An interesting topic crossed my mind while perusing the internet. Basically, the NCAA needs to protect league integrity without risking the plethora of lawsuits in an effort to regain control. I have expressed my beliefs that the NCAA needs to cut ties entirely with college football as they make 0 money off of college football due to previous lawsuits. The breadwinner of the NCAA is college basketball. The threat posed to college basketball is going to start to be noticed as more and more decisions get made with football in mind. However, this does not fix the inherent problem of conference realignment, NIL, and the Portal. These issues probably do not have a easy fix, but one way to reinstate order is to show the college athletics world that the NCAA is still in charge. Not the B10 or the SEC. While many of these are unlikely to happen as the NCAA is member led, I believe there is a chance that the mid majors can put up a fight to the high majors through these means
Here are the methods I have proposed as to how the NCAA can reign in the league.
1. Instill a member limit to conferences. This is the most unlikely option to ever play out. No conference wants to limit themselves, but it is an idea nonetheless. 12-14 teams seems to be a good number to cap conferences at
2. Force conferences to adopt a region of the country in which to operate. This option seems a lot more likely to get the board of governors to agree to. This would require all conferences to select a part of the country to call home and would not allow for teams to be added to conferences outside the "sphere of influence". The B10 would most likely operate in the "midwest" with their sphere of influence stopping at Mt. Nittany. A 10 year rehoming effort could seek to place teams outside the "sphere of influence" in their new homes. IE reviving the PAC and retransplanting the 4 teams. Rutgers and Maryland moving to the ACC. (All in the case of the B10 of course). This would also likely cause schools to gain greater identities in their conference rather than piggy back off of the notoriety of the name B10 or SEC.
3. Each realignment effort must be approved by the NCAA. This may already be required, but I could not find any information on if the NCAA does need to approve realignment efforts. If not, coupling this with #2 is the best case scenario
Granted these 3 options are just ideas, but the NCAA needs to start ruling with an iron fist if it wants to protect its interests.
The NCAA can’t do Jack these days. thanks to Emmert and his cronies their level of authority has dropped dramatically. Also, they still have no clue what to do.
The area that the NCAA needs to address, first and foremost, is NIL. Last year I heard of a program of which I am very familiar (actually the collective) paying $1M for a top transfer. This year, they have transfers coming in and I heard a good (but not outstanding) player got $800K. My point is that the payments by NIL collectives are only going to increase (a natural outcome of competition for limited top talent). In the very near future, you could have top teams from the Power 5 conferences paying $1M+ per year to every player in the rotation...with mid-majors having no realistic way to compete. Worse, the people paying all the money into the collectives (rather than the NCAA) could attempt to impose rules that would direct even more revenue to their schools (one such example would be a floor on program NIL payments to players as a criteria for eligibility for the NCAA tournament).
Another issue is the huge $2.7B settlement in which the NCAA is disproportionately taxing smaller, non-FBS conferences.
Then there needs to be limits for boosters. I see a campaign shortly to group in NIL collectives as payments by the university for athletes. I see no issues with players seeking out sponsorships from businesses, or being paid for jersey sales and promotional food stuffs in the stadium (akin to the 99 Judge burger) but schools should not be approaching a rich booster in order to pay for talent. In my eyes. That directly goes against the integrity of the NIL system. Get rid of the collectives. If boosters want to donate. They should do it like they did in the age before NIL. Donate to the athletic departments for upgrades to facilities. Not to put a player on the court who is going to leave after one year because some other rich booster is going to give him a Ford Raptor and 1 million dollars.
Granted all of this was being done under the table in the pre NIL era, but the cost for play is going to continue to increase now that this is not a black market transaction. Like I have said earlier, I think that NILs fire is being fed by the portal as well and what the boosters feed with wood, the transfer portal matches with gallons of kerosine.
Correct me if I am wrong, but Valpo does not have a true NIL collective does it? THe VBC focuses more on serving the community and local non profits than it does boosters giving money.
Very good points. My question is who the enforcer will be. It cannot be the NCAA, who may be able to legislate stuff in D3 athletics, but certainly not D1.
There are too many legal issues surrounding most of this talk. While the NCAA hasn't done a great job in coming up with guidelines, even the guidelines they do put up are ripe for successful legal challenge. NIL is never going to get to the point in which the playing field is even remotely even and takes into consideration a program at the level of Valpo.
I would argue that a committee be created to manage NIL compliance. "The NIL Board of Fair Play" would consist of an elected member from each conference at the D1 level. This puts the power conferences in a position where they wont always have the final say. The main issue is to turn the narrative back to "What development can you give me. What facilities can you give me ." and create a new question of "What CONNECTIONS can you give me to brands and small business." instead of " How much money can Joe Schmoe of Schmoe industries offer me to come to your school. Take this issue just as seriously as Pro sports take gambling. If you are caught taking outside money, you are done.
