History as it Happened — Power 5 Autonomy

This afternoon at a meeting in Fort Washington, Maryland, the so-called Power 5 NCAA athletic conferences, the ACC, Big 10, Big 12, PAC12 and SEC, debated and voted on a number of measures today changing forever the landscape of  Division I college athletics.  Players and administrators spoke and coaches remained on the sidelines.

The biggest development of the afternoon was the actual vote for the Power 5 conference to become autonomous and pass their own rules. Within the following hour, the Power 5 conferences voted 79-1 to pay players up to the actual cost of attendance for the university. The impact of this cannot be understated. The outside cost of attendance varies greatly among schools with previous efforts finding outside cost of attendance at a school such as Vanderbilt in the $4,000-$5,000 range while a school like the University of Arkansas may have an additional cost of attendance figure in the $2,500 range.

Players may now borrow against potential future earnings to purchase loss-of-value insurance.

Concussion protocol was hotly debated with a number of schools contending that the proposal did not go far enough. Ultimately a concussion measure which sought to delay a vote and have additional study was rejected. A measure providing additional protections to athletes passed.

Athletes spoke against a proposal to create 4 year scholarships without a school being able to terminate the scholarship for athletic reasons. The measure passed despite athletes’ arguments against it. There remain ways in which an athlete may lose a four-year scholarship.

As it happened:

 

 

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SharpTusk is a featured blogger on Hog Database. He won "2009 Blog Of The Year" as voted by members of SportingNews.com and has posts referenced by local and national sports writers. Sharp began writing about Arkansas Razorbacks Football during the coaching change in 2007 and hasn't stopped. He has an eye for interesting stats, and an occasional penchant for creative writing. He's sure to keep you coming back for more.

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