Include faculty members, particularly the faculty athletics representative, as an essential checkpoint in athletics policy and oversight of student-athlete academic success. Faculty members must be fully engaged in providing advice on planning and financial issues, and that advice should be weighed carefully by the athletics leadership and the president or chancellor.

Institutions should ensure that their academic advising unit for student-athletes be connected to, and part of, the university academic unit. Academic advisors should report directly to the university office of academic affairs.

Compliance directors should report directly to the president or an administrative officer who reports to the president. Compliance personnel outside of athletics, such as the registrar, admissions officers and financial aid administrators, should maintain their autonomy from athletics. Individuals in those positions often have major job responsibilities related to athletics, but they should never view themselves as working for athletics.

Institutions should strengthen their admissions procedures by establishing a maximum number of "special admissions" for athletes, either for all sports programs or for individual teams.

Institutions should establish a performance-based system of accountability with measures for diversity that permeate all areas within the athletics department and others to which athletics reports. Recruiters are accountable for soliciting diverse and well-balanced talent pools, and hiring decision-makers are accountable for open and fair hiring processes.

Intercollegiate athletics, like the university as a whole, is obligated to conduct its revenue-generating activities in a productive and sound business manner. Rules relating to commercialism should be consistent, and institutions should clearly articulate those rules.

Require Division I institutions to submit operating and capital financial data annually as a condition of NCAA membership. Reporting includes salary and benefits data for all athletics positions. Capital expenditures will be reported in the aggregate for athletics facilities. The value of endowments at fiscal year-end, dedicated to the sole support of athletics, will be reported along with the present value of all pledges that support athletics. An independent third party will use "agreed-upon procedures" to verify the accuracy and completeness of the data before submission to the university president or chancellor and the NCAA.

Create "dashboard indicators" that enable presidents and chancellors to track financial trends and aid in decision-making.

Reinstate the fiscal-integrity review, including operating and capital-expenditure data, into a fiscal-integrity section of the NCAA athletics certification process.

Require a fiscal-impact statement detailing the cost incurred by institutions to comply with any proposed NCAA legislation as a way to prevent unintended budget consequences (similar to statements already required that address impact on playing and practice seasons and student-athlete well-being).

Require the Division I Board of Directors to monitor and conduct a regular analysis of trends in intercollegiate athletics financing and provide those data to the appropriate constituencies.

Solicit recommendations from appropriate higher-education associations on best practices. In addition, the NCAA and other appropriate associations should monitor continuously and periodically refine the financial reporting definitions to adhere to current practices.

Establish an educational training program in collaboration with the College Athletics Business Managers Association and the National Association of College and University Business Officers for athletics administrators to strengthen their professional-development and financial-management skills and to enhance the overall financial management of the athletics program.

Eliminate the clause in the Division I philosophy statement that encourages athletics to be self-sustaining.

Programming about the proper oversight role of governing board members with regard to athletics should be presented to all new governing board members as an integral part of their overall orientation.

Fortify the first operating principle of the NCAA athletics certification program (institutional control and presidential authority) by requiring the Committee on Athletics Certification’s final decision to be "with conditions," at best, if there are instances of a lack of presidential authority, including board-member interference.

Expand the pool of presidents (either sitting or retired) who serve as peer reviewers in the athletics certification process and increase peer-reviewer interaction with the university’s governing board.

Establish a data-based definition of "at risk" when comparing prospective student-athletes’ academic records that allows for local differences among the diverse Division I membership. The goal is for each institution to analyze the academic success of its student-athlete population and identify the profile of incoming prospects who appear to be "at risk" of not progressing toward and obtaining a degree from that institution. Once that profile is established, the institution can evaluate the level of academic and life-skills support provided to these student-athletes and determine if changes or enhancements are necessary.

Assess whether student-athletes have appropriate opportunities to receive non-athletics-based financial aid.

Amend existing financial aid legislation to require a hearing for canceled or reduced athletics aid, and adjust the timing of the athletics-aid renewal process.

Have the Division I governance structure consider whether athletics aid should be awarded for more than one year or automatically renewed from year to year, based on established criteria.

Review whether current time limits (the "20-hour rule") allow student-athletes to be integrated into the general student body.

Consider legislation that provides for a fifth season of eligibility. Also consider whether five years should be the standard eligibility term, or whether student-athletes would only be able to "earn" the fifth year based on meeting certain academic criteria.

Consider whether student-athletes should be permitted to transfer after their first academic year and be immediately eligible, but require a year in residence for transfers after the beginning of their second year of enrollment and thereafter.