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The board of directors that governs Division I member universities of the National Collegiate Athletic Association will soon vote on a new governance model, increasing the size of its board from 18 members to 24 and giving greater voting control to the five major athletic conferences. The new board would consist of five presidents from those major conferences: the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, Big 12, Pacific 12, and Southeastern Conferences. It would also include five presidents from the remaining five Football Bowl Subdivision Conferences, five from the Football Championship Subdivision, and five from Division I institutions that don't have football teams. A student athlete, a faculty athletics representative, a campus senior woman athletics representative, and the chair of the Council -- the governing body in charge of the day-to-day legislative functions -- would round out the rest of the board.
The weighted voting totals of the Council gives 37.5 percent of the vote to the five major conferences, as well as a combined 37.5 percent to FCS and no-football conferences. FBS conferences would have 18.8 percent. Faculty representatives and student athletes would have 3.1 percent each.
“We will begin to focus on student-athlete welfare in ways they will feel as early as next year,” Michael Drake, president of Ohio State University and steering committee member, said in a statement.
At a Senate hearing earlier this month, Mark Emmert, the NCAA's president, told the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation that Division I colleges were attempting to remake the decision-making process to give more control to the 65 largest revenue institutions, Emmert said, as they’re most likely to move forward on reforms that would benefit college athletes. Senator Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat and the committee’s chairman, said he didn’t believe that the colleges that make the most money from athletes would be the ones most eager to change. “I am just very skeptical that the NCAA can ever live up to the lofty mission it constantly touts,” Rockefeller said at the hearing's start.
The Division I Board of Directors will vote on the model on August 7.
