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Knight Commission to Meet Oct. 27 to Discuss Publicity Rights, Fantasy Games, and Commercialism
The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics will meet October 27 in Washington, D. C. to discuss discuss commercialism in sports and athletes’ rights in the 21st Century; how the new media landscape and emerging developments such as college fantasy football and basketball games impact traditional amateurism principles; and, college sports finances.
Longstanding NCAA amateurism principles prohibit the commercial use of college players’ names, images and likenesses. However, these principles are challenged by emerging online media and a desire to enhance revenue by allowing the use of athletes’ names and images by commercial partners. The current debate over whether names and statistics of college athletes should be allowed to be used in commercial fantasy football and basketball games without the institutions’ or athletes’ consent is one issue to be discussed in the broader examination of college athletes and their publicity rights.
Two Knight Commission panels will explore the legal, business and policy issues with the nation’s most knowledgeable experts on these issues.
The Knight Commission also will receive a report on the financial health of Division I athletics programs. In particular, the Commission and experts will discuss the increasing reliance of Division I institutions on institutional subsidies to balance their budgets, particularly as deficits on athletic spending continue to grow. Since it reconvened in November 2003, the Commission has advocated for new processes to improve the accuracy of athletics financial data and greater transparency for these data. The Commission will hear from financial experts and an athletics director on how new NCAA financial reporting processes have improved the accuracy and comparability of data and whether the new system provides the desired transparency and accountability.
These sessions are the first in a year-long series of planned discussions on the economics and finance of college sports that will culminate in a major report on the realities facing universities and athletics programs in late 2009.
NCAA penalties and self-monitoring practices called into question
The Indianapolis Star published an article on September 16 which highlights a discussion at the Knight Commission’s June meeting about the purpose and outcomes of self-monitoring practices by NCAA institutions. With a September 17 deadline for Indiana University to respond to NCAA charges of its “failure to monitor” its men’s basketball program, reporter Mike Alesia asks whether or not institutions should receive credit for reporting their own NCAA rules violations. The article notes that the NCAA does not have the manpower to watch every institution, and thus relies upon self-policing as an obligation of membership. “But the reality, in my mind, in my world, is that not everyone self-reports,” said attorney Michael Glazier in June at a meeting of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. “And more times than not, those who do not self-report do not get caught.” Glazier is representing Indiana University former men’s basketball coach Kelvin Sampson. An audio recording and links to several news articles about the June meeting is available here.
The article notes that an NCAA subcommittee is currently examining two specific questions about NCAA infractions: 1) Should schools get explicit credit for turning themselves in, as IU did? and, 2) should punishments be tougher, and focus more on coaches or boosters who get programs into trouble, rather than the programs themselves?
Tackling college football fantasy leagues
Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics co-chairs William E. Kirwan and R. Gerald Turner authored an opinion piece, below, published in the Los Angeles Times on August 30, 2008.
This weekend, Terrapins, Trojans, Mustangs and more take to the gridiron, kicking off the college football season. This week also marks the start of a new era in college football, one in which fantasy leagues run by commercial entities exploit college players as their virtual game pieces.
These online fantasy leagues, which use the real names and statistics of collegiate athletes, raise a crucial question for higher education leaders: Is it amateurism in college sports that has become a fantasy?
The National Collegiate Athletic Assn.—the organization of colleges, universities and conferences that governs sports programs—has long upheld the principle of amateurism. NCAA bylaws establish that students participating in college sports “should be protected from exploitation by professional and commercial enterprises.” Clearly, these fantasy contests violate that tenet.
Higher Ed Watch Blog Calls for More Budget Transparency
Echoing many of the prior recommendations made by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, New America Foundation’s Higher Ed Watch blogger Lindsey Luebchow called for the NCAA, and possibly Congress, to provide more transparency and more detailed information about athletic spending. Since the Knight Commission reconvened in 2003, it has consistently called for improvements to the accuracy and transparency of athletics financial data. Luebchow emphasizes problems with data submitted by institutions under the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act – a problem the Commission wrote to the Department of Education about in 2005 (link here to attached letter). Luebchow also calls for changes in revenue distribution so that a larger share of NCAA revenue is based on need instead of winning performances in the NCAA basketball tournament. In its 2001 report, the Commission recommended that the NCAA’s revenue distribution plan be revised to consider values such as improving academic performance, enhancing athletes’ collegiate experiences, and achieving gender equity. Luebchow’s final recommendation is to provide four-year athletics scholarships instead of one-year renewable grants. Luebshow’s full commentary can be accessed here.
