New NCAA Proposal

[IrishSpartan]

This seems like a horrible idea

 

[IrishLax]

And here we are... the professionalization of college sports. We had a good run, everybody. Wonder if the new guy Dowd will even let ND participate in this.

 

[IrishSpartan]

Seems like the only reason for this is that it will make it easier to monitor

 

[Lberry]

Here's an idea - Continue with NIL, but you can only receive NIL from where you sign your NLI.

Transfer until you're blue in the face, but it won't be for money, and will remove Tampering. This solves many problems.

 

[notredomer23]

And here we are... the professionalization of college sports. We had a good run, everybody. Wonder if the new guy Dowd will even let ND participate in this.

I don't like it but does ND even have a choice with how much money they make off the football program? That new TV deal money goes poof if ND doesn't participate. No one would want to watch that product.

 

[thekid33]

I feel like this was inevitable. College sports leaders rejected changes for so long that might have prevented it from coming to this.

 

[irishff1014]

This plus their scholarships should be taxed.

 

[Giddyup]

Eventually the “student athletes” will be signing contracts. The value of the degree probably dwarfs what 95% of the players make off NIL regardless.

 

[Pops Freshenmeyer]

I feel like this was inevitable. College sports leaders rejected changes for so long that might have prevented it from coming to this.

In the 1984 case of Board of Regents vs. NCAA, the supreme court held (among a variety of things) that college sports must be amateur in nature. What that means wasn't well defined, and it became even less well-defined after the recent holding in NCAA v. Alston.

We reached this current stage because of interpretation of federal anti-trust laws (which both prohibit economic controls from the NCAA and gave birth to the amateurism requirement) and state laws about organized labor (which effectively prohibit representatives of state universities from collectively bargaining in a great many places).

The NCAA has been at the mercy of larger forces that didn't pay attention to college football. Now it's big enough business that they probably will. Regardless, there was no path to internal reforms. The collision course was inevitable.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

I feel like this was inevitable. College sports leaders rejected changes for so long that might have prevented it from coming to this.

Bingo.

 

[NDohio]

Some highlights from the article:

However, the most impactful benefit of this new model is a framework in which schools can directly compensate athletes through a trust fund. Schools within the new subdivision will be required to distribute to athletes thousands of dollars in additional educationally related funds without limitation.

There is no cap on the amount of funds that a program can provide an athlete.

Entry into the subdivision requires a school to invest, at minimum, $30,000 per year per athlete into what is termed an “enhanced educational trust fund” for at least half of a school’s countable athletes. Schools would determine when athletes receive the amount, which, for four-year athletes, will total at least $120,000. Schools must continue to abide by the framework of Title IX, assuring that 50 percent of the investment be directed toward women athletes.

Schools in the new subdivision would also gain control of decision-making around scholarship limits and countable coaches, the NCAA's way of handing major conference programs the freedom to increase the limits or do away with them altogether.

The model “gives the educational institutions with the most visibility, the most financial resources and the biggest brands an opportunity to choose to operate with a different set of rules that more accurately reflect their scale and their operating model,” he writes.

The proposal is not meant as a final product ready for legislative approval but is more of a conversation-starter to an end product that could look vastly different. The proposal is expected to be a leading topic at a gathering of athletic administrators in Las Vegas this week as well as at the NCAA convention in mid-January. Baker himself is scheduled to speak in Las Vegas on Wednesday as part of the Sports Business Journal’s annual summit.

In a sense, this would allow institutions to purchase the NIL rights of their athletes — a concept suggested by athletic administrators over the last several years.

The trust fund is an entirely separate concept.

It would be extraordinarily costly for college athletics departments and feels like a step toward what many believe to be an inevitably — revenue sharing with college athletes. The numbers could be stunningly high.

The NCAA does not describe the model as revenue sharing and does not support that concept.

The battle is rooted in the millions of dollars of revenue flowing, mostly, to the major conference programs from television contracts, ticket sales and booster donations. The stream of cash has led to excessive coaching and administrative salaries, gaudy athletic facilities and cross-country conference realignment moves.

On one side, many NCAA, conference and school administrators are arguing to preserve the broad-based, amateurism aspects of a unique system in which higher education is tethered to college sports. Opposite them are many congressional lawmakers, state legislatures, athletes-rights advocates and former players, or players themselves, who believe they deserve a share of the revenue.

• 59 DI schools spend more than $100 million on athletics; another 32 DI schools spend over $50 million; and a whopping 259 spend less than $50 million, with half of those spending less than $25 million.

• On average, 1.8 percent of Power Five athletic budgets is subsidized by student fees while about 15 percent of budgets in the rest of the DI schools are funded by student fees.

• 98 percent of DII and DIII schools spend less than $20 million annually on their athletic programs.

NCAA proposing new college athletics subdivision rooted in direct athlete compensation

The NCAA will introduce a proposal that would grant certain schools more power to compensate athletes in a new way.

sports.yahoo.com

 

[FOTY977]

I don't like it but does ND even have a choice with how much money they make off the football program? That new TV deal money goes poof if ND doesn't participate. No one would want to watch that product.

