When it's not staging any Final Four match-ups, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is the powerful governing body critics love to hate. The association's 11-year, $6-billion contract with CBS to televise the tournament has become a lightning rod for critics who say the association is all about making money off athletes. Not so,…

Despite years of prodding from officials at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to bolster athletes' performance in the classroom, nearly 10 percent of all athletics teams in the NCAA's top division failed to meet the association's annual benchmark for academic progress, new data show. Of the 6,300 or so teams in Division I, the…

The federal government could take a cue from its regulation of charitable organizations in monitoring the freewheeling fiscal habits of big-time college athletics, a leading tax lawyer says. The author reports on the ideas offered by John D. Colombo, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, for monitoring big spending on college…

Billy Gillispie, like many college basketball coaches, was hired--and fired--in a hurry. But the contract negotiations that dragged on for nearly two years while he coached the University of Kentucky's men's basketball team showed little of the same urgency that defined his entrance and exit. Mr. Gillispie worked for Kentucky under a memorandum of…

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is no stranger to criticism. This article reports that during a meeting of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, some higher-education officials questioned the NCAA's handling of a CBS fantasy football league, announced over the summer, that would use college athletes' names. Many…

Despite tough economic times, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte hopes to win trustees' approval to raise funds to field a Division I-AA football team. Athletics officials and supporters at Charlotte are hopeful that they will raise the more than $45-million in capital expenses necessary to get the program up and running. However, the…

This article reports that nearly half of the nation's largest athletics programs have doubled or tripled their recruitment spending over the past decade, as their pursuit of elite athletes intensifies and becomes more national in scope. Forty-eight percent of NCAA Division I athletics departments at least doubled their recruiting budgets from 1997…

This article reports that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has penalized fewer teams than it expected this year over athletes' poor academic performance. For years, officials with the NCAA have predicted that strikingly high numbers of college sports teams could be at risk of losing scholarships this year because of their…

For decades, the 40-acre meadow separating Adrian College from a state highway was an afterthought on the modest campus of low-slung limestone buildings. However, in less than three years, the grassy expanse, like the college itself, has undergone a transformation. The newly developed acreage--boasting an ice arena, football and baseball stadiums,…

For five decades, the University of Louisville men's basketball team has played its home games at the state's fairgrounds, in a modest arena originally built for horse shows. And for just as many seasons, the team's toughest competition for scheduling has come from the livestock--and the flea markets and tractor pulls that also vie for the space.…

Despite all the alarm that recruiting in college sports has spun out of control, for many athletes the process was neither as intrusive, nor as lavish, as its critics have warned, according to a "Chronicle" survey of hundreds of current Division I athletes. But the accelerated pace of recruiting, and the demands it placed on athletes during their…

A "striking number" of professors involved in governance at universities with high-profile athletics programs say they are disconnected from and do not know much about the issues facing college sports, according to survey findings released last week by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. The survey, which was conducted by…

The number of minority coaches leading the nation's largest collegiate football programs remains low, with 13 of the 241 head-coaching positions in Divisions I-A and I-AA held by members of minority racial or ethnic groups, a report on hiring practices released last week by the organization Black Coaches & Administrators (BCA) says. Only two…

A software program that searches for offensive content on college athletes' social-networking sites has drawn skeptical reactions from legal experts, who say it could threaten students' constitutional rights. Billed as a "social-network monitoring service" and marketed exclusively to college athletics departments, YouDiligence was on display at…

Mock interviews have become increasingly common in athletics departments around the country. Press attention is unavoidable in today's collegiate sports landscape, no matter the size of the institution or the nature of the sport. Many athletic directors want to make sure their players are ready for it--even if the likelihood is slim that they will…