When the NCAA passed its new rule requiring football players to earn nine credits in the fall semester to be eligible for every game the following year, it was not surprising that not much was heard from it last year. Only one player might have missed the mark, and even that was debatable. But the […]
Back in April when Donte Hill’s eligibility issue first came up, I was not optimistic about his odds for success, and remain skeptical he will get to play. The fact that I am skeptical is why many have advocated that the NCAA stop with staff decisions, guidelines, and subcommittee appeals and instead just have one […]
Michelle Kaufmann, columnist for the Miami Herald, has a take on Johnny Manziel that is not without controversy but is squarely in the mainstream. Kaufmann’s arguments can be summed up: Rules and rules and if Manziel broke the rules, he should be punished. Those rules are unfair and outdated. Athletes receive enough that they are […]
In yesterday’s NCAA teleconference following the Division I Board of Directors meeting, three key points were addressed. Two were completely snowed under by a third: that the NCAA will shut down an online store which sold jerseys and other athlete memorabilia. Not 48 hours after it was revealed that the store linked items to athlete’s […]
In theory, we should be exactly two weeks from a fairly momentous day in NCAA history. In 2011, after the Presidential Retreat, the Rules Working Group began their task of slimming down the NCAA Division I Manual. That effort finally bore some fruit in January 2012, when 25 deregulation proposals were adopted. But, again in […]
As Pete Thamel of Sports Illustrated noted, talk of overhauling NCAA governance has moved on from just complaints about the lack of a stipend or cost-of-attendance scholarships. Upcoming legislative disputes, the need to overhaul the enforcement model (again) and the threat of even bigger changes being forced upon college sports have added to the need […]
When Grand Canyon’s move to Division I was announced late last year, I took a look at the controversy surrounding the addition of a for-profit school to the NCAA’s top division. The conclusion was that letting Grand Canyon’s athletic department into the Division I was far from a ridiculous proposal. The only big objection might […]
In law, there is a concept where a statute can be both overly broad and overly specific. Vagrancy laws are a good example. They are overly broad in that they capture a lot of activity which cannot be prohibited by the government. But they are also overly specific in that they fail to capture a […]
In 2007, over the vicious protests of the baseball community, the NCAA membership passed three proposals: 2007-7, 2007-8 and 2007-9. These proposals were a first-of-its-kind package of academic reforms targeted at a specific sport. The legislation touched on academic eligibility, transfer eligibility, financial aid, and squad sizes. To quickly recap, the NCAA made the following […]
Warren Zola’s ideas for some of the rules in a theoretical new top level of college athletics sound nice. They touch on a lot of the buzzwords and pain points that have become prominent over the last few years. And increased financial aid, in the form of stipends or full cost-of-attendance scholarships, is the driving […]