The Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics agreed with testimony from an NCAA coach who called for Division I to consider a shorter playing season in men’s basketball to mitigate academic under-performance by student-athletes in the sport.

The commission, meeting June 17 in Washington, D.C., heard from Georgia Tech men’s coach Paul Hewitt, who said the season should start later in November to ease the academic pressures on student-athletes in the fall. Hewitt is a member of the NCAA Basketball Academic Enhancement Group formed this year to identify factors unique to basketball that affect the sport’s standing at the low end of the Academic Progress Rate. A similar approach in baseball resulted in recommendations the Division I Board of Directors adopted last April, and another group has been appointed for football.

The working-group report included an update on preliminary proposals already under consideration, including a model that requires Division I schools to enroll incoming freshmen and transfers in six hours of summer school in order for the student-athlete to be eligible to play in the fall. The proposal also affords more access from coach to student-athlete during the summer – access that under current rules is not permitted.

While Knight Commission members were intrigued with the summer-school proposal, they also called for the NCAA to shorten the season to reduce the number of missed classes and stress on players.

“The basketball season is too long, there are too many games and too many road trips, and the grades of these athletes show the consequences,” said Brit Kirwan, Knight Commission co-chair and chancellor of the University System of Maryland. “Let’s adopt a schedule that is in the best interests of the athletes, not the TV programmers.”

Among the NCAA working group’s five subcommittees is a group appointed to review playing and practice seasons. That subcommittee already is considering a reduction in the maximum number of contests from 29 to 28 and restrictions on the number of conference road games that can be played in week (for example, if a team plays two road games in a week, one has to be on a Saturday or Sunday).

In addition to its review of basketball, the Knight Commission also commended the NCAA for progress in academic reform. However, commission members raised concerns that waivers of penalties for poor academic performance may be too easy to receive under the current system, and called for more transparency in the waiver process. They also urged the NCAA to hold the line in reform and raise minimum academic standards to ensure that at least 50 percent of athletes earn degrees.

NCAA officials told the commission that 91 percent of the teams at member institutions surpassed minimum requirements for academic success, while 218 teams at 123 institutions have been sanctioned for failing to meet the minimum academic benchmarks during the 2006-07 academic year. Twenty-six teams will be subject to postseason sanctions in 2009-10 unless scores improve. 

In its 2001 report, the Knight Commission recommended penalizing teams that fail to graduate at least 50 percent of players. Since then, the commission has supported the NCAA’s Academic Performance Program, despite pressure to weaken it from coaches and other groups.

“We see clear academic progress. We know this program is changing behavior, and we celebrate it,” said Gerald Turner, Knight Commission co-chair and president of Southern Methodist University. “But the commission is concerned about the potential of diluting this program.  Ultimately, the new system will work only to the extent that the standards are consistently applied and enforced.”