Pac-12 presidents back new NCAA model

[SAMCRO]

Couldn't link it from my iPad, so just copied and pasted. Apologies if this is already posted.

APNewsBreak: Pac-12 presidents back new NCAA model
By ANTONIO GONZALEZ
— May. 20, 2014 8:35 PM EDT
Pac-12 university presidents have sent a letter to their colleagues at the other four major football conferences calling for sweeping changes to the NCAA model and autonomy for those leagues.

A copy of the letter was obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday night. It was sent last week to the other 53 university presidents from the Southeastern Conference, Big Ten, Big 12 and Atlantic Coast Conference.

Spurred in part by Northwestern football players' move to unionize, the Pac-12 presidents outlined a 10-point plan for reform that includes many proposals commissioners have been advocating for several years, including a stipend for athletes. The NCAA is working on a new governance structure that will allow the five wealthiest conferences to make some rules without the support of smaller Division I schools.

"We acknowledge the core objectives could prove to be expensive and controversial, but the risks of inaction or moving too slowly are far greater," the letter reads. "The time for tinkering with the rules and making small adjustments is over."

The full list of proposals included in the letter are:

— Permit institutions to make scholarship awards up to the full cost of attendance.

— Provide reasonable ongoing medical or insurance assistance for student-athletes who suffer an incapacitating injury in competition or practice. Continue efforts to reduce the incidence of disabling injury.

— Guarantee scholarships for enough time to complete a bachelor's degree, provided that the student remains in good academic standing.

— Decrease the demands placed on the athlete in-season, correspondingly increase the time available for studies and campus life, by preventing the abuse of organized "voluntary" practices to circumvent the limit of 20 hours per week and more realistically assess the time away from campus and other commitments during the season.

— Similarly decrease time demands out of season by reducing out-of-season competition and practices, and by considering shorter seasons in specific sports.

— Further strengthen the Academic Progress Rate requirements for postseason play.

— Address the "one and done" phenomenon in men's basketball. If the NBA its Players Association are unable to agree to raising the age limit for players, consider restoring the freshman ineligibility rule in men's basketball.

— Provide student-athletes a meaningful role in governance at the conference and NCAA levels.

— Adjust existing restrictions so that student-athletes preparing for the next stage of their careers are not unnecessarily deprived of the advice and counsel of agents and other competent professionals, but without professionalizing intercollegiate athletics.

— Liberalize the current rules limiting the ability of student-athletes to transfer between institutions.

Pac-12 presidents are asking for a response to the proposed reforms by June 4.

The plan comes after Northwestern University football players cast secret ballots April 25 on whether to form the nation's first union for college athletes. The results of the vote will not be known for some time.

The full National Labor Relations Board has agreed to hear Northwestern's appeal of a regional director's March ruling that the players are university employees and thus can unionize. Ballots will remain impounded until that process is finished, and perhaps until after any court fight that might follow a decision.

Part of the idea behind the proposal by the Pac-12 presidents is to get ahead of the issue and meet some of the demands that have been raised by Northwestern players and other athletes without "professionalizing" college sports.

The letter states "it is clear from the recent statements of any number of individuals that, while they may share or view that labor unions are not the answer, the time has come for a meaningful response both to the student-athletes' grievances and the need to reassert the academic primacy of our mission."

___

Antonio Gonzalez can be reached at:www.twitter.com/agonzalezAP

 

[Dooley]

And so the NCAA split begins...

 

[CTMike]

"without the support of smaller Division I schools..."

Man, duck K that line. Wake Forest bullsht my @ss... god that makes me irate...

 

[noeynox]

They have painted themselves into a corner with two things:

1. Touting amateurism as some sort of holy grail that must be "preserved", while at the same time

2. Bragging about how much revenue the "P5" make.

All this autonomy BS is nothing more than them wanting to say that they wanted to give athletes a piece of the pie but the lessers schools would not allow them to do so.

I don't know how those lawsuits or how real the union threat is, but all that crowing about how much $$$ they make is what is spurring much of this and I think it's real big threat to college sports.

 

[Jimdish255]

It's really interesting how so many issues have come together at the same time to propel major comprehensive reform. The Northwestern action is doing pretty much what I expected with regards to making the interests of players more of a priority and they get the added benefit of using their financial resources to separate the haves from the have-nots. Finally they get to elevate the power of the P5 while marginalizing the NCAA.

I have 2 questions going forward. Will they have their own oversight and enforcement division or does the NCAA still take on that responsibility? Second, if the conferences themselves are largely responsible for "interpreting" the rules, does anyone think there can be any uniformity of interpretation or outcomes? I can see a huge difference between what the B1G and the PAC vs the SEC end up with, and the potential for a splintering of this new coalition in pretty short order.

 

[upstater]

I think the decision of the labor relations guy is going to be overturned on appeal, because it doesn't square with the Brown University decision of more than a decade ago. I don't see why it's relevant to this discussion anyway. This is about the P5 breaking away and hording money.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I'd like to read the actual letter.

 

[Carl Spackler]

It's really interesting how so many issues have come together at the same time to propel major comprehensive reform. The Northwestern action is doing pretty much what I expected with regards to making the interests of players more of a priority and they get the added benefit of using their financial resources to separate the haves from the have-nots. Finally they get to elevate the power of the P5 while marginalizing the NCAA.

I have 2 questions going forward. Will they have their own oversight and enforcement division or does the NCAA still take on that responsibility? Second, if the conferences themselves are largely responsible for "interpreting" the rules, does anyone think there can be any uniformity of interpretation or outcomes? I can see a huge difference between what the B1G and the PAC vs the SEC end up with, and the potential for a splintering of this new coalition in pretty short order.

For the past 30 years, the NCAA has had essentially no authority over college football. U.S. Supreme Court saw to that. It evolved indeed, such that "conference" leadership itself is really the only "authority" out there with regards to enforcing rules and regulations around college football. THe NCAA infractions branch/enforcement - whatever - still techinically "oversees" college football, but the penalties, the enforcement? Sketchy. The stuff that went down at the U in the past 15 years. Fake classes and grades at North Carolina for football. Well - U.S. house of reps sent a letter to Mark Emmert about it yesterday. The letter they sent, is mostly about basketball, and rules though, and revenue distribution around the NCAA b-ball tournaments - very little mention at all of the divide in athletics around football - because that's what it is ALL about - REVENUE..... - but there is no mention of football, because congress knows that football is a different thing, and really was set outside the NCAA umbrella 30 years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court.

So, in answer to your first question, I highly doubt that there will be any regulatory structure set up individually for the quote/unquote "P5". hate that term, but it's shorter than typing Pac12, Big10, Big 12, ACC and SEC every time. Reason being the answer, as I see it, to your second question.

As for the second question I think, the only "uniformity" that I think can happen around interpreting rules - specifically regarding football, and the divide in intercollegiate athletics around football money - will only be uniform, for as long as the individual leadership of the individual conferences are willing to play nice together with each other. It's pretty clear that there are 5 conferences that want to have things different than the others - but really - here's the thing - what's to stop the leadership of say the Conference X among those P5, to want to do things differently than Conference Y among those P5? It's a real mess.