A plan by the N.C.A.A. for a series of reforms that includes uncapped compensation for athletes could help address the growing inequities of a system in which sports like football and men’s basketball generate billions in television and other revenue yet share a minuscule amount directly with the athletes.

In a sharp break from his organization’s past, the N.C.A.A. president, Charlie Baker, on Tuesday called for a series of changes paving the way for the top moneymaking schools to break away and form a division that would more closely resemble professional sports.

Baker’s proposal, in a letter to the 362 Division I member schools, also called for reform of so-called name, image and license payments so that women athletes could reap greater benefits, and he wrote that the overhaul would help the N.C.A.A. seek shelter from antitrust lawsuits.

Baker’s plan, while far from an edict, serves as a directive for college presidents and athletic administrators who make up the N.C.A.A. governing boards that write rules and present them to the member schools for approval, a process that requires nearly a year to approve even the most picayune changes.

The National Labor Relations Board is hearing two cases in which athletes are asking to be classified as employees, and there are several cases winding their way through the courts that charge the N.C.A.A. with violating antitrust laws. A bill in the California legislature would make revenue sharing with athletes compulsory.