from the NCAA, drawn from NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament revenue. Six years after the Knight report, the NCAA announced that beginning in 2019, it would give financial bonuses to schools based on student-athlete academic performance. The Knight Commission had been advocating such a system for the past 15 years; Kirwan called the NCAA's decision a "game-changing step to place a higher value on education in college athletics." Interviewed by Gilbert M. Gaul for Gaul's 2015 book Billion-Dollar Ball: A Journey Through the Big-Money Culture of College Football, Kirwan said: "...the obsession with football is very corrupting to higher education." Reflecting on his presidency of Ohio State, Kirwan added: "The culture of football allegiance and reverence was disturbing. But nonetheless, because of it they can raise any amount of money they need to raise." However, Kirwan conceded "there is very little than presidents can do" because of what he called the "irresistible force" of college athletics. Federal government advisory boards Kirwan served on educational advisory boards to U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. President Clinton appointed Kirwan to the National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century. In 2002, Kirwan was among 21 appointees by President Bush to the Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Appointed by Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Kirwan served on the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) from 2010 to 2014. NACIQI advises the U.S. Secretary of Education on accreditation and certification for colleges and universities, and named chair of the College Board Advocacy and Policy Center Advisory Committee. The Kirwan Commission Kirwan served as chair of the Maryland Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education, commonly known as the "Kirwan Commission." The commission was founded in 2016 to make recommendations enable Maryland schools "to perform at the level of the world’s best school systems." In 2020, the Maryland General Assembly passed, and Governor Larry Hogan vetoed, a $4 billion proposal (once fully phased in) based on the commission's recommendations. The veto was overridden in February 2021. Editorial and other boards From 2004 to 2008, Kirwan served on the board of trustees of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. In April 2007, Kirwan was appointed to the editorial board of the newly announced Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. Kirwan is a past board chair of the National Association