Around this time last year, about midway through Taylor Koenen's sophomore season on the North Carolina women's basketball team, Bubba Cunningham and Sylvia Hatchell approached her with an opportunity.
Since 2015, student-athletes from the NCAA's five major conferences have been given a voice – and a vote – at every level of decision-making under the Division I autonomy process. Three student-athletes from each conference are chosen to vote on rule changes. And when Cunningham and Hatchell came to Koenen, they asked if she wanted to represent the ACC.
The opportunity was immediately appealing, Koenen said.