What does NCAA policy restructure mean for Pac-12?

How the new voting format within NCAA governance will impact the Pac-12 moving forward

The Pac-12 conference officially welcomes Gonzaga as a member of the league on July 1, 2026. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Albeit rather quietly, some pivotal decisions that will reshape the future of college athletics have been made in the past few days.

The landscape has been in a state of flux for some time now, though the NCAA has taken strides recently to provide clarity and order amid the most chaotic period in the organization's 119-year history.

Of note, the men's and women's basketball committees decided on Monday to not expand the NCAA Tournament for the 2025-26 season — a short-term move that came to the delight of fans and, more importantly, set up the next wave of changes coming to college sports.

On Tuesday, the Division I Board of Directors announced the NCAA's governance model will be reformed to give more voting power to the Power Four conferences. The move, effective next month, will grant the major leagues in college sports — the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and SEC — 65% weighted voting on all rule changes impacting NCAA members, with exception to championship access and Division I finances.

"Any committee across the board would have representation from the Power Four conferences," said CBS Sports' Matt Norlander on a podcast posted Tuesday. "It's never been like that in the history of the NCAA."

The Big East, which hasn't sponsored Division I football in over a decade now, will also have weighted voting power when it comes to the men's basketball oversight committee, according to ESPN's Pete Thamel.

And as for the Pac-12, which will officially hit the reset button with Gonzaga on board in 2026? Despite rebuilding itself back up to be considered for the Football Bowl Subdivision, the league hasn't been reinstated as a "power conference," a designation it once held before nearly collapsing under the weight of realignment dominoes.

Under commissioner Teresa Gould, the Pac-12 has been resilient. The conference added a ninth member — and more importantly, an eighth football-playing member — in Texas State, and secured a cornerstone media alliance with CBS to house the league's marquee football and basketball games. The league's media production unit, Pac-12 Enterprises, is still operating as well.

Even so, the Pac-12's only real connection to the Power Four is through their legal obligations to the House settlement, the multi-billion dollar arrangement ushering in an era of revenue-sharing and direct pay-for-play to the NCAA this academic year. But in regard to the NCAA Tournament and College Football Playoff, the Pac-12 is not considered a "power conference."

In the short term, that means the Pac-12 and the other leagues outside the power conference structure in Division I could face more of an uphill battle when trying to pass rule changes. The Board of Directors previously had 24 members holding one vote per seat. The new voting model includes 13 members and grants each of the Power Four leagues 4.1 votes. If that group votes together, they would comprise 16.4 of the 25.4 available votes.

Of course, the mid-major leagues around the country tried to push back on giving the Power Four more control over NCAA governance. According to Yahoo! Sports' Ross Dellenger, the Power Four originally wanted a 100% weighted vote. Getting down to 65% was apparently a compromise.

It could take some more time — and positive results on the field and on the court — before the Pac-12 is granted autonomy status again. Until then, all the league can control is how it performs in competition.

"I think there's a lot of focus nationally on legislative designations and what does it mean and all of that," Gould said to ESPN. "And for us, what really matters is competing at the highest level and winning. And I think our football and basketball metrics do show that the teams that we're going to have in this league compare together as a group are a top five league, and that's where we want to continue to position ourselves."

In addition to remodeling its voting format, the NCAA will also see more than a dozen of its committees dissolve to "create more accountability" within the organization, according to NCAA president Charlie Baker. The new structure also increases student-athlete representation in the governance of college sports. Previously, student-athletes sat on 16 committees with 39 total members; moving forward, those numbers will increase to 24 committees featuring 89 members.