This will be interesting to watch - obviously potentially huge ramifications for FCS schools
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/story/2012-01-29/ncaa-division-I-structure-football/52875162/1The NCAA will look this summer at retooling its Division I governance structure amid what some officials say is growing sentiment to further split its top football-playing schools.
Darron Cummings, AP
NCAA President Mark Emmert says the examination of the structure of Division I should not be construed that he is pushing for an entirely new division.
Association President Mark Emmert said Sunday he'll appoint a working group to examine the issue, stressing it will focus on "the way in which Division I is organized for the purposes of making decisions" - and not on a competitive format that now groups football programs into bowl and lower-tier championship subdivisions.
Among other things, Emmert said in response to questions from USA TODAY about the division's future, the panel will look at the makeup of the board of directors and ensuring that non-football schools and those in the championship subdivision are properly represented. The action was requested by the Division I board at the NCAA convention earlier 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 has indicated he wants to examine the merits and mechanics of further subdivision if not explicitly push for it. A number of presidents and chancellors on the Division I board voiced similar sentiment earlier this month in the wake of the delay or defeat of several reforms backed by the board, the officials said.
One of those measure would allow up to a $2,000 stipend beyond the value of a full athletics scholarship. Another would permit schools to award multi-year scholarships rather than one-year renewable grants.
"There's no doubt," Emmert said, "that these initiatives and these reforms have exacerbated some of those tensions." But it would be a "complete mischaracterization," he insisted, to say he is pushing for a discussion of a new division. There is a difference between governance and competitive structures, Emmert said.
Some kind of split of Division I has long been speculated — most popularly breaking out its six marquee football conferences and Notre Dame— as its membership has swelled to 338 schools and financial and political divisions have widened.
The NCAA has operated in its current structure for nearly 3 1/2 decades. The more than 1,000 school association formed Divisions I, II and III in 1973, and separated the football-playing members of Division I into what now are known as the bowl and championship subdivisions in 1978.
Disparities in the 120-member bowl subdivision have grown increasingly pronounced since then. Individual schools' athletics revenues ranged from $3.8 million to nearly $144 million in 2010, according to the NCAA, prompting the less wealthy to lean more heavily on student fees and other institutional subsidization to try to stay competitive.
