The five power conferences of college sports want more flexibility in providing financial support to athletes.
A major reason they lack that freedom in the first place is other NCAA members have feared widening the wealthiest programs' competitive advantage.
Now NCAA president Mark Emmert and the leaders of those behemoth leagues must convince schools with fewer resources that giving the power conferences greater autonomy is in the best interest of college athletics.
"What's really hard in these kinds of things is for people to vote themselves less political authority," Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said Wednesday. "They don't do that. That's not a natural thing to do."