It’s the non-football schools that have pressured the NCAA into the corner it finds itself.
In 2011, the AQ conferences wanted to give $2,000/school year to student athletes, for something we know as cost-of-atttndance. Most of FBS schools were in favor, but rest rest of division 1, led by 84 non-football schools, voted against it.
The AQs, decided it was the last straw. They demanded and received autonomy. They spearheaded the drive that introduce COAs. They upshot us the current COAs are twice what they would have been.
From the time Alston filed a lawsuit, autonomous conferences have been after the NCAA to bring about meaningful legislation. Two weeks before a handful of states’s NIL become law, the NCAA Council hasn’t even begun discussions on the subject.
Had FBS separated from the NCAA in 2014, NIL legislation would be in place and there would not have been anything for SCOTUS to decide.