I don't consider 1978 to be that significant because it only impacted 1 sport within DI. As I noted above in my response to Mercury's post, in 1971 the NCAA basically started from scratch when it decided to break up into 3 division levels. The schools had to decide which issues were division level specific vs. applied to the entire NCAA before each division level could sit down and create their own bylaws (aka the NCAA division level manuals). If the schools decide to blow up the current system, then they will be doing the exact same thing again. It is even possible they may decide to carry over some of the same policies created under the old system which isn't any different than what happened in 1971 (old system = 1 division level vs. new system = 3 division levels).

It is also worth considering that it is possible the schools may decide to only minor changes at this upcoming meeting. I found an interesting article by Dan Murphy and Heather Dinich which suggest this scenario isn't out of the realm of possibility (see hyperlink). If the schools decide to only make minor changes to the structure, then it could be interesting to see how the fans react to the news. Will they be happy about it? Will they be disappointed or upset about it?