On April 14th that NCAA announced a set of rule changes that have nearly every FBS coach somewhere between frustrated, upset and furious.
Countless coaches have asked us "who voted for this stuff" and we've seen a large number of FBS head coaches state publicly they aren't sure who even voted for these things.
Well, allow us to explain.
The NCAA's release announcing the changes leads with the following:
After an intense period of study by a subgroup of the Football Oversight Committee, that group recommended — and the Council introduced — the legislation adopted Friday. Football Bowl Subdivision members voted 14-1 for the proposal. Voting is weighted, with the autonomy conference representatives each receiving two votes and the American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, Mid-American Conference, Mountain West Conference and Sun Belt Conference representatives each receiving one vote.
So, who was on this Football Oversight Committee that intensely studied these issues and then recommended them? Well, here is the list of FBS members (full list including FCS & student athlete rep available here):
- ACC - Miami AD Blake James
- Pac 12 - Arizona State AD Ray Anderson
- Big Ten - Nebraska AD - Shawn Eichorst
- Big 12 - Commissioner Bob Bowlsby
- SEC - Mississippi State HC Dan Mullen
- MAC - Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher
- MWC - Deputy Commissioner Bret Gilliland
- AAC - SMU Faculty Athletic Rep Paul Rogers
- C-USA - Marshall AD Mike Hamrick
- AFCA - Executive Director Todd Berry
Note: The NCAA's list of committee members does not list a rep from the Sun Belt conference on the Football Oversight Committee.
So, when all of these coaches are complaining about whoever proposed these rule changes...well, that list is your answer.
As for the actual votes, that was done by the D-1 Council upon the recommendation of the Football Oversight Committee. Again, the NCAA noted that the vote was 14-1 and that the Autonomous / Power 5 conferences were each weighted 2 votes and the "Group of 5" conferences each had 1 vote. While the NCAA doesn't specifically release who voted against the proposal, clearly based on the 14-1 vote, the lone "no" was from a Group of 5 conference. The voters on the D-1 Council are similar but slightly different from the Football Oversight Committee.
- ACC - Miami AD Blake James
- Pac 12 - UCLA AD Dan Guerrero
- SEC - Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart
- Big 12 - Commissioner Bob Bowlsby
- Big Ten - NCAA site doesn't list a rep
- CUSA - Charlotte AD Judith Rose
- Sunbelt - Texas State AD Larry Teis
- MAC - Toledo AD Michael O'Brien
- MWC - Commissioner Craig Thompson
- AAC - Cincinnati SWA Maggie McKinley
So, when everyone says "who came up with these rule changes" the appropriate answer should be the members of the Football Oversight Committee who performed "an intense period of study" on the proposed changes and recommended them to the council...who in turn voted to enact them.