The NCAA Division I board of directors voted 16-2 on a decision to give the five richest conferences (ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12 including Notre Dame) more autonomy of their resources on Aug. 7.

Conferences such as the Power Five who are generating more revenue than others within Division I will be able to write many of their own rules and practices, which includes where they want to spend their significant resources.

If this decision passes the override period, it does retain the ability to impact all 351 institutions that are in Division I, including Sacramento State.

“It’s a change in a way we do business in the NCAA; it could be very significant and a very big change in how things work in the NCAA,” said Sacramento State NCAA faculty athletics representative Stephen Perez.

Perez also serves on the legislative council in the NCAA and participated in several conversations and discussions on the matter.

Sac State interim athletics director Bill Macriss does not think the autonomy legislation is going to have a significant and immediate impact on issues like recruiting, but over time there will be a trickle down effect on the smaller conferences.

“While it’s going to widen the gap, I don’t know that it changes the landscape as much as I think people are thinking it will change,” Macriss said. “We’re never going to recruit against Alabama for example, so by granting the permissible legislation I don’t know if it’s we that are really recruiting against the BCS (Bowl Championship Schools). I think it’s that next tier.”

The next tier meaning the Mountain West, Conference USA, American Athletic Association, Mid-American and Sun Belt. Those schools compete in recruiting directly with the Power Five and will be the first to feel the effects from the changes.

Macriss believes Sac State will be safe until those conferences decide to provide resources for athletes that institutions on their level will not be able to offer.

This issue brings up the concern of unfair practices regarding a competitive imbalance and promotes the idea of a further separation between the different levels in Division I.

Sac State baseball head coach Reggie Christiansen believes this new legislation will give the larger schools an advantage not only from a recruiting standpoint, but on the overall developmental side of student-athletes.

Some of the changes the Power Five have expressed interest in implementing that Sac State programs cannot contend with are stipends to cover the entire cost of attending an institution, medical and insurance benefits for student-athletes and building multimillion dollar stadiums.

“We certainly can’t compete with that if you’re in a conference like ours,” Christiansen said. “I think you’re just going to continue to see the rich get richer.”

There is a 60-day comment period that has to pass, where the other 75 institutions outside of the higher profile conferences have an opportunity to override the autonomy legislation. If it passes, the other conferences have the option to opt out of the new agreement and will abide by the current NCAA rules.

The proposed legislation can be enacted as early as the 2015-16 academic year after the board of directors meets again in January at the NCAA convention in Washington, D.C.

One of the proposed items up for discussion which the conferences want to adopt is loosening the restriction on contact between players and agents along with allowing players to pursue outside paid career opportunities, which is seen as a rule that will benefit all student-athletes.

In regards to what Sac State will do if the ruling takes effect on Oct. 1, Perez said the Big Sky Conference (Sac State’s dominate conference) will have to decide what it wants to do and the hindering factor of that decision will be driven by the amount of resources that the conference has.

“If this is truly about providing better benefits for students to help [guide] them through school and get degrees and graduate, then I’m all for it,” Macriss said. “If it’s really smoke and mirrors to appease the courts and to strengthen their ability to recruit and create separation, then that’s missing the mission of what college athletics is about.”