What Could Save NCAA Programs From Further Sports Cuts? The Knight Commission Has An Idea

Just about all of Division I is in financial trouble. Furloughs and layoffs, salary cuts, travel and spending deductions are some of the tools used in the toolbox to try and balance a FY 2021 budget with minimal revenues, but lots of fixed expenses. It’s ugly.

When the Power 5 created the College Football Playoff in 2014, the media dollars poured in, to the tune of $450 million per year. Over the last 6 years, $2.7 billion has filled up their coffers, leaving the rest of Division I in the dust, trying to remain competitive.

Yet, those some of those same schools are dropping sports. I’ve written about the challenges facing schools like Stanford University, the University of Iowa and the University of Minnesota, who resorted to cuts in 2020. You know its bad when the richest schools are bailing out.

But it’s even worse for the non-Power 5 programs who, if the big time schools were swimming in debt, are drowning in it. Schools like William and Mary, George Washington University, LaSalle University, Boise State University and the University of Connecticut have thrown their hands up and said we can no longer have a program this broad. Many fans and athletic directors wish someone…ANYONE…would throw them a lifeline.

Well, someone has. Last week, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics (KCIA) hosted a webinar that explained, in some detail, how the NCAA’s March Madness revenue distribution formula could be modified to create more revenues for non-Power 5 football schools. They have found a way to legally redirect $61-65 million dollars to non-Power 5 programs, possibly saving athletic opportunities for hundreds of athletes.

Sportico did an analysis of the financials and how FBS football teams disproportionately benefit from the NCAA’s current formula. The takeaway is this: up to $65 million could be redistributed as early as next year, actually delivering on the NCAA’a stated goals of growing opportunities for all athletes and addressing the diversity issues facing college sports. A win-win, right?

To learn more, I spoke with Len Elmore, Knight Commission member and longtime NCAA basketball analyst about where this idea came from. He explains “the finance and economic structure of NCAA athletics hasn’t been threatened like it is now”, referring to the Covid-19 pandemic. “We’re asking the NCAA to stay true to their essential formula and only count (athletes) in those sports that participate in a national championship (under the NCAA umbrella)…. the College Football Playoff controls the revenues associated with FBS football”, not the NCAA. “That money could ultimately go to schools who could certainly use it to create more opportunities”.

Originally, the NCAA was trying to incentivize broad based programs by rewarding athletic programs who offer at least 150 athletic scholarships. Because football at the FBS level requires 85 scholarships, those programs were automatically a step ahead.

When the College Football Playoff was formed in 2014, all revenues were kept separate from the NCAA, going exclusively to the FBS conferences. But they still “receive substantial financial and administrative support from the NCAA, which handles all national operational costs, including player eligibility, health and safety, insurance, litigation and legal settlements”, according to a Knight Commission release.

In an era of $100+ million athletic budgets, a million more from the NCAA annual distribution funds could mean the difference between saving or dropping an Olympic sport. It seems only appropriate that a rule that was originally intended to promote opportunities would, under the KCIA’s proposal, would return to doing just that.

In a year with only sporadic good news, this seems like a no brainer for the NCAA to adopt.

Disclaimer: I am a consultant to the Knight Commission.