— In a proposal submitted to the NCAA in anticipation of new autonomy for conferences in handling student-athletes, the ACC has asked for expanded latitude in three areas:

The ability to offer student-athletes full cost of attendance, or financial support that goes beyond the existing parameters of athletic scholarships. The ACC proposes offering full cost of attendance to athletes in all sports beginning in August 2015.

The ability to offer athletes the chance to borrow against future, predicted, professional earnings to fund disability insurance that would pay off if the athlete's value drops due to injury or other reasons.

A ban on the practice that sees student-athletes lose scholarship money when they are injured or fail to perform as expected.

The NCAA will finalize any changes during its annual convention in January.

“These three proposals create a pathway to additional benefits for student-athletes, which continues to be the top priority,” ACC Commissioner John Swofford said in a statement Monday.

The ACC and four other "power conferences" – the Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC – earned the right earlier this year to modify student-athlete benefits and are now working out the details.

For example, "cost of attendance" is a term that lacks a definition. According to CBS Sports, a 2012 study found that out-of-pocket expenses on top of the typical scholarship – from late-night pizza to rent, clothing, parking fees and even entertainment spending money – could run to almost $7,000 per year per athlete.

The NCAA has yet to decide whether "cost of attendance" levels would be set and capped by the conference or would even vary among schools in a conference.

Schools, especially public universities beholden to taxpayer funding, may struggle to come up with the additional millions needed to fund these proposals.

Advocates for the student-athlete, like former North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr, say that change is overdue.

"Everybody else is profiting from the way the system is currently set up," Orr told WRAL Sports in October. "Let's face it. The so-called amateur model, at least at the D1 level, is functionally outdated, unrealistic."