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The NCAA has relied on soft accreditation standards so that member institutions can run classes for some athletes who might not otherwise have been admitted to the schools, kids who might not be ready for standard college classes. The NCAA also has instituted the APR as a means to create a metric that hides that fact, since the APR seems to take away all incentive for athletes to proceed toward a degree. The keyword is eligibility. The NCAA seems totally unwilling to uphold standards in the face of the massive revenues coming in for sports.
There's a change in the national landscape however when it comes to such strategies to create a soft academic landing for athletes.
The accreditation of university programs and even individual classes has become a fierce contest between the accreditation agencies and universities. There are two reasons why this is happening. One, colleges have had their budgets slashed, so in response they've come up with a bunch of intersession courses which are usually taught by part-timers making an average of $2.5k per class, and financial aid isn't available for such intersession courses. Accreditation agencies are asking schools to justify these courses (which were left alone in the past simply because such courses were always tailored for the intersessions, but now we see courses regularly taught over normal semesters adapted to intersession and even online). The second factor is that the for-profit schools are battling the accreditation agencies, which has caused the agencies to set up more rigorous standards.
Everyone who heads a department or program and needs to justify their curriculum right now seems to be aware of North Carolina's fake classes. That has blown up in UNC's face across the academic world. And from what I'm hearing, a lot of schools are going to be dinged by accreditation agencies over the next year or so.
I'm not sure which way this will go, but either schools decide to operate with some courses and programs which are not accredited (doubtful, since this will damage the university's reputation heavily), or some other arrangement for sports will have to be made. In this sense, the push away from the NCAA for the P5 might actually be a boon for them, in that they may be able to provide athletes with nominal income + room&board for playing sports with no scholarship unless a student wants to trade income for scholarship. This will allow kids who don't want an education to get paid, and those who presumably can do well in university classrooms to take the scholarship instead f the money. This paragraph is just speculation by me because I can't see how the schools will continue with what's coming down the pike in the next few years.
There's a change in the national landscape however when it comes to such strategies to create a soft academic landing for athletes.
The accreditation of university programs and even individual classes has become a fierce contest between the accreditation agencies and universities. There are two reasons why this is happening. One, colleges have had their budgets slashed, so in response they've come up with a bunch of intersession courses which are usually taught by part-timers making an average of $2.5k per class, and financial aid isn't available for such intersession courses. Accreditation agencies are asking schools to justify these courses (which were left alone in the past simply because such courses were always tailored for the intersessions, but now we see courses regularly taught over normal semesters adapted to intersession and even online). The second factor is that the for-profit schools are battling the accreditation agencies, which has caused the agencies to set up more rigorous standards.
Everyone who heads a department or program and needs to justify their curriculum right now seems to be aware of North Carolina's fake classes. That has blown up in UNC's face across the academic world. And from what I'm hearing, a lot of schools are going to be dinged by accreditation agencies over the next year or so.
I'm not sure which way this will go, but either schools decide to operate with some courses and programs which are not accredited (doubtful, since this will damage the university's reputation heavily), or some other arrangement for sports will have to be made. In this sense, the push away from the NCAA for the P5 might actually be a boon for them, in that they may be able to provide athletes with nominal income + room&board for playing sports with no scholarship unless a student wants to trade income for scholarship. This will allow kids who don't want an education to get paid, and those who presumably can do well in university classrooms to take the scholarship instead f the money. This paragraph is just speculation by me because I can't see how the schools will continue with what's coming down the pike in the next few years.