INDIANAPOLIS (WOWO): The NCAA Division 1 Board of Directors has restructured how schools and conferences will govern themselves.

A 16-2 vote adopted the model that the NCAA says is designed to give student-athletes a vote on when decisions are made. The number of conferences of the five largest required to sponsor a proposal has been reduced from three to one.

Any amendment is subject to approval by a five-conference group of school presidents before being voted on by the whole group. The new model includes more school presidents, student-athlete representatives, athletic directors and female administrators.

Schools in the Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC and ACC will now be able to change rules for themselves in specific areas. The new model calls for three student-athlete representatives from each conference who will vote on rules changes in those conferences. Rules will now be able to be adopted only in April, and the process to change a rule will also be simplified, and if defeated, the same change would not be considered again for at least two years.

The new 24-member board will consist of five presidents from the biggest conferences, five presidents from the remaining five FBS conferences, five presidents from the FCS, five presidents from Division 1 schools without football, and chairs of various committees, councils and the Association for Collegiate Woman Athletics Administrators. Student-athlete representatives will have one vote each, 3 per conference for a total of 15 votes.

Each school gets one vote for a total of 65 votes. A simple majority support from 3 of the 5 conferences is needed along with 60-percent of all votes to get an item approved, or 51-percent of the vote and a simple majority from 4 of the 5 conferences. The new model could begin as soon as October 1.