The NCAA Division I Board of Directors took a huge step forward on Thursday, voting to approve a change to how schools and conferences will govern themselves moving forward. The new structure, which passed by a 16-2 margin, will give the 65 school in the so-called Power 5 conferences (the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, SEC and Pac 12) a certain amount of autonomy that will give the schools the ability to pass certain rules and regulations that only apply to them.
So, broken down into layman’s terms, what this means is that the big schools are going to be able to operate under their own rules, rules that are going to cost a lot of money to implement—costs that smaller schools are going to be able to avoid thanks to this new governance structure passing.
“I am immensely proud of the work done by the membership. The new governance model represents a compromise on all sides that will better serve our members and, most importantly, our student-athletes,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said, according to NBC Sports. “These changes will help all our schools better support the young people who come to college to play sports while earning a degree.”
The Board of Directors now has a 60-day period in when they can veto the changes prior to the new rule becoming official, but sources have said a veto is highly unlikely.
So, what will come of these power conferences having this new autonomy? Reading up on various reports, there’s plenty of good but also some potential pitfalls. Let’s go through them.
Student-athlete compensation. This is the big positive to come out of all of this restructuring. The student-athletes at these institutions are going to see a kickback sooner rather than later. The one thing that was holding student-athlete compensation back was the structure of the NCAA. Previously, when a rule passed, it would have to apply to the entire college athletics landscape, which is why you never saw compensation measures get passed, let alone proposed. “You’ve got small liberal-arts schools in a decision-making structure alongside Texas, and this guy’s got a $5 million athletic budget, and this guy’s got a $160 million athletic budget,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said in an interview shortly before the vote. Plain and simple, smaller school don’t have the financial means to pull that kind of thing off. Meanwhile, TV contracts that generate Millions (with multiple capital Ms and lots and lots of zeros) for the power conference schools give them the ability to offer those stipends to cover the rest of what a “full-ride” should and expand medical coverage for students—and the compensation rules only need apply to schools that can afford it. This rule hasn’t been proposed yet, though. NCAA Division I Board Chairman Nathan Hatch, the president of Wake Forest University, said a proposal could be made by January.
Impact on recruiting. The rich get richer, if you will. Schools outside of the Power 5 conferences have a tough time recruiting student-athletes that dream of playing under the big lights and in front of large crowds and on national TV. The prospect of getting a little extra cash while playing for those schools probably is going to make it even tougher for those schools. While that’s true, it’s also true that those Power 5 schools can only field so many players and dole out so many scholarships. They’re also already landing the best players in the country, so despite the prospect of getting book money, I’m sure a potential recruit is going to be more inclined to shoot for playing time over riding the bench. Further, if those individual schools that aren’t in the Power 5 conference but still feel like they compete with them for the top recruits—this schools at the top of the A-10 and AAC—they can adopt compensation rules if they think they can afford it. The only difference is that they’re not involved in the voting process, and the rules don’t have to apply to them.
Proponents of Title IX are worried. Some are concerned that this will greatly unbalance what should be a level playing field in college sports. Others raised the idea that, because of the newfound autonomy, and the fact that institutions only have to keep a minimum of 16 sports teams up and running, that the player-compensation (which isn’t a solidified, no-doubt-about-it thing right now) will give schools proper cause to cut programs that don’t generate revenue the way big-time football and basketball do. “The NCAA should be responsible for promoting fair competition among its participating institutions and their student athletes,” Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said in a statement after the vote. “I am concerned that today’s action could create an uneven playing field that may prevent some institutions from being able to compete fairly with other schools that have superior resources to pay for student athletes.” Hatch was the driving force behind the antitrust case against the BCS several years ago after two undefeated teams not from power conferences were denied a shot at the BCS Championship. That suit led to the formation of the 4-team college football playoff, which makes its debut this year.
Personally, I think this is great for college sports. I get the concern regarding the possibility that programs could be cut, and I’d like to see those autonomous schools do something that prevents them from dropping the axe—perhaps its as simple as increasing the minimum number of programs for Power 5 conference school. The bottom line is, this is a huge step in the right direction in terms of properly compensating student-athletes that have been exploited in ways that are unimaginable. At the very least, this is far better than the alternative, which was to just stay the course and let the sinking ship that was the old NCAA completely go under. College sports, the incredible March Madness and Bowl games that we see on TV, those things aren’t going to change. The way it’s run, though, that’s (finally) about to get a long-overdue makeover.