TO respond to JD. Yes You are correct. A lot of legal issues have been created and will likely still be created surrounding NIL. But the NCAA has been looking at the problem as " How can we snuff out NIL" rather than "How can we make NIL grow in a way that doesn't alienate the majority of our member schools. I think putting the Mid majors and low majors in a position where they can contest the dominance of the Power 5 is a good move.
The question I expect to happen is, "What if this prompts the SEC and B100 to form their super conference." and I think the answer is simple. They will try, and they will fail. If we loom at current media deals, B10 is a fox affiliate with Fox and Fox Sports managing the B10 network. SEC has a deal with ESPN, and the SEC network. If they form their super league. The ncaa will most likely lock down the media market to ensure that these leagues can no longer get deals outside of their current deals. With the resentment growing for subscription streaming services, and the lack of money flowing in from basketball, these conferences will realize just how much the NCAA actually does for them. I could not find stats as to how many SEC and B10 football programs are still ran at a net loss for the school, but if that number is anything considerable, it will spell disaster for the B10 SEC super league. Granted this paragraph is a perfect scenario, but I feel as if this is a likely outcome, if the SEC and B10 realistically thought they could break away and make their own super league, they probably would have done so a long time ago.
Another interesting topic to discuss. The NFLPA is having issues with rookies refusing to sign the GLA agreement, and the reason being is because of NIL. The NCAA has a path to succeed in their cases against NIL. The current situation is Marvin Harrison Jr refusing to sign his GLA because of his deal he already has through fanatics. There is a very possible future where this and a plethora of other problems opens up for the NFL and other pro sports leagues. Say NIL Larry has a deal with adidas for his jerseys, but the MLB currently has a deal with Nike to manufacture his uniforms. Well according to Adidas, he cannot wear that Nike uniform because of his contract with them. This puts NIL Larry and the MLB in a predicament that I presume is going to be a lot more common, and you'd be darn sure that the pro sports leagues are going to fight this to protect their deals above all others.
The catch 21 of this thread and my beliefs is that the NCAA needs to prove to college athletics that they are still the boss.
@rezynezy My question is if the NCAA is competent enough to get out of their ivory towers to fix this. My answer is a resounding no.
The catch 21 of this thread and my beliefs is that the NCAA needs to prove to college athletics that they are still the boss.
The problem is the NCAA is trying to hang on to the thought that they are the boss......legally that is.
BREAKING NEWS: NCAA settles $2.8B suit and will pay college athletes.
Time for all non-P5/6 schools to break away from the NCAA and create a Brave New World.
I suggest it could be called the National Intercollegiate Athletic Association (NAIA) and include all the degraded, dissed and discarded NCAA DI (MM and FCS), DII, and DIII schools along with the original NAIA base membership. It would adopt rules based on aspirational ideals like integrity and simple values. It would prioritize competition and education over profits. It would share any revenue equally with all schools. Athletes would receive athletic scholarships commensurate with the NAIA level at which they are recruited to play.
Wait! Wasn’t that the original premise of the. NCAA.
An aside. I’m betting that most DIII schools couldn’t care less about this newest twist.
[Sorry about the double post - couldn’t figure out out how to delete the earlier post]
I am not upset wi5th the format being adopted. Stopping boosters and pay to play should hamper the collectives from becoming too powerful. A salary cap to deny pay for play once again. My issue is that the power 5 basically self govern their rules. I do like that there is a salary cap in place. This just delays the inevitable of the power schools changing the salary caps to higher limits to snuff out small schools.
Building from vulb62's post, my prediction is that the Power 5 schools will create a floor for the minimum payments to student-athletes. The floor will need to be met for eligibility for the College Football Playoff, NCAA D1 basketball tournament, and most/all other NCAA championships.
At some point, the P5 folks are going to run amiss of antitrust laws, much like the tech behemoths are running into nowadays. The government really needs to set some type of structure that will prevent the largest schools from pinning the mid-majors into a corner that is not eligible for the same incentives or exposure.
Building from vulb62's post, my prediction is that the Power 5 schools will create a floor for the minimum payments to student-athletes. The floor will need to be met for eligibility for the College Football Playoff, NCAA D1 basketball tournament, and most/all other NCAA championships.
Then they would have a massive lawsuit on their hands of anti trust on their hands like TX said. You can't price out the smaller schools. Regardless of that the SEC commissioner claims. CFB can survive on their own without the mid majors, but alienating the little guy would effectively kill march madness.
We have seen the writing on the wall for a while now, but this step places the doomsday message's letters on a bright flashing neon sign: the end is near for Valpo and other mid-major schools. Whether formally or merely effectively, they will be forced to compete in a separate and unequal division from the top conference schools who will be permitted to spend more than $20 million of school funds on their athletes and will have a larger number of scholarships to offer. Throw in the suggestion that Title IX will require schools to spend equal amounts on men and women athletes, and you have another nail in the coffin.
