The reconvened Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics heard from two panels, one composed of faculty members and the other composed of basketball coaches, during a February 2 meeting in Washington D.C.

The Commission, which issued landmark reports in 1991 and 2001, is conducting its latest series of meetings primarily to monitor academic reform and to discuss financial concerns in college sports, including commercialization, operating budgets and capital expenses. It also is examining the impact of television contracts on college sports and the status of the Bowl Championship Series.

The faculty panel included Greg Naples, faculty athletics representative at Marquette University and current president of the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association. He urged Commission members not to forget the faculty when it comes to suggesting -- and implementing -- academic reforms.

"The faculty athletics representatives can serve as a focal point for many of the kinds of reform initiatives that the NCAA and the Commission might be interested in achieving," Naples said. "FARs need to be a collective focal point."

Naples said as much as presidents have tried to take the initiative regarding academic reform, the fact is that they have usurped the authority of the FAR.

"If we need to return to the control of intercollegiate athletics," he said, "then we need to have a focal point on campus. In many respects, presidents have not exercised the kind of leadership in recognizing the faculty perspective."

Naples also questioned the Division I governance structure, saying it does not adequately represent the faculty voice.

He noted that of the 49 Division I Management Council members, 13 are conference commissioners or staff and only five are FARs.

"Commissioners don't have any on-campus responsibility or day-to-day contact with students or student-athletes, and the presidents have simply usurped that faculty perspective by delegating to commissioners those issues that are probably under the purview of FARs.

"The presidents clearly, by using this route, ignore the faculty perspective and the academic issues that athletics presents. If they want to say they are in control, then I'd like to see them say that FARs should be the vehicle."

Commission Chair William Friday, president emeritus at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, said Commission members reacted positively to Naples' remarks. He said more FARs needed to voice their concerns as the current academic-reform cycle approaches an end.

"It's very important that FARs show leadership here to be sure academic reform is completed the way it should be," Friday said.

NCAA President Myles Brand also updated the Commission on the academic-reform movement, which could culminate this spring with the adoption of an incentives/disincentives structure that will hold institutions more accountable for student-athlete academic performance.

Friday said Commission members are eager to embrace Brand's leadership and the work of the Association in the academic-reform movement.

"That already has manifested itself in our unanimous support of the academic-reform package that will be before the Board of Directors in April," Friday said. "We're going to be as supportive as we know how to be.

"All of the elements of the academic-reform movement are beginning to come together. The faculty, the Association of Governing Boards, coaches, presidents -- there's evidence everywhere that change has to take place. The only question left is to make it wise, make it deliberate and make it stick."

Freshman ineligibility

Former basketball coaches Dean Smith from North Carolina and Terry Holland from the University of Virginia testified about the state of college basketball. Both spoke strongly in favor of freshman ineligibility, emphasizing that a year of residency without high-level competition would help improve graduation rates in men's basketball -- currently the lowest of all sports.

But current Clemson University coach Oliver Purnell said the current climate would complicate the change.

"I just don't think it's practical right now in men's basketball," said Purnell, who is a member of the National Association of Basketball Coaches executive committee.

Purnell also said that if freshman ineligibility were to be implemented that it should be for all sports, not just for men's basketball.

The Commission also reviewed results of the recently released NCAA gender-equity survey, showing an increase in female participation in college sports over the past two years. The Commission expressed concern that despite growing participation and increasing revenues, the report also shows that the total number of dollars spent on women's athletics had not increased significantly over the same time period, and that many men's sports are being dropped.

"There are signs, encouraging signs, of commitment to meaningful reform across a wide spectrum -- NCAA officials, athletics administrators, coaches, faculty and other key groups," said Hodding Carter III, president and CEO of the Knight Foundation. "But commitment is one thing, real change quite another. Bad things continue to happen to good institutions."

Commission members in addition to Friday and Carter who attended the February 2 meeting were Michael F. Adams, president of University of Georgia; Carol Cartwright, president of Kent State University; Mary Sue Coleman, president of the University of Michigan; Len Elmore, ESPN analyst and president of Pivot Productions; Elson Floyd, president of the University of Missouri system; Adam Herbert, president of Indiana University, Bloomington; Steve Sample, president of the University of Southern California; Harold Shapiro, president emeritus of Princeton University; and Charles E. Young, former president of the University of Florida.

Commission members Thomas K. Hearn Jr. of Wake Forest University and R. Gerald Turner of Southern Methodist University were unable to attend.

The Commission is scheduled to meet again in May.