The commission is set up to study issues facing college sports, including studying the effects on academics. Knight Commission co-chairman William E. "Brit” Kirwan said that while they have shown major academic progress over the last decade, college athletes, especially basketball players, still have too many responsibilities.
"The basketball season is too long, there are too many games and too many road trips, and the grades of these athletes show the consequences,” Kirwan said.
University of Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione, who had not yet read the report, criticized the commission for not offering any concrete answers to a long-debated dilemma.
"They identified a problem, but didn't propose a solution? That's not unusual,” he said.
University of Tulsa's associate athletic director Don Tomkalski, echoed Castiglione's criticism.
"Theoretically, it's easy to say ‘Let's shorten the season to help athletes with their grades,'” Tomkalski said. "But that's part of college athletics, trying to balance everything. ... So making a blanket statement like that doesn't necessarily help anyone.”
Under the current scheduling system, most Division I men's college basketball teams play between 28-32 regular-season contests, followed by conference tournaments and the postseason.
The season begins in November and stretches into early April — one of the only sports to stretch over two semesters.
But Castiglione rejected the notion that the length of the season is a problem. He said that student-athletes miss the majority of their classes during postseason tournaments, not during the regular season. And while he did acknowledge that missed classes are a problem, it's one he doesn't see being resolved anytime soon.
"You're really talking about an issue that's been around for a long time and debated endlessly,” he said.
Kirwan cited television rights as a major obstacle to the commission's proposal. He believes the NCAA stretches out its season to get as many games televised as possible, which results in more money for the universities.
"Let's adopt a schedule that is in the best interest of the athletes, not the TV programmers,” he said.
But Castiglione believes playing the same number of games over a shorter time period will result in more weeknight games, which will result in more missed classes.
"I know forcing schools to play the same amount of games in a shorter period of time isn't a solution,” he said. "That would only cause students to spend more time away from campus.”
