NCAA Board of Governors Unanimously Accepts New Constitution Recommendations

The NCAA Board of Governors unanimously agreed to accept the final recommendations from its constitution committee on Thursday, moving the organization one step closer to finalizing a new constitution to govern college sports.

The foundational document has been in development over the last few months, including a meeting at the NCAA’s Special Convention in November.

The entire membership will vote on the constitution Jan. 20 at the 2022 NCAA Convention. The formal legislative proposal will be shared with members Jan. 7.

“This process has been an example of how we can work together to modernize college sports and meet the needs of students engaged in intercollegiate athletics — today and for the future,” Board of Governor’s chair and Georgetown President Jack DeGioia wrote in a memo to NCAA member schools and conferences.

“The ratification of a new constitution in January will unlock the ability for the divisions to rewrite rules for each division by August that will enable us to realize the goal of transforming NCAA governance to better serve our students.”

The constitution committee has issued two prior drafts of recommendations to implement into the new constitution, including new concepts such as giving the athletes voting representation on the Board of Governors, the Division I Board of Directors and the Division II and III Presidents Councils.

Prior recommendations also included language codifying athletes’ ability to be compensated for their name, image and likeness (NIL), prohibiting “pay-for-play,” but embracing “providing additional educational and other benefits,” including NIL.

It also maintains current revenue allocations and championship opportunities for each division, and gives each division oversight of its own budget, expenditures and distributions to its members.

Some of the new changes made to the third and final set of recommendations were:

• Clarifying that student-athlete Board of Governors members must represent both men’s and women’s sports.
• Explicitly stating that the constitution does not restrict or limit schools from having missions and policies consistent with their legal rights and obligations as institutions of higher learning.
• Emphasizing equal access as part of the diversity and inclusion principle. Similarly, the gender equity principle remains distinct from diversity, equity and inclusion to give priority to each.
• Stating that each member school must make its name, image and likeness policies publicly available, in addition to providing them to student-athletes.
• Streamlining language around independent medical care for student-athletes.
• Further clarifying the role of faculty athletics representatives as a reporting contact for student-athletes independent of the athletics department, but not a legal advocate.
• Clarifying language around ensuring to the greatest extent possible that any imposed penalties do not punish programs or student-athletes not involved or implicated in the infractions.

Each division will be able to adopt additional changes to support its own governance model in the months following the constitution vote in January, with the new constitution becoming effective on August 1.