NCAA will consider Division I makeover
ing decisions” — and not on a competitive format that now groups football programs into bowl and lower-tier championship subdivisions.
Among other things, the panel will look at the makeup of the board of directors and ensuring non-football schools and those in the championship subdivision are properly represented, Emmert said in response to questions from USA TODAY about the top division’s future. The action was requested by the Division I board at the NCAA
The NCAA will consider retooling its Division I governance structure this summer amid what some officials say is growing sentiment to further split its top football-playing schools. He hopes
NCAA President Mark to retool, not split. Emmert said Sunday that he would appoint a panel to examine the issue, stressing it would focus on “the way in which Division I is organized for the purposes of mak- convention this month.
“There are inherent tensions in the structure and always have been,” Emmert said.
Multiple officials who have been in meetings with Emmert, his staff and NCAA boards are more bullish about the potential for a Division I split. Speaking on the condition of anonymity in advance of Emmert’s comments Sunday, they said he had indicated he wanted to examine the merits and mechanics of further division if not explicitly push for it. A number of presidents and chancellors on the Division I board voiced similar sentiment this month after the delay or defeat of several re- forms backed by the board, the officials said.
One of those measures would allow up to a $2,000 stipend beyond the value of a full athletic scholarship. Another would permit schools to award multiyear scholarships as well as the current oneyear renewable grants.
“There’s no doubt that these initiatives and these reforms have exacerbated some of those tensions,” Emmert said. But it would be a complete mischaracterization, he said, to say he was pushing for a discussion of a new division.