The NCAA Board of Governors unanimously agreed to accept the final recommendations of its constitution committee on Thursday, bringing the organization closer to finalizing a new constitution govern university sports.
The foundation document has been in the works for the past several months, including a meeting at the NCAA Special Convention in November.
The full membership will vote on the constitution on January 20 at the 2022 NCAA convention. The formal legislative proposal will be shared with members on January 7.
“This process has been an example of how we can work together to modernize varsity athletics and meet the needs of students engaged in intercollegiate athletics – today and into the future,” wrote the president of the council of colleges. Governors and Georgetown President Jack DeGioia in a memo to the NCAA. member schools and conferences.
“Ratification of a new constitution in January will unlock the ability for divisions to rewrite the rules for each division by August, enabling us to achieve the goal of transforming NCAA governance to better serve our students. “
The constitution committee released two draft recommendations to implement in the new constitution, including new concepts such as giving athletes voting representation on the Board of Governors, the Division I Board of Directors and to the Councils of Presidents of Divisions II and III.
Previous recommendations also included language codifying athletes’ ability to be compensated for their name, image and likeness (NIL), prohibiting “pay to play”, but encompassing “providing additional educational and other benefits”, including NILE.
It also maintains current revenue allocations and championship opportunities for each division, and allows each division to monitor its own budget, expenses, and distributions to its members.
Some of the new changes to the third and final set of recommendations were:
- Clarify that student-athletes on the Board of Governors must represent both men’s and women’s sports.
- Explicitly stating that the constitution does not restrict or limit schools from having missions and policies consistent with their legal rights and obligations as institutions of higher education.
- Emphasize equal access within the framework of the principle of diversity and inclusion. Likewise, the principle of gender equity remains distinct from diversity, equity and inclusion to put everyone first.
- Stating that each member school must make its name, image and likeness policies public, in addition to providing them to student-athletes.
- Simplify language around independent medical care for student-athletes.
- Further clarify the role of athletic faculty representatives as a resource person for student-athletes independent of the athletics department, but not as a legal advocate.
- Clarify wording to ensure to the greatest extent possible that sanctions imposed do not punish programs or student-athletes not implicated or implicated in violations.
Each division will be able to pass additional changes to support its own governance model in the months after the constitution is voted on in January, with the new constitution taking effect August 1.
