Position Paper Archives - Page 3 of 4

Excessive Athletics Time Demands Undermine College Athletes’ Health and Education and Require Immediate Reform

There is probably no more significant roadblock for college athletes seeking meaningful educations than the unreasonable amounts of time they must engage in practice and other athletics-related activities. In every NCAA and conference survey and through numerous research studies, athletes have made their concerns and needs concerning time spent on their sports known. Excessive athletics … Read more

Fixing the Dysfunctional NCAA Enforcement System

The 2015 unsealing of nearly 500 pages of documents in Todd McNair’s defamation lawsuit against the NCAA once again put a spotlight on the dysfunctional NCAA enforcement system. The Drake Group, a national organization of college faculty and others has been studying the NCAA enforcement system for many years. In April of 2015, The Drake … Read more

Guidelines for Academic Integrity in Athletics

Recent academic scandals related to the intercollegiate athletics programs at a number of the nation’s most prestigious institutions of higher education reveal the absence of policy and practice that would ensure the primacy of academic study and the maintenance of academic integrity by institutions of higher education. The Drake Group believes that each of the … Read more

Why the NCAA Academic Progress Rate (APR) and the Graduation Success Rate (GSR) should be Abandoned and Replaced with More Effective Academic Metrics

The Drake Group released a position statement that is highly critical of the NCAA’s Division I Academic Metrics. Drake Group President Gerald Gurney argues that “Academic integrity in intercollegiate athletics requires a system of checks and balances, transparent academic metrics and safeguards that ensure that learning occurs, not just that athletic eligibility is maintained.”

Student Fee and Institutional Subsidy Allocations to Fund Intercollegiate Athletics

The Drake Group specifically calls for individual student tuition bills that are fully transparent listing the amount of the student fees and other general fund subsidies being used to fund athletics. David Ridpath, Chair of the Drake Student Fee Working Group, points to the fact that “This is an issue of access to higher education. … Read more

The Drake Group Calls Upon NCAA, Its Member Institutions And Higher Education Regional Accreditation Agencies To Fulfill Athlete Academic Protection Responsibilities

There is a current debate concerning the responsibility of the NCAA to afford college athletes protections against academic fraud and misconduct, as has occurred recently at the University of North Carolina, Auburn University, Syracuse University and other institutions of higher education. The NCAA reported in early 2015 that it had 20 academic misconduct cases currently … Read more

Freshmen Ineligibility in Intercollegiate Athletics

In April of 2015 the Big Ten Conference circulated a white paper, Education First, Athletics Second: The Time for a National Discussion is Upon Us, that proposed freshmen ineligibility for Division I football and men’s basketball players. The white paper argued that freshman ineligibility would benefit athletes academically, but that it should only apply to … Read more

Drake Group Honors University of North Carolina Professor With Hutchins Award for Courageous Defense of Academic Integrity

April 3, 2014 West Haven, Conn. — A professor who specializes in early modern French history at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and played a significant role in exposing the biggest academic/athletic scandals at an American university will be awarded the Drake Group’s highest honor on Thursday, April 24, at noon. Jay … Read more

Congress Granting a Conditional Limited Antitrust Exemption to the NCAA and Its Member Institutions

Absent an antitrust exemption, which only the Congress can provide, the NCAA will continue to be the target of antitrust lawsuits whenever it tries to implement educationally defensible reforms that have commercial consequences.

The Drake Group Response to Declaration of James E. Delany in Support of the NCAA’s Class Certification Opposition Brief

Our goal in this report is to provide information on whether NCAA restrictions on athletes’ free participation in the lucrative market for their images, likenesses and names is necessary either to uphold the principles of amateurism or to preserve the activity of intercollegiate athletics. The Drake Group is a national organization of faculty and others, … Read more