Twokin Consulting: NCAA recommendations to support student-athletes

On Jan 3, 2023, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) today released its final report of the Division I Transformation Committee. The report provides recommendations to modernize Division I to more fully support current and future student-athletes.

Some of the changes already implemented allow Division I schools to:

1. Purchase medical insurance for student-athletes.

2. Provide complimentary admissions for student-athletes’ friends and family with fewer restrictions. Arrange for student-athletes to purchase tickets at face value.

3. Provide reasonable entertainment to student-athletes at any time.

4. Provide student-athletes meals and snacks at any time.

5. Use discretion in providing vacation expenses.

6. Allow student-athletes to rent dormitory space during the summer.

7. Provide preseason practice expenses for specific circumstances, such as international travel.

A handful of the recommendations include allowing Division I schools to:

1. Provide medical coverage for athletically related injuries for a minimum of two years following graduation or completion of athletics experience.

2. Offer degree completion funds within 10 years of separation to any student-athlete who was on full scholarship.

3. Attest that they provide academic support services to current student-athletes such as academic counseling and tutoring services.

4. Attest that they provide career counseling and life skills programming to student-athletes that include, at minimum, the following: Mental health; Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging; Campus sexual violence prevention; Transfer requirements; Strength and conditioning; Nutrition; Financial literacy; Career preparation; Name, image, and likeness.

As Twokin Consulting has experienced, student-athletes learn to be organized, to set goals, to track and measure improvement, and to be disciplined. A challenge that Twokin Consulting sees is - how does one forecast/model the financial implications of medical coverage once a student departs your institution. Similarly, it would be a challenge to offer a ten-year window for degree completion funds for any student who was on scholarship. Twokin Consulting can see the case of supporting a student-athlete who is a few classes short of graduating. Do you also need to support a student-athlete on full scholarship who leaves at the end of their first year and returns years later? The report did not offer any details on this case.

Twokin Consulting specializes in helping supporting colleges, universities, and nonprofit organizations in brainstorming strategies and ideas for improving operations.