Knight Commission Survey of College Leaders Finds Openness to a Power 5 Breakaway

Three-fourths of college athletics leaders believe the NCAA governing structure needs major, immediate reform, and more than half of Power 5 college administrators support breaking away from NCAA Division I to form a fourth division solely made up of the division’s top 65 schools.

That’s according to a sweeping survey of college leaders this summer conducted by the Knight Commission, a longstanding independent group that promotes reforms that support the educational mission of college sports. The commission’s survey, conducted from June 18 to July 14, produced a 180-page report that provides a window into the thinking of NCAA leadership.

Those surveyed included more than 350 college presidents, conference commissioners, athletic directors, college athlete leaders and institutionally designated faculty athletics representatives and senior woman administrators. Data for the survey’s respondent base are accurate within a 5% margin with a 95% confidence level, the commission said during a presentation Tuesday revealing the data.

Overall, the survey showed a strong attitude toward governance reform, low satisfaction with inequalities in college athletics finances and, maybe most notably, an openness for a radical restructuring of Division I’s competition levels, such as creating a new division for Power 5 programs in all sports except basketball, or separating Football Bowl Subdivision football from the NCAA.