Making the Case for Wholesale Changes to the NCAA's Organizational Structure

When Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby was asked for comments concerning possible changes to the NCAA's governance structure, he quipped back with this: 

"You trying to get a fight started?" 

Well, the time for a fight to change how the NCAA is governed is now. 

As the world continues to evolve around today's college athletes, the NCAA must evolve with it to better meet the athlete's needs. Too many student-athletes these days are not having their financial or academic needs met, which hurts the integrity of college sports. 

Bowlsby made waves during Big 12 media days when he suggested that the NCAA should create a separate governing body for higher profile sports (see: Football and Men's Basketball). 

"I think it may even be time to look at federation by sport," Bowlsby said. "It's probably unrealistic to think that we can manage football and field hockey by the same set of rules. I think some kind of reconfiguration of how we govern is in order." 

Mike Slive, the SEC commissioner, also said the NCAA has failed to meet the requirements of today's student-athletes, according to a CBS Sports report by Tony Barnhart. 

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"The NCAA has not been successful in meeting the full cost of attendance of our student-athletes, whether through the so-called miscellaneous expense allowance or some other model that provides broad access to additional funds," Slive said. 

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A little over a week after Bowlsby made his initial comments, he doubled down on his stance at a press conference during a visit to Kansas State on Aug. 5. 

“Well, I just think that we are at a point where what we’ve been doing, for a long time, is not providing the kind of results that we want," Bowlsby said.  "And so I think you need to take a fresh look at how we approach our problems." 

It's clear that the NCAA has not evolved enough to meet the needs of student-athletes. It's gotten to the point where current and former college players are taking legal action against the association in order to have their needs met. 

Just look at the now famous Ed O'Bannon case, where a class-action lawsuit against the NCAA is now underway. The case revolves around using players' likenesses in the media, such as video games. 

The case even prompted the NCAA, Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12 to refuse to license their trademarks to EA Sports for it's annual NCAA Football game, per Kristi Dosh of ESPN. 

The question is not whether or not the NCAA needs to change. It's clear that is has to. 

The better—and much harder to answer—question is how the NCAA must change in order to not only change the public perception of the NCAA, which has declined in recent years, but to also better meet the needs of today's student-athletes. 

In terms of how the public sees the NCAA, even the association's president, Mark Emmert, says that there is a definite skepticism surrounding the state of college sports, per USA Today. 

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"I think they have caused people to remove whatever benefit of a doubt we had," Emmert said in a video interview with USA Today back in January 2012. "I think there's an enormous level of skepticism about intercollegiate athletics overall."

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Kansas State athletic director John Currie, who spoke alongside Bowlsby on Aug. 5, said that there is hardly any agreement amongst NCAA member schools on how the governance structure could be adjusted. 

"I don’t think that there is any specific consensus that governance structure needs to look like this in any one particular way," Currie said. "I think there’s a lot of different thoughts as to what the next iteration might be.”

If anything is for certain, future changes will revolve around money. 

It's no secret that there are only a few revenue-generating sports in the NCAA. Football and men's basketball. And that's basically it. 

According to a May 2012 report by Paula Lavigne of ESPN, during the 2010-11 fiscal year fewer than 20 public Div. I schools had a surplus in their athletic department's financial records according to NCAA standards.

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"The NCAA determines profitability after it subtracts athletic department revenue that comes from student fees, state funds and money from the university. By that measure, only 19 public schools were in the black."

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All 19 of those schools were in a BCS conference. Kansas State had the most profit, raking in a $20.1 million surplus. Texas, Alabama and Florida followed Kansas State on that list. 

Diving deeper into the fiances of college sports, it's obvious that ticket sales from high-profile sports is what drives the machine. According to Lavigne, ticket sales as a whole make up 26.5 percent of a public school's athletic department budget. 

If you look at Kansas State's budget for the 2013-14 fiscal year, ticket sales for just football games equal $10.8 million. That's 18 percent of the entire school's athletic department budget. Men's basketball is projected to pull in another $3.5 million, nearly six percent of the budget. 

That means ticket revenue from the Kansas State's top two sports are nearly a quarter of the entire budget for the fiscal year. Only donor gifts ($16 million, 26.6 percent) and payouts from  from the Big 12 and NCAA ($21 million, 34.99 percent) contribute a greater percentage of Kansas State's budget. 

The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, which first met in 1989 and is comprised of various academic, athletic and media representatives, is an advocacy group that often suggests changes the NCAA could make.

The group sent a memorandum to NCAA president Mark Emmert suggesting changes to the governance structure. 

