Saving College Football and Basketball: 14 Reforms Angela Lumpkin, Professor of Health, Sport and Exercise Science at KU

1. Saving College Football
and Basketball:
14 Reforms
Angela Lumpkin
Department of Health, Sport, and
Exercise Sciences

2. Introduction
Institutional subsidies and student fees
have been invested in intercollegiate
athletics because it was claimed that
intercollegiate athletic programs led to
increased applications, donations, political
support, national visibility through free
advertising via the sport media, and a
positive campus culture.

3. Introduction
These positive outcomes were believed to
surpass any ethical compromises associated
with amateurism, recruiting practices outside
the rules, exceptions to admission standards,
missed classes, and increased
commercialization focused on winning.

4. End the Myth of Amateurism
Provide athletes Stop exploiting
the full cost of football and men’s
education basketball players
who are limited by
the NCAA to
receiving tuition,
Institutions pay the
fees, rooms,
cost of tuition for
board, and books
athletes

5. Eliminate Preferred or Special Admissions
for Recruited Athletes
Many unqualified Coaches
athletes fail to promise
graduate because college
they were admitted degrees,
without meeting yet require
institutional academic athletes to
requirements prioritize
their sports

6. Award Four-Year Grants-in-Aid
If athlete signs grant-in-
Coaches exert aid, he or she should not
immense be permitted to sign a
control over professional sport
athletes’ time contract for four years
because they
decide
whether to End serving as
renew grants- developmental leagues
in-aid for NFL and NBA

7. Get Tough on Coaches and Athletes Who
Break the Rules
Vacate wins Suspend
for coaches coaches
who violate Impose
and lifetime
recruiting players
rules and bans for
for at repeated
athletes least one
who violate violations
season by coaches
eligibility for rule
rules and players
violations

8. Limit Sport Seasons, Competitions, and Travel
While Classes Are in Session
Limit each sport to no more than one
competition or day of competition per week
Reduce the Limit Excuse
current practice and athletes from
number of competitive classes no
competition seasons per more than
s by at least sport to one five days per
20% for academic academic year
each sport semester for travel and
competitions

9. Require One-Year Residency for Athletic
Eligibility
Give each first-
Enable each first-year
year student an
student to make a less
equal
stressful transition
opportunity to
into the academic and
earn eligibility to
social life of college
participate
Base academic eligibility on a first-year student’s
academic performance in college, not on a
standardized test score or high school grades

10. Reorganize Academic Counseling and
Support Services for Athletes
Placing control over these services under
the auspices of institutional faculty and
academic administrators would
eliminate the perception or reality that
athletes enjoy preferential treatment,
receive unearned grades, or have others
complete their academic assignments

11. Raise Academic Requirements for Post-
Season Competition
Require a minimum Academic
Progress Rate of 950 for each
team and a 50% graduation
rate to qualify for a conference
championship and other post-
season competition

12. Reduce Expenditures in Football and Men’s
Basketball
Reduce Eliminate moving
expenditures in players to hotels
football and on nights before
men’s basketball home football
and limit grants- games and
in-aid and team basketball teams
rosters to 65 in traveling to away
football and 12 in games one day in
basketball advance for shoot-
a-rounds

13. Limit the Salaries of Head Coaches in
Football and Men’s Basketball
Reduce exorbitant salaries paid to many head
coaches in football and men’s basketball to
reduce the emphasis on winning and revenue
production
Eliminate incentives or bonuses paid
to coaches when their teams win
championships and bowl games

14. Limit the Number of Assistant Coaches in
Football and Men’s Basketball
Lessen
Limit the number of assistant the
coaches in football to eight control
and the number of assistant coaches
coaches in men’s basketball have over
to two and the total salaries athletes’
of all of the assistant coaches lives with
by sport to no more than the fewer
salary of the head coach coaches

15. Revise Distribution of Television Revenues from
Men’s Division I Basketball Championship
Revise the distribution of revenues
from television for the men’s
Division I basketball championship so
these revenues are based on the
academic performance of athletes,
not primarily on winning or number
of appearances in the tournament

16. Reclaim Control over the Locations and
Times of Competitions
Reclaim control over when games are played
from broadcasters, such as ESPN that schedules
games anytime and anywhere they are profitable
Realign conferences to reduce travel, not
seek greater revenues, to emphasize class
attendance and academic achievement

17. Make Intercollegiate Athletic Budgets and
Financial Reports Transparent
Publicize and make easier understandable
how athletic department funds are
generated, such as through ticket sales and
donations, provided by other sources, such
as from multi-million institutional subsidies
and student fees, and expended, such as
for coaches’ salaries and facilities

18. Intercollegiate athletics began as a positive
aspect of extracurricular learning
experiences of students. By significantly
reducing the highly commercialized
emphasis on winning in football and men’s
basketball, which leads to coaches and
athletes often violating the rules, maybe
intercollegiate athletics could be returned
to its educational roots and more closely
aligned with the academic purpose of
higher education.