proposal,
Section 3.1]
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Academically prejudicial treatment of athletes is of equal concern, and we
recommend that policies against this be consistently applied.
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The Coalition recommends heightened scrutiny of courses taught by
athletics department staff and controls to manage conflicts of interest
when athletes are enrolled in them. The Coalition also recommends that the
amount of academic credit awarded for varsity sports participation be
determined by the faculty and strictly limited.
4. Time Commitment, Missed Class Time, and Scheduling of Competitions.
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In no way does a school more clearly signal an inappropriate
prioritization of athletics over academics than when it sends the message
that training or competitions take priority over class attendance and
coursework.
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Because coaches have great leverage to guide their athletes to place
academics first, the Coalition recommends performance assessments of
coaches and close monitoring that creates incentives for coaches to use
that leverage constructively.
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The competition scheduling decisions that campuses make directly affect
the challenges athletes face in the classroom. The Coalition recommends
that Faculty Athletics Representatives and campus athletics boards be
meaningfully involved in the design of season schedules to ensure that
academic priorities guide planning.
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It is not clear that the current length of competition seasons is designed
so as to ensure that the basic goals of amateur college sports are
fulfilled with the least possible interference with academic goals. The
Coalition recommends that an FAR-led task force be commissioned by the
NCAA to assess this issue for each sport.
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Because the growth of non-traditional seasons in many sports have
significantly extended overall competition seasons, the Coalition supports
an NCAA bylaw change that would eliminate divided competitive seasons.
[NCAA bylaw proposal, Section 4.3.2.]
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The Coalition recommends that the NCAA and the conferences reverse the
trend towards expanding seasons at the beginning and at the end, in
particular post-season tournaments, as well as reversing the increased
reliance on athletic events scheduled on weekdays
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Efforts should be made by schools and conferences to ensure that athletes
do not have competitions scheduled during final exams.
5. Policies Concerning the Office of Academic Advising for Athletes
(OAAA).
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The success of athlete advising is critical for the academic integrity of
campus sports programs. Faculty have a responsibility to understand the
role of the OAAA, and to be assured that the office is structured to
operate with integrity.
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The single most difficult issue that confronts the OAAA is to maintain a
focus on maximizing the academic accomplishments of athletes, given their
athletics commitments, rather than on maintaining their athletic
eligibility The OAAA should be structured in such a way as to maximize its
ability to manage this tension successfully. The Coalition recommends
that the OAAA report to the chief academic officer of the campus; this
does not rule out a secondary reporting line to the athletics department,
whose engagement with the OAAA can contribute substantially to its
strength, but the chief academic officer must bear primary responsibility
for ensuring the integrity of the OAAA.
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Qualifications for the director and the advising staff should be set at
the high levels towards which the profession of academic advising has
evolved.
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Structures should ensure that advisors are not placed in disadvantageous
positions with regard to coaches; for example, the Coalition recommends
having multiple advisors share team advising duties, rather than have
individuals serve as sole advisor assigned to work with a specific team.
Advising staff, rather than coaches, should have primary responsibility in
the athlete’s selection of major and specific courses, and advisors alone
should have authority to contact instructors with regard to individual
students.
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Coalition guidelines include a checklist of elements that characterize
many successful academic advising programs, as well as a list of athlete
support functions that can enhance the overall effectiveness of the OAAA.
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