Leaders of the Pac-12 expressed in a letter to the NCAA Board of Directors (BoD) that for-profit schools do not have a place in Division I athletics, InsideHigherEd.com reported.

Grand Canyon University (GCU) in Phoenix began transitioning into Division I on June 1, but that move was met with adversity by Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott. In a letter sent from the Pac-12 to the NCAA BoD, the conference's leaders expressed that GCU and other for-profit institutions do not fit with the mission of traditional non-profit schools.

"In contrast, the incentives for for-profit colleges are not aligned with their students, and even less so with their student-athletes," according to the letter. "For-profit colleges are owned and operated by businesses and are not accountable to their students or faculty. Their primary responsibility is to their shareholders."

All Pac-12 members have agreed not to play any games against GCU teams, both sides confirmed.

Deadspin.com derided the Pac-12's complaint in an article written Friday by Dom Cosentino.

"The Pac-12's complaint is on par with a street-corner pusher grousing to a drug lord about that cocksure new guy the next block over," he wrote.

The Sporting News reported In May the Pac-12 (formerly known as the Pac-10) struck a 12-year media rights deal worth $2.7 billion with ESPN and Fox. The deal included rights to football, basketball and Olympic games rights. As noted by Steve Spurrier, head football coach of the SEC's South Carolina Gamecocks, football and men's basketball are the two most popular college sports and the players are not compensated anything for their play.

The NCAA and EA Sports are currently facing an antitrust lawsuit filed by former UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon. Six active college football players recently joined the suit and a judge is determining whether or not to classify the complaint as a class action case. The complainants state their likenesses and names were used for profit without any compensation.

According to USA Today, the NCAA had an endowment fund worth $282 million at the end of the 2012 fiscal year. That year, the NCAA took in a record $71 million surplus (profit). The endowment fund is meant to be set aside and invested, but it is not permanent in principle, meaning it can be spent.

"The NCAA can legally spend millions of dollars of its own assets to help insure its biggest [asset: the Men's basketball NCAA Tournament]," Cosentino wrote.

Michael McCann, director of the Sports and Entertainment Law Institute at the University of New Hampshire's School of Law, told Inside Higher Ed the Pac-12's complaint might not have any traction.

"College sports are clearly for profit," said McCann. "The days of pure amateurism have been gone for years if not decades."