For the first time in the history of NCAA Division I athletics, students will sit in on governance meetings and vote on different panels.
According to ESPN, 80 representatives from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC - the five "Power Conferences" - will meet Saturday for their first governance meeting. With three students representing each conference, 15 of the 80 people in the room will be students.
Of the 15 students, five are current or former collegiate athletes.
"Thirty or 40 years from now, I can tell my grandchildren that I was a part of that first group that got to have a say," Ty Darlington, a offensive lineman at Oklahoma, told ESPN on Friday. "That's a huge step, but it's also a huge responsibility, because if you give us a say, that means we have to know what we're talking about."
The NCAA passed the Power 5 governance model last summer after its member schools were growing increasingly outspoken about wanting to reform various policies. One of the chief reforms expected to be taken care of early on is full cost of attendance for student-athletes.
Division I basketball and football are hugely profitable for the NCAA and for schools, but the students are strictly forbidden from making any sort of compensation. Power 5 school leaders want to give student-athletes stipends for day-to-day necessities in addition to their scholarships.
Friday was also Oliver Luck's official start date at his new job, ESPN reported. Luck left his job as athletic director at West Virginia University to join the NCAA as the executive vice president of regulatory affairs.
"Nobody knows better what's good for the student-athlete than the student-athlete," Luck told ESPN Friday. "It's refreshing to be an adult and to have students involved in governance, because they have a little bit of a different viewpoint. They're going through it. It's a great way to get better information, more information about what challenges the student-athletes are facing."
