Knight Commission wants BCS revenue distributed based on grad rates
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- While the conference commissioners continue to determine what college football's playoff will be in 2014, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics has proposed a new -- and radical way -- of distributing the hundreds of million dollars in new BCS media rights revenue.
The Knight Commission's report, obtained by CBSSports.com, recommends rewarding the individual schools and not the conferences based on academic standards and not on-the-field performance or market value.
Instead of dividing up the media rights revenues among the conferences, as it's currently done, the Knight Commission recommends the revenue is allocated to the individual schools. “The Knight Commission wants to ensure that the projected ‘new' media revenues from the FBS football postseason will be used to further strengthen the educational missions of our universities,” the Knight Commission said.
The proposal was sent to the 11 Football Bowl Subdivision commissioners, BCS executive director Bill Hancock and the FBS presidents.
“It's noble to keep reinforcing the importance of academic success,” Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said.
The Knight Commission proposed three payout models -– a proposed graduation success incentive fund sorted by NCAA football graduation rate. The Commission's preferred model divides the football programs into three categories: Tier I (graduation rates of at least 70 percent), Tier II (graduation rates between 60 and 69.9 percent) and Tier III (graduation rates below 60 percent).
In the commission's preferred model, Tier I and Tier II schools would evenly split 50 percent of the new media rights revenue with the remaining revenue split among the Tier I schools. The Tier III schools would not receive any revenue. See the breakdown here
Based on the projected amount of the new media rights deal ($360 million), under the Commission's model Tier I schools would each receive $6.34 million, Tier II schools would each receive $2.1 million and Tier III schools would receive nothing – but embarrassment for their sub-par graduation rates.
Using graduation rates from 2001-04 – updated graduation rates would be used if this was in place in 2014 – 43 schools would have qualified as Tier I, 43 schools as Tier II and 34 schools as Tier III.
"All I'd say is what they proposed is a completely different philosophy than what exists," Scott said. "Our philosophy [in the BCS] up until now has been payments ought to be based on 'value.'
"It's a vastly different approach philosophically but I'm glad the Knight Commission is out there reinforcing academic success and what we do."
Scott said the commission's recommendation would get “serious discussion.”
The commission's proposal stated its approach is "to 'create incentives' for athletics programs to be more focused on their athletes' academic success. The financial amounts that would be received by institutions under the proposed models are projections based on current Graduation Success Rates (GSR). By the time a new revenue distribution system would be implemented, updated GSR scores would be applicable and could significantly alter the representations in these models.
"These models also require a change in the historical revenue distribution model for postseason football where revenues flow directly to conferences to distribute to their members. The proposed models would require a centralized distribution system for the graduation success incentives so that individual institutions [not conferences] would receive the appropriate incentive distribution."
The Knight Commission also said that these distribution models "were consistent with antitrust principles."
The Knight Commission concluded its report saying it "believes that the implementation of an incentive program for graduation success is consistent with promoting the enduring values that have become a central focus of this new era of reform. One of those values is that academic success must be paramount. The Graduation Success Incentive Fund described above aligns revenues to support and promote that value.
Like Larry Scott said it's a noble idea. But there's no way the conference commissioners will approve a financial model where nearly 30 percent of the schools would receive no revenue because of low graduation rates.
The Knight Commission's report, obtained by CBSSports.com, recommends rewarding the individual schools and not the conferences based on academic standards and not on-the-field performance or market value.
Instead of dividing up the media rights revenues among the conferences, as it's currently done, the Knight Commission recommends the revenue is allocated to the individual schools. “The Knight Commission wants to ensure that the projected ‘new' media revenues from the FBS football postseason will be used to further strengthen the educational missions of our universities,” the Knight Commission said.
The proposal was sent to the 11 Football Bowl Subdivision commissioners, BCS executive director Bill Hancock and the FBS presidents.
“It's noble to keep reinforcing the importance of academic success,” Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said.
The Knight Commission proposed three payout models -– a proposed graduation success incentive fund sorted by NCAA football graduation rate. The Commission's preferred model divides the football programs into three categories: Tier I (graduation rates of at least 70 percent), Tier II (graduation rates between 60 and 69.9 percent) and Tier III (graduation rates below 60 percent).
In the commission's preferred model, Tier I and Tier II schools would evenly split 50 percent of the new media rights revenue with the remaining revenue split among the Tier I schools. The Tier III schools would not receive any revenue. See the breakdown here
Based on the projected amount of the new media rights deal ($360 million), under the Commission's model Tier I schools would each receive $6.34 million, Tier II schools would each receive $2.1 million and Tier III schools would receive nothing – but embarrassment for their sub-par graduation rates.
Using graduation rates from 2001-04 – updated graduation rates would be used if this was in place in 2014 – 43 schools would have qualified as Tier I, 43 schools as Tier II and 34 schools as Tier III.
"All I'd say is what they proposed is a completely different philosophy than what exists," Scott said. "Our philosophy [in the BCS] up until now has been payments ought to be based on 'value.'
"It's a vastly different approach philosophically but I'm glad the Knight Commission is out there reinforcing academic success and what we do."
Scott said the commission's recommendation would get “serious discussion.”
The commission's proposal stated its approach is "to 'create incentives' for athletics programs to be more focused on their athletes' academic success. The financial amounts that would be received by institutions under the proposed models are projections based on current Graduation Success Rates (GSR). By the time a new revenue distribution system would be implemented, updated GSR scores would be applicable and could significantly alter the representations in these models.
"These models also require a change in the historical revenue distribution model for postseason football where revenues flow directly to conferences to distribute to their members. The proposed models would require a centralized distribution system for the graduation success incentives so that individual institutions [not conferences] would receive the appropriate incentive distribution."
The Knight Commission also said that these distribution models "were consistent with antitrust principles."
The Knight Commission concluded its report saying it "believes that the implementation of an incentive program for graduation success is consistent with promoting the enduring values that have become a central focus of this new era of reform. One of those values is that academic success must be paramount. The Graduation Success Incentive Fund described above aligns revenues to support and promote that value.
Like Larry Scott said it's a noble idea. But there's no way the conference commissioners will approve a financial model where nearly 30 percent of the schools would receive no revenue because of low graduation rates.
