Jul 20, 2014 11:19 AM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

The NCAA has officially released its proposal - to be voted on Aug. 7 - that would give the Power Five Division conference more autonomy than the rest.

According to USA Today, the NCAA Division I Board of Directors will meet Aug. 7 to vote on the proposal. If passed, the five conferences that make the most money will have more governing power over their own operations.

CLICK HERE to see the proposal

"The Division I membership overall and the steering committee in particular worked hard to create a structure that will allow the division to operate more simply and inclusively," NCAA President Mark Emmert said in the announcement. "It shows a clear commitment to support student-athletes and allow them not only a place at the table but a voice in the process."

The ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC have long been pushing for more autonomy and the NCAA has been keen to please their most powerful group of conferences. Mike Silve, SEC commissioner, and Jim Delany, Big Ten commissioner, were both glad to see a particular clause in the new proposal that lowered the approval threshold from 66.7 percent to 60 percent.

"I think that there's good compromise," Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany told USA Today. "We got some things. We didn't get everything that we asked for, but nobody did.

"The most important thing for us was to have a pathway in the autonomy structure to address student-athlete welfare issues, and we got that. I think we also got a reasonable bar for passage. We also got student-athlete engagement."

Silve had previously said the SEC and the other Power Five members were ready to create their own Division IV if they did not get their autonomy. Under the new proposal, the Power Five are expected to pass bylaws that would allow schools to give their scholarship student-athletes more than just the cost of admission.

"The NCAA governance redesign process is moving in the right direction in meeting the needs of student-athletes and giving them a greater voice," Mike Aresco, commissioner of the American Athletic Conference, told USA Today. "At first glance, the new governance model also preserves our conference's ability to compete at the highest levels as we have been doing."

See Now: Covert Team Inside Newsweek Revealed as Key Players in False Human Trafficking Lawsuit