HOOVER, Ala. — Addressing members of the media Wednesday at the Southeastern Conference Media Days, commissioner Mike Slive laid the foundation for monumental change.
Slive’s nearly 30-minute opening was focused solely on reforming the landscape of college football after a year of headlines dominated by scandal and transgressions rather than on the field achievements.
“As NCAA president Mark Emmert has observed, the events giving rise to these headlines indicate that intercollegiate athletics has lost the benefit of the doubt,” Slive told a ballroom full of reporters.
“For the past 30 years, we have seen reform efforts come and go, while the NCAA manual continues to grow in size and complexity. Too many of our student-athletes still come to us ill prepared academically. NCAA and conference revenues continue to increase. Coaches’ compensation continues to grow. Highly publicized infractions cases have increased the level of scrutiny placed on this uniquely and wonderful American combination of athletic competition and higher education.”
All of that has led Slive to propose an agenda for change focusing on four distinct parameters: redefining the benefits available to student-athletes; strengthening academic eligibility requirements for incoming freshmen and two-year transfers; modernizing the recruiting rules; continuing to support the NCAA’s efforts to improve the enforcement process.
Much has been made recently of benefits allocated to collegiate athletes. Slive believes student-athletes should receive scholarship money that amounts to the full cost of attendance, meaning an increase in the current allotment. He also wants scholarships to become a multi-year award instead of being renewed after each season.
On the topic of strengthening academic requirements, Slive proposed looking at a prospective athlete’s entire transcript during high school, increasing the minimum GPA required for first-year athletic competition in core courses from 2.0 to 2.5. He also prescribed a progress rule that would set a timeline of courses to be completed each year of high school.
That proposal would leave the door open for the return of partial qualifiers — those who qualify under the old standards but not the new ones. Partial qualifiers would be allowed to enroll but must sit out a year until academically cleared.
Some of the larger issues Slive brought up on the topic of recruiting were covered in a letter he sent to the NCAA in June on behalf of the conference. But Slive was adamant that changes must be made.
“It’s time to push the reset button on the regulatory approach to recruiting,” Slive said. “There are significant differences between institutions and resources, climate, tradition, history, stadiums, and fan interest, among many other things that make the idea of a level playing field an illusion.”
Instead of spending NCAA resources investigating phone calls and text messages during impermissible times, Slive wants to permit use of electronic communication in order to focus more on serious violations. Slive also wants to eliminate restrictions on off-campus contact and adopt rules that prevent “handlers” and third parties from influencing student-athletes.
Part of that is forbidding schools from hosting, sponsoring or conducting 7-on-7 tournaments and other “non-scholastic football events at any location on or off campus.”
Finally, Slive discussed an upcoming Presidential Retreat initiated by Emmert, which will feature school presidents Mark Keenum (Miss. St.), Harris Pastides (South Carolina), Michael Adams (Georgia) and Bernie Machen (Florida).
“We anticipate the ideas outlined (Wednesday) will be combined with the thoughts of others to establish what might be called ‘The National Agenda for Change,’” Slive said.
Clearly, Slive believes the time to revolutionize collegiate athletics is now.