MIAMI — A proposal from the power conferences could potentially remake the NCAA’s governance and championship structure, transferring more authority to the power leagues over rule-making, policy decisions and, even, tournament events. post-season.
The proposal, a collaboration of the four power leagues, would grant the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC the rights to operate postseason championships, such as the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments , assuming control of events that have long been managed by the national government. association.
The proposal is described as a “working paper” only and does not constitute a complete or approved product.
However, as the NCAA strives to establish a new governance model that coincides with the landmark settlement of House antitrust casethe document provides clear direction from the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC. They want an expansion of their existing autonomous legislative powers, not only for rule-making and policy decision-making, but also for NCAA championships, controlling concepts such as tournament format, revenue distribution and the selection committee process.
The proposal would create a new subdivision within the NCAA – a concept expected and included in NCAA President Charlie Baker’s “Project DI” plan he announced in December 2023.
Yahoo Sports obtained portions of the document.
Once reached, each power conference confirmed the existence of the proposal. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey cautioned that the proposal is just the beginning of a conversation as all Division I leaders look at a new governance model.
“There have been seven to eight months of discussions about the NCAA governance decision-making process,” Sankey told Yahoo Sports. “We have the responsibility to develop an idea. We broadcast it at our conferences. We informed the president of the NCAA. This is an important time for change. We believe it is important to provoke thought.
The NCAA Division I Board of Directors recently created a task force to explore a new governance model. Sankey is a member of the task force, called the Division I Decision-Making Group.
ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips, a member of the NCAA Board of Governors, said leaders are trying to find a governance structure that “fits” modern college athletics. “There is still work to be done,” he said. “To me, this is part of the continued evolution of college sports. »
The power conferences’ proposal does not signal the long-discussed separation of the national association, Sankey and other commissioners say, and there remains a commitment to continue granting broad access to postseason events. That includes the NCAA basketball tournaments, two events that give automatic qualifiers to the champions of all 32 Division I leagues.
The tournament, nicknamed “March Madness,” is the crown jewel of NCAA sports, perhaps most popular for its feel-good upsets coming from mid-major and mid-tier programs. The men’s event is worth nearly $1 billion a year, by far the association’s biggest cash cow that supports the athletic budgets of many non-football and FCS programs.
“We always look at the championships as a bond between us,” Sankey said. “The basketball tournament is a national and American experience. I think what’s happening in March is pretty cool. Cinderella stories are part of the fabric and we respect that reality.
Phillips called the tournament a “national treasure” and he remains “adamant” about entry points for all leagues.
Brett Yormark, commissioner of the Big 12, sees the proposal as part of a “complete overhaul of the entire model” and a necessary “tweak” to give greater authority to power leagues.
“We have no desire to compromise what makes college athletics so special, but rather want to make the necessary adjustments to reflect the direction the industry is heading,” he said in a statement to Yahoo Sports .
However, there is concern that granting power conferences control of these marquee playoff events will limit opportunities for these mid-majors and, perhaps, even reduce their share of tournament revenue.
Such changes to the NCAA’s governance structure could require a vote of the entire Division I membership — likely a difficult majority to obtain. Participants in the other 28 conferences fear the repercussions of ceding more authority to the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12 and ACC, several non-football and FCS executives told Yahoo Sports this week.
Powerful leagues, particularly the Big Ten and SEC, used the threat of secession to consolidate more revenue during CFP negotiations last spring. The four leagues also led the House settlement negotiations, agreeing to millions of dollars in damages for the former athletes, some of which will be paid by the non-power conferences without getting their input.
These measures have more quickly widened a divide between college athletics’ four richest conferences and everyone else. Already separated by huge resource and money deficits, the two groups, some believe, are moving closer to an untenable situation, hurtling toward possible divorce.
“This could be a real fight for the future of college athletics,” one FCS executive said. “At some point we’re going to have to bluff them and say, ‘Take your ball and go.’ It seems to me that we are getting closer and closer to that.
The chances of the NCAA adopting the Power Leagues proposal are uncertain.
The proposal was described by one as an “aggressive solution” that has “real legs,” but by another as having little or no chance of being adopted in its current version. If powerful leagues do not obtain consensus in a vote of the entire membership, they could withdraw from the association.
However, that poses another problem: The power leagues and the NCAA reached a 10-year agreement as part of the House rule, binding the entities through 2035.
Power Conference commissioners began circulating their proposal to school presidents and administrators earlier this week — a move that is no coincidence. The NCAA’s annual convention begins next week in Nashville, where leaders from all three divisions gather to debate and discuss major legislative items.
A new governance model is a long-discussed issue that became a priority after the NCAA agreed to settle three antitrust lawsuits over athlete compensation, including the House case. Starting in July, and pending approval of the rule in April, schools are allowed to share revenue directly with athletes, marking a historic milestone in college sports history and necessitating rule changes. and the structure of the NCAA.
Under the Power League’s proposal, the NCAA Board of Governors and the DI Board of Directors — the association’s main governing groups made up primarily of university presidents — will likely have their authority limited. The goal of the proposal is to create a uniform policy between, at a minimum, the four leagues.
For decades now, the NCAA has operated as a fractured group with more than 300 member schools in Division I alone, all with different resources and cultural philosophies. Often misunderstood, the NCAA is a voluntary membership organization in which schools create rules that the association then enforces.
However, these rules have been criticized by courts and state lawmakers as violating antitrust law, most of them related to the long-standing policy barring compensation for athletes. With the collapse of these rules, the money-making powers within the four major leagues are moving closer to a professionalized model – a shift that requires deep structural changes, they say.
In fact, in November, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey and his chairmen sent a letter to Baker expressing disappointment with the governance model that NCAA staff presented to commissioners at a meeting during summer and urging the association to grant power leagues much more autonomy, and not just in governance, but in the rules of the game and in championship tournaments.
Sankey has long publicly expressed frustration with the NCAA’s governance model due to its slow, bureaucratic process and inclusion of lower-tier school representatives on policy-making committees. But lately, Sankey and other commissioners, including Yormark and Phillips, have worked to gain more championship entry points for their programs and representation on NCAA championship selection committees.
Currently, NCAA officials are in active negotiations with CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery on an idea to expand the men’s and women’s basketball tournament to add four or eight teams.