I want to get into the changing NCAA regulations in collegiate sports, and the difference in the compliance programs between Power 5 schools and other, smaller conferences. This story will likely involve a good amount of number-crunching and analytic work, which is exciting for me.
Topic: Trends in NCAA regulations, compliance programs
Key questions
1. How have NCAA regulations changed In the past 20 years or so?
– Compare regulations and what constitutes a violation, according to NCAA bylaws from 2016 and any other available years.
2. Has there been an increase/decrease in violations during this time? Why?
-Chart major violations over the past 20 years or so. Are they infractions of new regulations? Is there a “learning curve” for changing NCAA regs?
3. Who has NCAA compliance programs? Are they concentrated in Power 5 schools?
– Search major school websites and contact athletic departments, check policies of Power 5 conferences
4. What do these compliance programs actually do? Are they effective?
– Interview compliance directors and other officials who oversee the programs
– Chart the violations and infractions of major universities with compliance programs
– Interview athletes and coaches from these schools to find out the culture of compliance and NCAA regulations in their programs
5. How do schools without compliance programs monitor their athletes and programs to avoid violations?
– Compare Power 5 schools with “have not” universities in terms of the frequency and severity of infractions
– Interview athletes and coaches at these schools for comparison
6. Case studies of NCAA violations
– Charleston Southern
– Todd Gurley
– SMU “death penalty”
– etc.
I’m seeing infographics galore for this story, including maps, charts and other visual comparison and trend tools.
This has the potential to be a deep story, so I know it will evolve as I start researching and I might not be able to cover everything I have listed. But in an ideal world, these are the questions I would like to dig in to for my personal story.
So this is a little massive as you have it written, but there’s definitely some good angles you could distill out of it. There is a National Association of Athletic Compliance Coordinators (http://www.nacda.com/naacc/nacda-naacc.html), so you might poke through their websites. The have/have-not issue is always a good one, so you might start simply by seeing if the UGA compliance director and perhaps his counterpart at Georgia Southern or Savannah State would sit down and talk about what their jobs look like. There’s a professor named David Ridpath at Ohio U. who might also have some good thoughts. (Google him to get his backstory). And let’s stay in touch as you refine it.