The commission, which includes university presidents, journalists and other independent members, made three recommendations: 

1. Alter the composition of the NCAA Executive Committee and Division I Board of Directors to include independent directors, and broaden the input received by the Board to include experts and practitioners in either advisory or membership roles.

2. A portion of the FBS College Football Playoff revenues should reimburse the NCAA for services that enable college football to operate as a collegiate sport, and the funds should be used to directly support athletes’ educational experiences.

3. Revise revenue distribution to ensure that academic incentives are appropriately embedded in the system.

The memorandum also included ideas that "merit further study." They were: 

1. A new NCAA subdivision for football only for institutions in the five major conferences 
(“Big 5”) and other institutions that meet specific revenue-generating criteria. 

2. A new financial framework with principles akin to those previously advanced by the Commission, such as spending limits on various sport programs, incentives for maintaining spending limits or disincentives for exceeding spending limits. 

3. Greater differentiation of structures among sports. 

The most interesting concept in there, and one that Bowlsby addressed at the Big 12 media days, was creating a new subdivision for football schools in the five major conferences. 

“There were a number of different scenarios that were presented to college sports leaders including options to provide a new entity to govern college football," said Amy Perko, the Knight Commission's spokesperson. "What the study found was that the idea for a new NCAA subdivision for football and other institutions that meet certain revenue generating requirements received the most positive feedback.”

A recent poll published by Atlantic Coast Confidential found that over half of respondents supported the idea of the five major conferences breaking away, either entirely or partially from the current NCAA framework. 

Bowlsby has said that he believes the necessary changes to how the NCAA operates need to be made within the association. 

“I don’t think (breaking away from the NCAA is) a viable option," Bowlsby said. "Whatever the NCAA is today or has been in the past or will be in the future is a product of its members. And it’s certainly not some ogre that resides in Indianapolis."

Currie added that if there's any agreement among college officials, it's that there is no thoughts of breaking away from the NCAA. 

"I believe that many of my colleagues are committed to the association," Currie said. "I don’t think there’s any ‘hey, let’s break away’ or anything like that, I just don’t see that.”

The Knight Commission also believes that the right people are in place to make necessary changes. This contrasts the opinion of many others, including Fox Sports columnist Reid Forgrave. 

In Forgrave's column this past February, he said that the highly publicized, botched investigation of the Miami Hurricanes deeply hurt the NCAA's reputation. He wrote: 

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"How can anyone take the findings of any future NCAA investigation seriously, for that matter, given that the organization can’t seem to follow its own rules?

"Why would anyone believe a cop when the cop’s been proven to be dirty?"

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However, the Knight Commission still believes that the NCAA has the power to make positive changes. 

"The current NCAA framework is in the right structure to make those changes," Perko said. "But changes need to be made to the governance structure as well as aspects that relate to the sports generally.”

Where conflict may arise is the level of influence that the conferences will have on any potential governance structure changes. 

Perko of the Knight Commission said that conferences with too much influence have created problems. 

"What has evolved at least at the FBS level are conferences that have realigned around football television markets and what makes sense for the sport of football,” Perko said. 

She added that, while conference membership may make sense for football, it may not for other sports. 

"Does it make sense for all the sport teams in a particular institution to participate in the same conference?" Perko said. "It may make better competitive or financial sense for that team to play in a more regional structure that wouldn’t require so much travel. It may make sense for some sports but not for others.”

According to a report by Alex Scarborough of ESPN though, Slive says that the SEC will continue to push for changes. 

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"We have supported and will continue to support the NCAA as the appropriate governing organization for intercollegiate athletics, but at the same time, however, we will continue to push for changes we believe are in the best interest of our student-athletes," Slive said. 

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One of Slive's biggest problems lies with getting student-athletes more financial assistance. 

Marc Isenberg, an advocate for athletes at all levels and the author of The Student Athlete Survival Guide as well as Money Players, strongly believes that student-athletes not only need to receive more money, but also should have a stronger voice within the NCAA. 

“Under the current construct, you have this big tent and the NCAA uses that large denominator to suppress the concerns of college athletes in big time differences," Isenberg said. "There are stark differences to revenue-generating sports. The time commitment, the risk, the fact that it’s far more like a job than some of the other sports. The needs of these athletes under the current governing structure cannot be met.”

Currie however points out that life for student-athletes has been as good as it's ever been. Nevertheless, he does agree that changes need to be made in order for the NCAA to evolve and maintain its credibility. 

"In terms of legitimacy of academic pursuits, sports medicine, concussion awareness, nutrition, you just go on down the list and the student-athlete experience is the best it’s ever been," Currie said. "And so the challenges are to make sure that the governance structure evolves so that we can continue to make it even better."

*All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted