SI report: College admins poised to turn NCAA upside down

Apr 27, 2022, 2:41 PM

Sports Illustrated reported on Wednesday that a NCAA committee headed up by SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is proposing some big changes to college athletics.

The report described them as being "concepts and not approved measures" but the tenor of the story was that college officials wouldn't be surprised to see them implemented in the future. From the story:

Several athletic administrators and college sports insiders discussed the Transfer Committee’s concepts under the condition of anonymity. They include (1) eliminating scholarship caps on sports that offer only partial scholarships; (2) abolishing the limitation on the number of coaches per team; (3) expanding direct payments from schools to athletes; (4) reconfiguring the recruiting calendar; and (5) implementing closed periods in the NCAA transfer portal. At least the first three items will be left in the decision-making hands of individual conferences, if the concepts are approved.

On the recruiting calendar, the story presented the idea of "eliminating some regulations and replacing dead, quiet, evaluation and recruiting periods with two windows: a recruiting period and a dead period. More coaches and staff members—beyond the on-field 11 for football, for instance—would be able to recruit off campus, too."

On clearing scholarship caps, that could pave the way for schools being able to give out full scholarships for sports like baseball. The article also brought up Title IX and how a new-look NCAA would navigate equity there.

Sankey was also at the forefront of a Playoff expansion committee last year before his league expanded itself to get Texas and Oklahoma out of the Big 12.

NCAA president Mark Emmert was announced as stepping down in the next year on Tuesday. The entire story in the link below:

https://www.si.com/college/2022/04/27/ncaa-new-transformation-committee-changes