Twenty-one members of the Intercollegiate Coach Association Coalition (ICAC), representing over thirty intercollegiate sports, support the Knight Commission proposal to tie revenue distribution and spending in NCAA Division I programs to the broad educational mission of intercollegiate athletics. The C.A.R.E. model, Connecting Athletics Revenue with Education, recommends restructuring distributions from the NCAA, the College Football Playoff, and Division I Conferences, to align with programming that serves student-athlete education, health, safety, well-being, gender and racial equity, and broad-based sports participation.
“The ICAC was formed to give coaches a collective voice on matters involving program support, legislation, and sustainability,” said ICAC executive director, Rob Kehoe. “Early in the pandemic, ICAC members contributed to blocking an attempt to reduce sport sponsorship minimums in Division I, and we continue to direct our efforts to support initiatives that promote broad based sports sponsorship, and, to oppose trends that present a direct threat to Olympic sports at Division I schools. Without structural change that incentivizes the sponsorship of broad-based programming at the highest levels of Division I, Olympic sports will continue to be sacrificed and opportunities for talented student-athletes extinguished.”
The NCAA appointed a Constitution Committee in August to identify areas where the organization needed reform. The Knight Commission’s C.A.R.E. model was developed to address the incongruities between the goals of higher education and the incentives for revenue distribution in the current system.
“The NFHCA is excited to join forces with other coaches’ associations to show our support for this important initiative,” stated NFHCA President, Anne Parmenter.
The coaches’ associations that support the Knight Commission C.A.R.E. model include:
- American Baseball Coaches Association
- American Hockey Coaches Association
- American Volleyball Coaches Association
- American Water Polo Coaches Association
- College Gymnastics Association
- College Rifle Coaches Association
- Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (Women)
- College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America
- Golf Coaches Association of America
- Intercollegiate Men’s Lacrosse Coaches Association
- Intercollegiate Rowing Coaches Association (Men)
- Intercollegiate Tennis Association
- Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association
- National Collegiate Equestrian Association
- National Fastpitch Coaches Association
- National Field Hockey Coaches Association
- National Wrestling Coaches Association
- United Soccer Coaches
- U.S. Fencing Coaches Association
- Women’s Golf Coaches Association
- Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association
The Intercollegiate Coach Association Coalition (ICAC) was established in 2017 as an organization to support the intercollegiate coaching profession, to engage in communication pertaining to matters that impact intercollegiate athletics, to represent the views and voice of college coaches, and to share association related information to benefit and support ICAC members.
The National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) is a nonprofit organization serving field hockey coaches and supporters of the game from across the United States. The mission of the organization is to stimulate the professional development of coaching leadership within the sport of field hockey. The NFHCA strives to cultivate and recognize the professional contributions of its membership and to foster and promote the growth of the sport. The NFHCA is responsible for providing a recognizable presence and voice in regard to legislation affecting the sport as well as interscholastic and intercollegiate programs.