Governance Organizations

NCAA penalties often cause serious damage to the reputation of institutions of higher education, coach and athletic administrator loss of employment, and may cause loss of participation and scholarship benefits to college athletes.  Strong processes need to be put in place commensurate with these risks.   The NCAA’s current “cooperative principle,” which requires member institutions to self-report Association rules violations,’ investigate themselves, and assist the NCAA in its own investigation or face enhanced penalties for not cooperating or taking appropriate corrective a

Governance is the formal control of the operation of the athletics program through decision-making according to specified authorities.  The athletics director is only one decision-maker in a chain of school district or institutional decision-makers.  Decisions by these institutional or school district authorities are affected by external governmental and non-governmental decision-makers such as lawmakers (local, state and federal governments and their education agencies), accreditation agencies and athletics program governance organizations (conference, state, national).

Why?  The athletics program exists for its educational impact on the growth and development of student-athletes.  Yet, in many athletics programs, the pressure on coaches to win or, at the high school level, to demonstrate that their athletes receive college athletics scholarships, creates incentives for these goals to take precedence over the educator’s “duty of care” responsibilities.  Thus, the athletics director must keep in touch with student-athlete issues and challenges.  A formally constructed and regularly meeting Student-Athlete Advisory Council should be the c

A:  While there is no one ‘right’ composition for the Board or Committee that serves in an athletics program oversight and policy approval role, following are important considerations: