DALLAS -- Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby launched into a scathing criticism of the NCAA to open his conference's media days and suggested governance by sport could be a more effective model moving forward, ramping up the pressure days after his SEC counterpart Mike Slive began setting the agenda.
"I think it's virtually impossible right now to configure legislative proposals that have any chance of getting through the system intact that would accomplish anything in the way of meaningful change," Bowlsby said Monday.
The commissioners of the five power conferences -- the ACC, SEC, Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-12 -- met six weeks ago and came away with "unanimity" to institute major reforms, Bowlsby said.
"I think we all have a sense that transformative change is going to have to happen," Bowlsby said. "This is not a time when trimming around the edges is going to make very much difference."
Among the possible solutions could be tailoring governance to specific sports or creating a fourth division of college athletics because, as Bowlsby noted, "Northern Iowa and Texas aren't much alike."
Secession from the NCAA or dissolving it to create a new governing body have not been discussed, Bowlsby said.
"I'm very sincere when I say I haven't spoken with anyone in the business that seriously proposes we should go find another organization," Bowlsby said.
Bowlsby, who previously served as the athletic director at Stanford, also made a point of clarifying that embattled NCAA president Mark Emmert was not the specific target of his criticisms.
"I'm not critical of Mark Emmert," Bowlsby said. "I'm critical of an organization that is just not very efficient."
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