UNC Votes for NCAA Autonomy

The five power conferences in the NCAA, including the Atlantic Coast Conference, have voted in favor of autonomy when determining guidelines governing student athletes.

The decision was made at a meeting with university leaders from around the nation. UNC Chancellor Carol Folt says the conference included 80 members, one from each of the 65 universities in the power conferences along with 15 students.

“The most interesting part of the conference was the students. They were incredible,” she says. “They had lots to say about these things. This is the first time students have started to be included in their future and the way we think about it with the regulations from the NCAA.”

UNC Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham says the vote for autonomy will allow the power conferences to make decisions that will not include smaller conferences.

“Schools in the BCS conferences now have the right to vote about legislation that would affect them only,” he says.

Chancellor Folt says the primary vote was taking steps to protect the student athletes.

“The initial regulations voted in mostly have to do with things like getting students full cost of attendance, a very strong one that says that students couldn’t lose their scholarships based on athletic performance,” she says.

“That’s a very big commitment. We were already very close to that in our own way of dealing with things, but this makes this true across the conferences.”

Cunningham says they will now be able to provide the full cost of attendance to student-athletes through scholarships.

“We have 800 student-athletes. There are about 300 scholarships that we spread over the 800 students,” he says. “The in-state difference is about $4,000, and the out-of-state is about $6,000.”

Cunningham says the transition will not be smooth, but it will be beneficial for student-athletes.

Chapelboro’s Art Chansky says it is important to stay on the student-athlete side of the line that divides them from employees of universities.

“[Universities] are doing this, this, and this, while retaining the college model,” he says. “They want to stay on that side of the amateur line and never get to the point where the government is going to say, ‘you’re paying them too much, they’re employees.’”

Chansky says crossing that line could result in universities losing certain designations.

The chancellor says the next level of conversation will include governing how many hours student-athletes can commit to their sport, as well as looking at standards for admission and ongoing eligibility for student-athletes.

UNC Votes for NCAA Autonomy

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