Campus Athletics Governance, the Faculty Role:  Principles, Proposed Rules, and Guidelines

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2.  The Nature and Role of the Campus Athletics Board

Athletics boards, along with the Faculty Athletics Representative, are supposed to play an important role in the overall checks and balances system designed to ensure academic integrity and athletics rules compliance.  This intent is made clear by board membership requirements established by the NCAA.  According to Article 6 of the Constitution, each athletics board must include “at least a majority” of full-time academic administrators and regular faculty.  Where parliamentary procedures require more than a simple majority to enact policies, faculty and administrators “shall be of sufficient number to constitute at least that majority.”  Some conferences stipulate faculty majorities for CABs, which better ensures that faculty can fulfill their governance role.

Such guidelines help to keep the operation of intercollegiate athletics in line with the central educational mission of each campus.  Nevertheless, the effectiveness of athletic boards varies considerably from campus to campus.  Some provide a strong counterweight to the economic pressures on athletics.  Others seem unable or unwilling to enact and enforce academic policies that would assure, for example, sound admissions decisions for athletes and standards for academic progress that are consistent with regulations used for the rest of the student body.   

Boards typically have both advisory and legislative functions.  Depending on the blend of these responsibilities and the specific duties that have been delegated to them by the President of the institution, boards may play central and highly influential roles in athletic governance.  They establish policy, monitor compliance, and promote a strong academic climate for athletics—always with the understanding that the President has final responsibility and authority for intercollegiate athletics.