NCAA Will Host Constitutional Convention to Overhaul College Athletics

In response to the changing landscape of college athletics, the NCAA Board of Governors will hold a special constitutional convention in November, with a follow-up discussion to occur at the NCAA convention in January 2022. 

The announcement follows an eventful month for the NCAA, the largest collegiate athletics association in the world, which saw the Name, Image, and Likeness laws suspended and several prominent institutions requesting to change divisions. 

At the constitutional convention, the NCAA constitution will be re-drafted by a 22-person Constitution Review Committee, which will feature presidents, commissioners, athletic directors, and students from all three NCAA divisions. According to the NCAA, this committee will be tasked with determining the core principles that define college sports and proposing a new constitution to adhere to these principles. 

“This is not about tweaking the model we have now,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said. “This is about wholesale transformation so we can set a sustainable course for college sports for decades to come. We need to stay focused on the thing that matters most — helping students be as successful as they can be as both students and athletes.”

Leadership bodies from all three divisions will have to provide their nominees for the committee by August 6 for further review. Once that review is complete, the committee will begin its task with the goal of presenting the new constitution during the November convention. 

Although the NCAA has not confirmed what the specific alterations to the constitution will be, it can be inferred that they will include some regulation of the “name, image, and likeness” laws. The laws, which were suspended in June, were originally designed to promote amateurism in collegiate athletics by limiting the money athletes could make on the use of their “name, image, and likeness.” With the suspension of the laws, there are currently no national regulations on the college sports industry. However, the NCAA previously expressed a desire to create such regulations in order to maintain a standard for athletes to follow. 

In addition, the convention may touch upon the conference transfer rules after Texas and Oklahoma announced that they would be leaving the Big 12 in 2025 with the desire to join the SEC. Both schools have formally been invited to the SEC since then, but neither school has officially joined the league.