NASHVILLE, Tenn. — While a modest expansion of the NCAA basketball tournament seems to be on the horizon, the more radical change looming over the association and its crown jewel event at this week’s convention was who will be in charge of college sports in general and March Madness specifically.
With college sports in the midst of massive changes — and awaiting final approval from a federal judge of an antitrust lawsuit settlement that will pave the way for billions of dollars in direct payments from schools to athletes — a new governance structure is needed to accommodate the more professionalized parts of the NCAA’s membership.
An early-stage proposal, first reported on by Yahoo! Sports, from the so-called Power 4 conferences — the SEC, Big Ten, ACC and Big 12 — suggests the solution is handing over more control to that group, including management of NCAA championships.
“Well, we’ve been given autonomy on very specific issues. It was negotiated back, and I think we’ve used it well,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said Wednesday as he made the long and winding walk through the Opryland Convention Center from a Division I Council meeting to an NCAA business session. “We haven’t used (autonomy) actively in a while and think that should be…
