New NCAA rule basically will pay schools for committing academic fraud

[VU2014]

New NCAA rule basically will pay schools for committing academic fraud

By Mike DeCourcy

So now it literally pays to cheat in NCAA athletics.

It always had been hypothetical before. Like, a booster might slip $100,000 into that figurative shoebox for the quarterback whom coach really wants to sign, but there never has been a guarantee the player would turn out to be a superstar. It's not unprecedented for a five-star prospect to become a fifth-string washout.

A school could gerrymander a defensive lineman's grades so he's available when otherwise he might not be, but it's possible that player could tear up his knee and be unavailable for the big rivalry game.

here's less nuance, though, to the NCAA announcement Thursday it will soon distribute a significant amount of the revenue from its media rights contract with Turner Sports and CBS as a reward for academic achievement among athletes. It sounds noble and well-intentioned, and maybe it is. However, it also is myopic and naïve.

(And it sounds a bit too much like mom and dad handing out $10 bills for A's in Geometry.)

The NCAA previously has divvied up revenue from its multi-billion contract based in part on team/conference performance in the NCAA Tournament as well as through a formula that included the number of sports a university sponsors.

As of the 2019-20 school year, colleges will be able to earn "academic achievement" credits for keeping an Academic Progress rate 985 or higher, a Graduation Success Rate of 90 percent or better or a federal graduation rate 13 percentage points better than the overall rate for the school in general.

It sounds great in theory. So did the APR, however.

The APR was designed to be a truer statistical read on how athletes were performing as students than the fallacious federal rate that counted every transfer out as a failure and made no accommodation for those who transfer in and graduate. In practice, though, tying competitive penalties to the APR has appeared to accelerate the clustering of athletes in less rigorous majors. Universities don't want to cope with the enormous embarrassment of APR penalties, and they surely don't want their teams missing postseason play on that account.

It should come as no surprise this utopian proposal was advocated by the Knight Commission, which has meddled in college athletics for nearly three decades and rarely for the better. It's a cosmetic adjustment that does little to enhance college athletics and could have devastating side effects.

"This landmark change benefits schools at which student-athletes succeed academically and graduate," NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a release. "The creation of an academic distribution unit underscores the NCAA's commitment to putting its money where its mission is — with students. We've distributed funds to assist schools whose students need help in the classroom, but this is the first time revenue distribution will be determined by a school's academic achievement. It's an important moment for us as an Association."

It's also a fundamental mistake because it places an even greater incentive before the schools either to manipulate the numbers, or "teach to the test," so to speak.

It's not as if my concern over academic shenanigans is a cynical invention. For one, I'm not a cynic. I'm just someone who's been awake for the past five years.

Three of the most recent scandals in college basketball involved such issues: at Syracuse, SMU and, still to be adjudicated, North Carolina. Although SMU's apparently was focused on a single athlete, the investigation of Syracuse looked into multiple players over at least four seasons, and the UNC issue was traced back by the Wainstein report from 1993 to 2011.

The cost of an athlete's academic struggle escalated with the introduction of the APR. Now the reward for the athlete's academic achievement becomes that much greater with the new TV contract distribution model.

The honest schools, and they comprise the vast majority, will be slightly empowered by the change. The others have seen their incentive effectively double. When this turns out badly, please don't say you weren't warned.

http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/news/ncaa-revenue-distribution-academics-mark-emmert-cbs-turner-contract/8uawiesd3ybd1561zq2l0yb4t?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter


https://twitter.com/tsnmike/status/791991920079671296

https://twitter.com/franfraschilla/status/791999343842562048

[VU2014]

Was wondering what over think about this?

Just thought this is interesting and think it could be very troubling. Not very well thought out by the NCAA.

https://twitter.com/bomani_jones/status/792001372828884992

https://twitter.com/tsnmike/status/791991920079671296

https://twitter.com/JayBilas/status/791805504842502144