Best Practices in Athletics Compliance for Athletics Directors

 

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Executive Summary: In light of some of the recent scandals in college athletics, colleges and universities now face new risks that require additional evaluation and scrutiny of existing compliance programs. Similar to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), a federal law that established sweeping auditing and financial regulations for United States (U.S.) public companies, per the NCAA’s Commission on College Basketball recommendation, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”) has recently imposed additional compliance obligations on collegiate athletics programs. In this vein, the NCAA’s recently enacted “attestation of compliance” legislation requires athletics directors to certify that the policies, procedures, and practices of its institution, staff members, and representatives of its athletics interest are in compliance with NCAA legislation “insofar as the director of athletics can determine.” While the NCAA provides Enforcement Charging Guidelines, the following best practices provide additional specific recommendations following the NCAA’s aforementioned new legislation.