SAN ANTONIO — The NCAA Division I Board of Directors approved all of the Division I Transformation Committee’s recommendations Thursday, ending a nearly year-long process to take a step forward to modernize and restructure some of college sports.

Last week, the Transformation Committee released its recommendations to the board and the public. Thursday’s approval of the concepts could lead college sports to expand postseason tournaments and change Football Bowl Subdivision requirements, but various sport-specific committees will make those determinations.

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“These are concepts at this point,” Georgia president and Board of Directors chair Jere Morehead said. “There’s still a lot of work to be done on the details, but tremendous progress was made today. The board was very adamant in its support of student-athletes, and most of the Transformation Committee recommendations focused on how to enhance their experience.”

Among the concepts is a recommendation that D-I team sports sponsored by more than 200 schools try to implement a postseason with 25 percent of the teams that meet the Division I standard. In men’s and women’s basketball, that would mean tournaments of around 90 teams. But that decision will be made by the basketball oversight committees. For the men’s tournament, there will be an initial review by June 2023 and a final recommendation by January 2024 for implementation in March 2025, if any changes are agreed upon. Opinions on expansion have been mixed. This recommendation could lead to other expanded tournaments in sports like baseball as well.

“It’s not directed toward a specific sport, but it is a recognition of the notion that the division has grown significantly,” Ohio athletic director and Transformation Committee co-chair Julie Cromer said at a forum on Thursday. “… (It) may not work for a particular sport or a series of sports, and if they don’t, that’s OK. We will have been better for the conversation.”

Another recommendation is to reconsider the current FBS attendance requirement of 15,000 fans per game once every two years and instead focus on the student-athlete experience. The attendance rule is outdated and hardly enforced as schools fudge the numbers. Instead of a rule meant to make it difficult for Football Championship Subdivision members to move to FBS, the focus should instead be on requiring FBS schools to provide more support and investment for athletes in areas like program infrastructure and athlete mental health support. But again, decisions on the details will be made by football committees.

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Similarly, one recommendation is that all Division I schools provide medical coverage for athletics-related injuries for a minimum of two years following graduation or completion of athletics experience. Another part of a new “holistic” athlete benefits model would require schools to pay for athletes who were on full scholarships to get their degrees within 10 years of leaving school.

Other recommendations include creating sport-specific committees for the sports that don’t have oversight committees, allowing them to make changes in their sports.

The Board of Directors approved each Transformation Committee recommendation individually, rather than a single package, Morehead said.

Separate from the Transformation Committee, the Board of Directors’ finance committee approved a second, 32-team tournament for Division I women’s basketball. This tournament will be the equivalent of the men’s NIT, but it will not be the WNIT, which is a separate, privately-owned tournament. Its name will be determined at a later date, and it’ll begin as early as the 2023-24 season.

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(Photo: Andy Lyons / Getty Images)