Since the days of Teddy Roosevelt we've mostly operated under the concept of an over-arching national organization managing intercollegiate athletics (or actually a couple of organizations though the NAIA's sphere of influence is greatly reduced).

But there have been sports on the fringe that have lacked a home under these associations. Rodeo, rugby, water skiing, men's bowling, and until recently women's bowling have not operated under the NCAA or NAIA or NJCAA or other smaller groups that aim to be national multi-sport associations.

The NCAA is married to the divisional concept and it has some real problems dealing with the unique needs of members. There are schools that play up a division in certain sports such as baseball or Division II institutions having no Division II hockey to play for, play up in hockey.

The NCAA won't allow a Division I member wishing to award a low number or no scholarships in football to play down so those members have to play in FCS.

Having a broad association is helpful because compliance is actually made easier. The basic framework is the same across the various sports.

But there is no mandate that there be such an organization.

All sports offered by the NCAA have at least one if not more than one national organization governing that sport.

Freed from the divisional structure a school might get rid of some sports that have few regional opponents or little local interest and make club sports with local interest and regional opponents varsity sports.

Different sports might have different definitions of an amateur. For example sand volleyball might deem a person an amateur who has earned less than X amount in prize money in a year, the USGA might allow a golfer to play a limited number of pro events and not exceed a set amount of prize money. USA hockey or USA Soccer might allow a player who never played above a certain pro league level to recover amateur status.

Compliance could be more challenging but in this environment each sport would have its own structure. If Vandy wants to offer non-scholarship men's rowing, mid-tier scholarship lacrosse and high scholarship football, more power to them.