Last October, the United States was rocked by an FBI and DOJ probe into corruption in college basketball. The resulting report detailed a number of ongoing schemes, including bribes paid to players by shoe and apparel companies and bribes paid to coaches to steer players to certain financial advisers. As a response to the government investigation, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) established an Independent Commission on College Basketball, chaired by former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to make recommendations on “legislation, policies, actions and structure(s) to protect the integrity of college sports.” After six months of research, the committee produced a 53 page report which concluded that “[t]he levels of corruption and deception [in men’s college basketball] are now at a point that they threaten the very survival of the college game as we know it,” and outlined a number of recommendations for changing the college basketball system. It is now up to the NCAA to decide whether it will implement the recommendations.

The proposed reforms by the Commission have been met with great skepticism. Critics argue that the report only tinkers at the margins and fails to get to the root causes of the corruption and other problems in college basketball. (For a sampling of the critical responses, see here and here and here). These criticisms go too far. Fixing the complex problems that permeate college basketball will take some time. The reforms outlined in the report, though imperfect, are a step in the right direction, and the NCAA should embrace and adopt them. Among the many proposals advanced by the Commission, the following reforms, if implemented by the NCAA, will have an immediate impact on decreasing corruption in collegiate athletics:

Continue reading →