SEC’s Slive: Overhaul is necessary

Associated Press

HOOVER, Ala.

SEC commissioner Mike Slive said recent headlines across the country have laid bare the darker side of major college sports so much that they have “lost the benefit of the doubt.”

With that in mind, Slive opened Southeastern Conference media days Wednesday by outlining some proposals for change across the NCAA in everything from raising academic requirements for incoming freshmen to paying athletes the full cost of scholarships.

“We don’t have the luxury of acting as if it’s business as usual,” Slive said, noting that he normally would have used that platform to tout recent successes like national titles in football and baseball. “And that’s been made clear by the headlines emanating from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Gulf to the Great Lakes.”

He said the negative perception of big-money college sports resulting from infractions cases from Ohio State to several of his own member schools “casts a shadow over the extraordinary student-athletes throughout the country” and merits change.

It has certainly cast a shadow for years in a league that has captured the last five national football titles, and some more dubious attention.

A day earlier, the NCAA placed LSU on one-year probation for major violations while recruiting a junior college football player. Tennessee and Auburn are waiting on verdicts from investigations.

The SEC is also pushing changes going back to high school, requiring prep athletes to make satisfactory progress in their core courses each year so they don’t get caught behind as they near graduation.

Slive also wants an increase of the requirements for initial eligibility from a 2.0 grade-point average to 2.5 in 16 core classes, and to extend the six-year window for athletes to finish their degree under scholarship.