HARTFORD Conn.—Larry Scott of the Pac-12 joined the chorus of commissioners calling for sweeping change in the NCAA, and said it can happen without confrontation and with the five most powerful football conferences still competing on the field with the other five.
Scott was the last of the leaders of the big five conferences to make a public push for NCAA reforms that will allow the schools with the most resources to have more freedom to determine how they use them.
“I don’t think of it as much of an us vs. them situation as maybe is the impression out there,” Scott said Thursday as the Pac-12 wrapped up a mini-media days on the East Coast that included their football coaches appearing on ESPN. “I’m certainly aligned with what you heard from my colleagues this week in terms of the need for transformative change, but I think it can be evolutionary and not revolutionary.
“I don’t think it will be as confrontational and controversial a process as some of the reports I have heard this week.”
Scott and fellow commissioners Mike Slive of the Southeastern Conference, John Swofford of the Atlantic Coast Conference, Bob Bowlsby of the Big 12 and Jim Delany of the Big Ten want to change the way the NCAA passes legislation.
The most notable issue has been a $2,000 stipend that would be added to the athletic scholarship to cover the full-cost of college attendance. The big five conferences want to be able to give the stipend to all scholarship athletes.
“Schools that have resources and want to be able to do more for student-athletes are frustrated, concerned that we’re being held back from doing more for the student-athletes in terms of the stipend,” Scott said.