Rhetoric is pretty loud from those in the know with BOT that ND will never go down the road of paying players directly. Wouldn’t be surprised if they haven’t already been thinking of contingency for “life after football (as we know it)”

Will be curious to see if ND is willing to play ball with the new league If they can have the right transformers in place to keep their hands & consciences clean—guess it depends on how “educational” these additional funds really can be

The ability for schools to directly pay players directly doesn’t solve the issues that A&M, CU and others have run into trying to win with all mercenaries.

Might be naive on my part but maybe there is a path to a solid developmental program that plays at the highest level while also affording top of market NIL/overall compensation packages?

 

[KMac151993]

End of collegiate sports as we knew them.

 

[rikkitikki08]

Can someone explain this to me like I’m a 5 year old?

 

[thekid33]

Can someone explain this to me like I’m a 5 year old?

Schools can directly provide NIL instead of collectives and also directly pay players via trust funds.

I think.

 

[DomerInHappyValley]

So the Big10 and the Sec then everyone else?

 

[rikkitikki08]

So college football is about to be even more dead than it already is, got it. The big 10 and SEC are the new NFCvs AFC

 

[Pops Freshenmeyer]

Can someone explain this to me like I’m a 5 year old?

Schools can pay "NIL" but through a fund that compensates all scholarship athletes and conforms to existing Title IX requirements. There is no mechanism here for funneling extra money to football players, or to an elite subgroup of football players.

It also creates an avenue for that new subdivision to govern itself with respect to things like scholarship limits.

 

[Pops Freshenmeyer]

So college football is about to be even more dead than it already is, got it. The big 10 and SEC are the new NFCvs AFC

I think this (or something like it) is how the B1G and SEC kick the less valuable members to the curb. They can't boot them from the conference but they can move on and not extend the invitation.

I do wonder what would happen to the new B1G and SEC members for non-football sports.

 

[thekid33]

They can't boot them from the conference but they can move on and not extend the invitation.

Do you think they just form one conference, with an "Big 10" division and an "SEC" division?

 

[PolishDomer]

I wish they would get rid of Title IX..that to me is a travesty in this day and age

 

[IrishLax]

I wish they would get rid of Title IX..that to me is a travesty in this day and age

Considering it was done to even out educational opportunities for women and now women have much better access to and outcomes in college than men, it certainly seems pointless/redundant.

 

[NDPhilly]

Big 10 and SEC effectively colluding to kill CFB for all but ~30-40 schools... nice.

 

[DomerInHappyValley]

I was 6 last time we won a NC and I haven't changed the laundry I root for yet.

I say fuck'em they wanna go to paying players directly from the university, then we get with all the schools that still want these young athletes to learn as well.

Start our own division with the Ivy's etc. and win the NC for 10 years on the bounce.

 

[Giddyup]

Greed kills a lot of things

 

[Fbolt]

Sundays have been free for years. Apparently Saturday's are about to be open.

 

[Irish4life]

And here we are... the professionalization of college sports. We had a good run, everybody. Wonder if the new guy Dowd will even let ND participate in this.

Did ND stop liking money?

 

[IrishBoognish]

And here we are... the professionalization of college sports. We had a good run, everybody. Wonder if the new guy Dowd will even let ND participate in this.

Lax... I think you're fantastic and a great contributing member of this site

What the hell are you talking about? All it seems to me is that this would allow the money to be regulated.

I'm sure you don't take issue with players getting paid, and I'm sure you're not against kids having a chance to change their minds about the school they committed to.

Hopefully this is a step towards getting rid of "unrestricted free agency and unseen unrestricted salary caps" as how it is now.

 

[GATTACA!]

I was 6 last time we won a NC and I haven't changed the laundry I root for yet.

I say fuck'em they wanna go to paying players directly from the university, then we get with all the schools that still want these young athletes to learn as well.

Start our own division with the Ivy's etc. and win the NC for 10 years on the bounce.

We’ll start our own conference. With blackjack…..and hookers!

 

[stlnd01]

Maybe I'm dense but I don't quite see what's so terrible about this? Compared with the current system of completely unregulated and opaque payments to players, anyway.

I'd rather players get paid with rules, vs. paid without rules. And contracts potentially make all sorts of things possible. Perhaps it's a way to rein in some of the transfer chaos (which IMO as a fan is far more destructive to the sport). It could even, God forbid, be a way to set some standards around the schools' academic obligations to student-athletes, like a four-year scholarship. And if you have to pay your men and your women equally, that hopefully keeps schools from investing $1B in football and pennies for everything else.

I get that it will widen the gap between the P5 and the G5 (and probably between the P5 powers and the rest). And that's too bad. But that's happening anyway. I do NOT like the idea of ending scholarship limits and allowing the powers to hoover up all the good players.

But the rest of it feels like an attempt to start figuring out some reasonable rules for a system that right now is completely out of control.