NCAA Unveils Drastic Draft Constitution Reconstructing

The NCAA announced they are set for significant change, allowing all three divisions to administer themselves, according to ESPN on Monday.

The nation’s most significant and most influential governing body sent out a draft of an 18 1/2 page constitution. This was cut down from 43 pages in the last three months under the leadership of President Mark Emmert.

New Plan

The new constitution will likely focus more on the NCAA’s broader goals of athlete welfare than what their previous version looked like. 

Division I schools, including all college football and all 351 schools that are eligible for the NCAA men’s basketball Tournament, will have the power to reshape everything from rules to how revenue is shared.

“The ratification of a new constitution in January is the first step in the process of transforming NCAA governance,” said Jack DiGioia, chairman of the NCAA board of governors and the president of Georgetown. “A new constitution will provide the divisions the flexibility they need to act.”

SEC Commissioner 

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey and Athletic Director of Ohio University Julie Cromer, are leading the divison transformation committee. The goal will be to have this done within the next year.

The new plan would still need feedback from 1,2000 member schools. The plan is to accomplish this within the next year after next week’s constitutional convention. However, this can change before the full membership for a vote at the start of 2022.

Also, this would limit the NCAA’s highest governing body, the Board of Governors, to nine members as opposed to 21. 

“There’s a huge gap in Division I with schools roughly with $175 million budgets and schools with $4 million budgets,” Lyons said. “A lot of times we’ve tried to legislate from an equality standpoint. Is there possibly a new division? Is there a Division Four? Do some schools break away and make a Division Four, and what {are} the membership requirements?”