White Participates in Retreat on NCAA Reform

Potential Changes Include Rewriting Rulebook, Enhanced Penalties and Creating Financial Stability

By Ross French on August 11, 2011

UC Riverside Chancellor Timothy P. White was one of 54 university presidents, conference commissioners and athletic directors who participated in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Presidential Retreat in Indianapolis on August 9-10, 2011.

The retreat was called by NCAA President Mark Emmert to spur much needed reforms in NCAA Division I, of which UC Riverside is a member. Key areas of discussion included academic standards, curtailing intentional cheating and increasing punishments, and creating financial sustainability for institutions with attention towards the financial gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots.”

Several proposals came out of the retreat, some that the group was adamant about addressing quickly. One, improving academic standards and tying NCAA championship participation to academic performance, was adopted on Thursday.
Other proposals include:

• Revising the cumbersome 434-page NCAA rulebook to simplify complex rules.
• Enhancing penalties for violations and place increased focus on major infractions.
• Strengthening academic requirements for incoming freshman and JC transfer students.

White, who was elected to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Board of Directors in May, was quoted on ESPN.com saying “It’s time for tough love. …Otherwise, the overall enterprise will not be able to be sustained. The American public deserves this.”

“There is a frankness and an openness about the core issues that are affecting intercollegiate athletics… To take on the things that really matter with a sense of urgency and to make substantive changes to regain the integrity, regain the focus on the student-athlete’s academic success, and get our arms around the finances of this great institution (the NCAA),” White said in a video interview posted on NCAA.com.

Archived under: Inside UCR, Chancellor Timothy P. White, Intercollegiate Athletics, national collegiate athletic association, NCAA, press release

Top of Page