NCAA adopts new Division I model giving Power 5 autonomy

[nashvillegoldenflash]

As a huge MAC fan and an alum of three G5 schools, I'm not real happy with the NCAA granting the five major D-! conferences autonomy (see link). With this decision, the "elite" conferences will now begin to formulate their own professional minor league system and let the true amateur system go on its own. Now, the "Big 5" schools will pay players just as they would put faculty on the university payroll. Going to class will no longer be mandatory since the players are now getting paid. The only good thing about this is it will finally end the facade of amateurism and "student-athlete."





NCAA adopts new Division I model

 

[nashvillegoldenflash]

INDIANAPOLIS -- The power conferences in major college sports just got more powerful -- maybe a lot more so.
The NCAA Division I board of directors on Thursday voted 16-2 to allow the schools in the top five conferences to write many of their own rules. The autonomy measures -- which the power conferences had all but demanded -- will permit those leagues to decide on things such as cost-of-attendance stipends and insurance benefits for players, staff sizes, recruiting rules and mandatory hours spent on individual sports.
"This keeps Division I together," board chairman and Wake Forest president Nathan Hatch said. "I'm thrilled that Division I and all its virtues can be maintained, and I think this is the pathway to do so."
The top 64 schools in the richest five leagues (the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12) plus Notre Dame can submit their own legislation by Oct. 1 and have it enacted at the January 2015 NCAA convention in Washington, D.C. Several presidents said Thursday that the full cost-of-attendance stipends, which could be worth between $2,000 and $5,000 per player, likely would be the first item taken up. The NCAA approved those stipends three years ago, but legislation was halted when the full membership voted it down. Four-year scholarship guarantees are expected to be on the early agenda, as well (see link for full article).

NCAA board votes to allow autonomy