BIG NCAA DIVISION 1-A SPORTS SCHOOLS HEAD FOR INDEPENDENCE.

Byline: Randall Mell Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

Division I-A schools are roaming the NCAA landscape this week like muscle-bound figures preparing to draw a line in the sand.

The big schools with the big athletic budgets are apparently tired of athletically scrawny Division II and III schools kicking sand in their faces. So this is the year they plan to tell the runts to stay off their part of the beach.

Officially, it's called Proposal No. 7: Membership Restructuring.

In some circles, it's viewed as the compromise that will end talk of I-A schools seceding from the union.

"Some schools have made it clear that in the absence of restructuring, they are gone," said Patty Viverito, commissioner of the I-AA Gateway Football Conference. "So in some sense you're seeing smaller schools negotiate the best deal they can, holding their noses, and saying yes."

Proposal No. 7 is intended to streamline the governing process, making the business of college sports more efficient. It's a radical change for the NCAA, making today's opening of the 90th annual NCAA Convention one of the organization's most pivotal.

Under Proposal No. 7, the NCAA would create a 16-member executive committee made up of college presidents from all three divisions. Twelve would be from schools with major-college athletic programs, including eight from football-playing schools.

The committee would oversee the true policy-making powers.

Under Proposal No. 7, the NCAA would be divided into three distinct governing bodies: Division I, II and III.

In Division I, it means the town-meeting method of doing NCAA business is out. No more one-school, one-vote concept. It means there won't be 900 member schools voting on issues that mostly affect 60 or so major colleges.

In Division I, the proposal is to form a board of directors of 15 college presidents, nine from I-A schools and six from I-AA and I-AAA. They would make policy and rules.

The ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10, SEC, WAC and Conference USA will elect a president from each of their conferences to sit on the board. One president would come from the Big West or Mid-American conferences. Six presidents would come from among I-AA and I-AAA schools.

Under the board of directors, a 34-member management council made up of athletic directors and faculty representatives would propose policy changes.

What does it mean to John Q. Smith, season-ticket holder and college sports fanatic? Well, it means if I-A schools wanted to create a football playoff when the Bowl Alliance contract expires in three years, it will be easier and quicker to do so.

An NCAA Convention will no longer be necessary to pass new policy. The board of directors can meet three or four times a year to adopt policy if it chooses.

"This represents the next stage in the evolution of presidential control," said Judith Albino, chairwoman of the NCAA Presidents Commission. "It will require another year or so to flush out the plan and get everything right. We will need some time to fill out the details."

In other words, the framework for change is in place, but the details remain vague.

"There are a lot of groups paranoid about how this is going to be implemented," Viverito said.

The devil is in the details. That's become the theme summarizing the fear that small schools have of Proposal No. 7.

What do the big schools have up their sleeves?