The NCAA Board of Governors has called for a constitutional convention in November, the first step toward launching dramatic reform in how the sprawling, multibillion-dollar enterprise of college sports is governed for years to come.
In the wake of a stinging loss in the U.S. Supreme Court and radical changes to the way athletes can be compensated – and with College Football Playoff expansion and major conference realignment already in motion – the NCAA said it wants to “reimagine” how it manages the needs of its more than 450,000 athletes.
“The goal is to make sure that we can align authority and responsibilities, get that right between campuses and the conferences and the national level,” NCAA president Mark Emmert said in a brief teleconference with reporters Friday afternoon.
That begins with examining the NCAA’s very foundation, a six-article constitution that lays out the association’s purpose, principles and general policies. Action on proposed changes is expected to be taken at the NCAA’s January convention.
“It’s evident we’re going take a hard look at the structure and governance of the association and have a discussion about values and a discussion of goals,” said Mid-American Conference commissioner Jon Steinbrecher, a member of the Division I Council “We’ve talked about modernization of the rules- well, perhaps its time to modernize the association. So here we go.”