New York — Next year was supposed to be the year that as many as 40 percent of big-time men’s basketball programs lost scholarships because their players were not meeting strict new NCAA academic standards.

But many of the programs have made surprising recoveries in the past year, meaning that far fewer teams are likely to be on the list early next year, when the NCAA hands down its latest penalties, Myles Brand, the NCAA’s president, said in an interview here on Tuesday.

“This is the most challenging time of our academic-reform process, and we’re still going to see some highly visible teams take some hits,” said Mr. Brand, who was attending the Intercollegiate Athletics Forum, a conference sponsored by the trade magazine SportsBusiness Journal. “But over all, we have been encouraged by the number of men’s basketball teams that have improved their Academic Progress Rates.”

But improved academic progress in athletics programs may be coming at a cost, said Sidney A. McPhee, president of Middle Tennessee State University and a longtime member of the NCAA’s Division I Board of Directors.

“The requirements that keep athletes on track to graduate at a certain rate are asking a lot of student-athletes that we don’t ask of the student body,” he said during a panel discussion on academic reform.

On average, he said, most students change majors four to five times during their academic careers. But the NCAA’s requirements would make that impossible for athletes.

“We’re forcing young students to really make uninformed decisions just to stay eligible,” he said. “We see a lot of folks getting into majors that perhaps don’t match their interest and abilities, and that may be problematic. I think we really need to take a hard look at this.” —Brad Wolverton