NCAA autonomy and what it means for Morehead State

Aug. 11--The NCAA's decision to grant the five largest conferences (SEC, Big 10, Big 12, PAC 12 and ACC plus Notre Dame) has the opportunity to impact all Division I schools across the country, including Morehead State.

Last week, the NCAA Board of Directors approved a plan that would give the Power Five the opportunity to create some of their own rules.

Morehead State Director of Athletics Brian Hutchinson knew a ruling was coming, after spending time serving on the NCAA Division I Football Championship Committee and NCAA Football Issues Committee.

"We were monitoring this closely," Hutchinson said. "In frequent conversations and meeting with these issues we had been involved since the start and we were a lot more into it last year than I anticipated.

"With the new national championship structure for the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and the amount of money coming in from TV contracts, the way they've been doing business needed to change some and this ruling to allow autonomy will do that."

Among the items the five conferences could suggest to vote on will be cost-of-attendance scholarships, medical and insurance benefits for student athletes, guaranteed scholarships and stricter guidelines on Academic Progress Rate (APR).

Hutchinson said this ruling would also allow schools to spend more money on ways they want to spend it.

"Let's say the University of Cincinnati wants Jeff Ruby steakhouse dinner every night for their team in preseason, that's what they will do," Hutchinson said. "If they do that, why does Morehead State care? Let them spend it that way and that is where we were getting stuck before."

Hutchinson said a lot of the autonomy talks started when NCAA President Dr. Mark Emmert's$2,000 stipend proposal for student-athletes total cost-of-attendance was defeated. It put pressure on the power five schools to do more on behalf of their student-athletes.

Among the monetary issues with student-athletes, the schools also will get to vote on transfer rules that has created some trouble in the league. Big schools could have the opportunity to allow players to come play for their school even though they were playing for another college.

"If you have a superstar athlete that you have found and developed over course of time into an NBA or NFL daft pick, there would be legislation where there wouldn't be a lot of penalties to transfer and play quickly," Hutchinson said. "If your best player on a men's basketball team decides they want to play at home at 'Big State U', there is nothing we can do about it.

"That was one line you can't cross for us," Hutchinson added. "We don't want to see that happen here where we would become recruiting ground for other schools."

The conference commissioners as well as the schools in which they reside have until Oct. 1, when the ruling would take effect, to compile a wish list of certain subjects they would like to handle on their own.

"We will turn the lights on and get to work on Oct. 1," Hutchinson said. "The tricky part is how we react in that may or may not be in the student-athletes best interest. We will monitor what the OVC membership's position is. We compete in every sport and we have to move forward collectively."

While they are in the override period (60 days before autonomy is enacted), Hutchinson said this is a good time to start conversation on how to get along with the other leagues.

"It's no secret we need each other for competition so we've got to get along and play one another," Hutchinson said.

For now, it is very early in the process and other schools will likely take the "wait-and-see approach."

"There are a lot more schools like us than there aren't," Hutchinson said. "If we were to choose to act on legislation it would be our prerogative. There are some good ideas that will help us make decisions on how we move forward. Of course it's economically driven and we have to maintain competitive equity with sports we've had success in and national trends to see where we are going."

MacKenzie Bates can be reached at [email protected] or by telephone at 784-4116.

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