The NCAA Olympic Sports Liaison Committee supports the United States Olympic Committee's (USOC) efforts to reform its current governance structure.

However, based on the NCAA's contribution in developing world-class athletes, the Olympic Sports Liaison Committee believes that future Olympians and Olympic hopefuls may be inadvertently disadvantaged if the new structure perpetuates the minimal representation and influence of the NCAA. The committee believes that an improved partnership between the NCAA and the USOC is essential to the continued development of America's elite-level athletes.

In April, NCAA Senior Vice-President Tom Jernstedt appeared before an independent commission of the USOC to discuss the NCAA's future role within the USOC. The presentation focused on the NCAA's historical contributions to the success of the U.S. Olympic movement, which was substantiated by powerful statistical data supporting the Association's impact on Olympic team membership, and ultimately, team medals.

Historically, the vast majority of athletes representing the United States in Olympic competition have been either enrolled at NCAA member institutions or have graduated from those institutions and trained under college coaches. About 94 percent of the members of the U.S. Olympic teams from 1980 through 2000, in fact, were in attendance or had attended an NCAA institution, and nearly 96 percent of the teams had competed in the Olympic Games during or after their collegiate career. Today, the NCAA administers 87 championships in 22 sports, most of which are on the Olympic program.

In addition, the NCAA is a major, if not the predominant, developer of U.S. Olympic team coaches, and NCAA facilities are a critical piece to the entire Olympic movement. NCAA Division I institutions spend an average of $3 million per year on facilities and non-coaching services for men's and women's teams on the Olympic sport program. Collectively, NCAA member institutions spend $5 billion annually on intercollegiate athletics programs.

In short, although USOC-financed athlete development programs have in recent years contributed greatly to this country's success in international competition, the budgets for such programs are modest indeed when compared to the development opportunities made possible by the athletics programs of the nation's colleges and universities.

Just as important as the monetary resources allocated for these programs, the NCAA in the past two decades has adopted changes in its internal legislation and governance structure to accommodate the needs of the USOC and the international Olympic movement.

Since 1991, the NCAA Olympic Sports Liaison Committee has proposed, and the NCAA membership has adopted, about 40 pieces of legislation to accommodate the needs of the U.S. Olympic movement. Two of the most prominent initiatives were legislation to allow enrolled and prospective student-athletes to accept Operation Gold money and legislation to exempt Olympic sports from the minimum-sponsorship-percentage requirements to maintain an NCAA championship in a sport. Consistently in the Olympic Sports Liaison Committee's conversations with national governing body (NGB) leadership, the reliance on NCAA athletes and coaches is overwhelmingly apparent, and the need for NCAA assistance regarding critical issues facing the NGBs is crucial.

As is well-known, the NCAA's experience with participating in Olympic Committee governance and affairs has not always been comfortable. In the final analysis, that is probably because the USOC, and the national governing bodies that are required to hold a majority of its voting power, derive their authority from private international sports organizations, most notably the IOC. It is simply a fact that the NCAA has never, either before or after passage of the Amateur Sports Act of 1978, enjoyed a voice in USOC affairs commensurate with its members' relative contribution to the development of American world-class athletes -- whether that contribution is measured in terms of numbers of athletes, coaching, or facilities and services.

The Olympic Sports Liaison Committee strongly believes that based on the integral role the NCAA plays in the Olympic movement and the critical need for a true partnership between the NCAA and the USOC, it is imperative for the NCAA to have a permanent seat on any newly constituted USOC Board of Directors. Based on the impact the USOC has on elite-level athletes training and competing at member institutions, the Olympic Sports Liaison Committee strongly encourages the NCAA membership to voice its support for significant representation within any new USOC governance structure.

Kyle Kallander is the commissioner of the Big South Conference and chair of the NCAA Olympic Sports Liaison Committee.