Tons of college students compete in the Olympics in sports that they play during college. It's not a huge stretch that the IOC could be considered being a de facto authority of intercollegiate athletics. E.g. I would also consider the IOC as having de facto authority over WADA, even though it's theoretically a separate entity.
> It's not a huge stretch that the IOC could be considered being a de facto authority of intercollegiate athletics.
Even taking that as true for the sake of argument, de facto is a phrased used specifically to distinguish from de jure (in law), and we're discussing application of law.
