Facing upheaval on the way in college athletics, a handful of administrators and athletes from smaller schools have been working on a new model of governance.
The hope by members of the Football Championship Subdivision and Division I-AAA (programs without football) is to give their athletes more of a say and essentially treat them more like students than employees.
It was a way to be proactive—and potentially head off future lawsuits—amid seismic changes across college sports that started even before the recent $2.77 billion settlement of antitrust claims agreed to by the NCAA and the nation’s five biggest conferences. That proposal, which needs a judge’s approval, also sets the stage for schools to pay millions directly to athletes.
