NCAA votes to give Big 5 conferences autonomy (can make own rules)

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d.green
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edited August 2014 in From the Cheap Seats
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," said board chairman and Wake Forest president Nathan Hatch. "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 65 schools in the richest five leagues (the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12) can submit their own legislation by Oct. 1 and have it enacted at the January 2015 NCAA convention in Washington, D.C.


Other new rules the biggest conferences could enact include loosened restrictions involving contact between players and agents, letting players pursue outside paid career opportunities, and covering expenses for players' families to attend postseason games. Areas that will not fall under the autonomy umbrella include postseason tournaments, transfer policies, scholarship limits, signing day and rules governing on-field play.

Major conferences will still have to agree on issues; to pass a rule requires either a 60 percent majority of the 80-member panel plus three of the five power conferences or a simple majority plus four of the five leagues.


http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/11321551/ncaa-board-votes-allow-autonomy-five-power-conferences

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