Pac-12 Conference proposes more benefits for athletes

The Pac-12 Conference, along with four other major college football conferences, released on Friday preliminary proposals for increasing benefits for NCAA athletes.

Here is the Pac-12 release.

One of the Pac-12’s “initial concepts” is to allow its athletes to use their names, images and likenesses to promote their own non-athletic business ventures.”

Another proposal would limit athletic activity for eight hours between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

This is the latest in a series of proposals by conference commissioners made, in part, to stay ahead of several pending lawsuits that threaten the stability of the amateur model for collegiate athletics.

The Power 5 commissioners have already pushed through legislation to increase meal money and full “cost of attendance” for athletes.

“At the root of what we’ve done with our peer conferences over the last 18 months is to reaffirm our commitment to student-athletes and to bring college athletics into the 21st century,” Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said in a released statement. “But there is more work to be done. We believe that further exploring these concepts will help ensure that student-athletes have the time to participate in the full spectrum of campus life and focus on their academics.”

The proposals will now enter a review period by the NCAA D-1 council before going to a vote in January at the NCAA Convention in San Antonio.