Calendar

ATHLETICS REFORM

Knight Commission reconvenes; envisions monitoring role

The Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics has reconvened to address financial concerns in college sports, including commercialization, operating budgets and capital expenses, as well as the impact of television contracts on college sports and the status of the Bowl Championship Series.

The Commission was established in 1989 in response to a number of high-profile scandals in college sports and produced a 1991 report known primarily for its emphasis on presidential control of intercollegiate athletics. The Commission issued a second report in 2001 that called attention to academic and fiscal integrity, among other concerns.

Commission Chair William Friday, who co-chaired the last group in 2001, called this edition an extension of the previous groups that will "work closely with the NCAA and other parties interested in the reform movement as we have come to identify it." Knight Foundation President and CEO Hodding Carter shared Friday's view that this Commission is more of a monitoring body.

HONORS PROGRAM

Notre Dame's Alan Page selected for Teddy Award

Alan Page, who became a noted jurist after a career as one of the top linemen in National Football League history, has been selected to receive the NCAA's top honor, the Theodore Roosevelt Award.

Page, a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, will be recognized at the annual Honors Dinner on January 11 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Page earned a political science degree from Notre Dame in 1967. He was one of the famed "Purple People Eaters" as a defensive tackle for the Minnesota Vikings, for whom he played for 15 years.

He earned his J.D. in 1978 and was elected as an associate justice to the Minnesota Supreme Court in 1993.

Staff contact: John Johnson (jjohnson@ncaa.org).

FACULTY REPRESENTATIVES

FARA backs Division I proposals, certain Division III concepts

Faculty athletics representatives supported Division I academic reform proposals at their recent fall meeting but hesitated on a pair of Division III proposals that are part of the "future of Division III" legislative package that will be considered at the January Convention.

The faculty reps passed a resolution backing current efforts in Division I to implement enhanced eligibility standards and an incentives/disincentives structure designed to improve student-athletes' academic performance.

FARA's Division III legislative committee, however, did not support a proposal in Division III that would allow institutions to offer financial aid for sports classified in another division. The group also did not support a Division III proposal to end the practice of redshirting.

Staff Contact: Karen Cooper (kcooper@ncaa.org).