NCAA to Appoint Committee to Examine Division 1 Restructuring Possibility

January 31, 2012

NCAA, health president Mark Emmert has decided that he will appoint a working committee to examine if and how Division 1 athletics need to be restructured, allergy according to an interview and report from the USA Today.

Emmert’s committee, prescription set to meet this summer, will look at “the way in which Division I is organized for the purposes of making decisions” in an effort to have non-football schools, as well as those in the Football Championship Subdivision, represented as well as possible within the NCAA’s Board of Directors.

It is not, according to Emmert’s comments, an evaluation of further splitting the competitive format of Division 1-A, such as the split between 1-A and 1-AA.

But there’s no doubt that the gap between the richest and biggest programs in college athletics and the smaller ones is widening.

Proposed legislation, such as the $2,000 stipend added to the value of athletic scholarships, has faced difficulty passing in the wake of concerns from certain schools that it will further divide the “haves” and “have-nots.”

“There’s no doubt that these initiatives and these reforms have exacerbated some of those tensions,” Emmert said, but added that it would be a “complete mischaracterization” to imply that those initiatives would be grounds for further separation in Division 1.

However, sources with direct knowledge of Emmert’s thinking told USA Todaythat Emmert has indicated behind closed doors that he wants to “examine the merits and mechanics of further subdivision if not explicitly push for it.”