Academia is starting to take more control of college sports.
SEC Commissioner Mike Slive kind of got this ball rolling with his proposal of new GPA's for student athletes.
Looks like the college presidents at this weeks NCAA retreat and pushing it ahead...
NCAA leaders are finally backing up their words with actions.
Less than 24 hours after President Mark Emmert called for immediate changes in college sports, the NCAA's board of directors approved a measure that would include postseason bans if teams fall below the new Academic Progress Rate cutline. The new mark for the four-year rolling average will increase from 900 to 930. In October, NCAA leaders will consider when the new rules will take effect.
While the APR discussion was already on Thursday's docket before this week's two-day presidential retreat, it was the first chance university presidents could prove this time would be different.
They did.
"The very clear message from them [university presidents] was to start doing things now in August when you have the Division I board meeting and when you come back in October, in January, in April, this is something that needs to be done as Mark says in months, not years," Oregon State president Ed Ray said. "I think they would feel very good with the actions the board took, and saw that we are moving quickly and responsibly forward."
Yes, it's only one step.
But it's a big one. The board also voted unanimously to approve Emmert's push to impose harsher penalties for teams that underperform in the classroom, including postseason bans if they fall below the cutline.
I don't necessarily have a problem with this...I am just surprised that they were to do it so quickly.
Of course they couldn't come up with a play-off system.
Stewart Mandel offers his take.
Less than 24 hours later, the Division I Board of Directors had already approved one of the most significant proposals to come out of this week's discussions: banning teams that don't garner a four-year APR (Academic Progress Rate) score of 930 (roughly equivalent to a 50 percent graduation rate) from the postseason -- including bowl games and March Madness.
How significant is that number? Twelve of last year's tourney teams -- including No. 1 seed Ohio State -- would have been ineligible had that standard been in effect.
The NCAA didn't stop there. You know that swirling controversy over ESPN's new Longhorn Network attempting to televise high school games? The board took care of that too. "The current bylaws do not support youth programming on collegiate networks," declared USF president and board chair Judy Genshaft.
Now they have to change the rule book.
Doc Saturday offers his take as well...with a chart of those who would have had issues if this were in place in previous years.
Looks like 'SC had nothing to worry about in football. In basketball I am not so sure.