Listen Live

INDIANAPOLIS — This year’s NCAA Convention, held every year in Indianapolis, will take on more of a constitutional convention feel this year as leaders from all three NCAA divisions, member schools, and even student-athletes will discuss a variety of changes to college athletics moving forward.

The convention will start this Wednesday, Jan. 19, and will see over 3,500 people come from across the U.S. to Indianapolis.

“Here we are, bringing our presidents, our athletic directors, our students, to talk about these issues,” said NCAA Vice President of Division 1 Governance Kevin Lennon to Inside Indiana Business. “They will, as a group vote on a new NCAA constitution.”

The new constitution will entail many new parameters for how college athletics at NCAA member schools will be governed. The plan will likely include new bylaws for each of the NCAA’s three divisions of competition to govern themselves independently.

It will also include new rules on how student-athletes can use their name, image, and likeness (NIL) for personal gain and diversity and inclusion rules when it comes to men’s and women’s sports.

“Change is really no longer an option but really a necessity,” Lennon said. “Our membership will address those issues coming up.”

The NCAA has been operating under interim NIL rules for the last several months after losing a Supreme Court decision, in which justices said that student-athletes must be allowed to profit off of their name, image, or likeness.

“We know they are more than just athletes and just students,” said Lennon. “These name, image, likeness opportunities gives them an opportunity to share who they fully are and be compensated for that, which is truly terrific.”

What Lennon wants to make clear is that the NCAA will not condone “pay for play”, meaning student-athletes should not be paid by any school to play sports.

The NCAA Convention will run from Wednesday to Saturday this week at the Indiana Convention Center.