Go ahead, watch the football games and savor everything: The Apple Cup, Bedlam, #Pac12AfterDark. Better yet, fly to Berkeley and soak up Strawberry Canyon; venture into Lone Star watering holes along I-35 between Austin, Waco and Fort Worth to witness divided Big 12 loyalties; and \u2013 what the hell \u2013 be badass and flash a \u201cHorns Down\u201d gesture.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Preserve all memories for posterity.\u00a0Bathe in nostalgia. <\/p>\n
This college football season marks the close of a long chapter \u2013 the end of an unsettled era. Ahead is a line of demarcation separating this confounding period of accelerated change from what awaits in 2024: The doorstep of unbridled\u00a0professionalization.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An expanded 12-team\u00a0College Football Playoff<\/strong>, two super conferences in full bloom, the absence of a 108-year-old league pillar, further movement toward a revenue-sharing model and perhaps an employment paradigm \u2013 it\u2019s all on the horizon, if not next year then the near future. <\/p>\n Even\u00a0NCAA<\/strong>\u00a0President\u00a0Charlie Baker<\/strong>\u00a0concedes: This current model (whatever\u00a0this<\/em>\u00a0is) is probably not sustainable.<\/p>\n Try keeping a straight face while saying the words \u201camateur enterprise.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt is professional in every way right now \u2013 the lone exception is the players,\u201d\u00a0Jay Bilas<\/strong>, the\u00a0ESPN\u00a0<\/strong>analyst, told\u00a0On3. \u201cThe players are going to be paid. That is going to happen. The question is: Will the NCAA machine just admit, \u2018Look, what we\u2019re doing here is professional?’\u201d<\/p>\n Between\u00a0NIL\u00a0opportunities<\/a> and the transfer portal<\/a>, the age of player empowerment is full steam ahead. But so are 2,847-mile flights from Seattle to Piscataway, N.J., for a not-so-natural Big Ten <\/strong>rivalry. Hypocrisy abounds, as a multi-billion-dollar industry super-charged by media rights dollars is about to fully ignite in 2024.<\/p>\n The quest to qualify for the last-ever four-team CFP will be compelling. More consequential will be the NCAA\u2019s long-shot quest to secure long-sought federal NIL reform legislation<\/a>. Even more impactful could be litigation snaking its way through the courts; the highly anticipated November\u00a0National Labor Relations Board<\/strong>\u00a0hearing<\/a> carrying significant athlete-employment status implications; and a growing number of industry leaders saying it\u2019s time to explore giving athletes a slice of the media rights pie.<\/p>\n The industry is being reimagined in real-time. <\/p>\n Market forces are shaping the contours while the NCAA largely recedes as a bystander. When a national champion is crowned at Houston\u2019s NRG Stadium in January, the curtain will fall on an era soon to be a relic.<\/p>\n Love or curse it, the tectonic plates are shifting. This is not evolution. It\u2019s a revolution.\u00a0Whoa, Nellie!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI really believe these are very critical moments,\u201d\u00a0Tom McMillen<\/strong>, CEO of\u00a0LEAD1 Association<\/strong>, told On3. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think the point of criticality will be here for another year or two. You\u2019ll see the train moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Watch the games and remember\u00a0Andrew Coats<\/strong>, an 88-year-old Oklahoma attorney who can conduct a master class on how the industry reached this inflection point.<\/p>\n Four decades ago, Coats represented\u00a0<\/strong>Oklahoma<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/strong>Georgia<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in the landmark\u00a0Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma v. NCAA<\/em> case. The NCAA had monopolized the TV market, limiting schools\u2019 appearances on TV. But Coats was the legal mind behind the 7-2 U.S. Supreme Court victory in June 1984.<\/p>\n He played a leading role in unlocking the door leading to escalating TV media rights revenue for schools and leagues and, in turn, incessant conference realignment. Now the longtime Sooners fan is watching one of the sport\u2019s great rivalries, Bedlam, first played in 1904, go up in flames \u2013 knowing he lit the fuse.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve probably screwed up college football so much you can hardly fix it,\u201d Coats told On3. \u201cWhen we released the TV money, it released the tiger. It has changed things ever so much.\u201d<\/p>\n Months after the ruling that the NCAA\u2019s control of TV rights violated the Sherman Antitrust Act, Justice\u00a0Byron White<\/strong>, who wrote a dissenting opinion, told Coats, \u201cAndy, you may win that case. But you will regret it.\u201d<\/p>\n Coats never did. But he conceded it \u201creally caused some terrible problems. That, and with NIL and transfer portal, it has changed the game. It is hardly recognizable.\u201d<\/p>\n After the ruling, Coats had thought all TV money would be poured into one gridiron pot and divided up equally among big football-playing schools. Had that occurred, he said, the realignment wheel \u2013 which began spinning in earnest in the 1990s \u2013 would not have gathered momentum and the Pac-12<\/strong> would be intact.<\/p>\n Coats called the current state of affairs a professionalized model at its highest level. Amateur athletics is an artifact, he said.\u00a0He called\u00a0Chuck Neinas<\/strong>, then-executive director of the\u00a0College Football Association<\/strong> \u2013 formed to negotiate TV contracts and push back on the NCAA\u2019s monopoly \u2013 his \u201chenchman.\u201d <\/p>\n The duo, he jokes, \u201cscrewed up college football about as bad as you can screw it up.\u201d During this summer realignment madness, Neinas, 91, laughed while telling On3 that his wife always reminds him, \u201cYou <\/em>created this monster!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere was good, and there was not so good,\u201d Neinas said. \u201cIt disrupted conferences.\u201d<\/p>\n That ruling \u201cfired a shot heard \u2019round the world,\u201d Coats said \u2013 an ignition point. Soon\u00a0Penn State<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0joined the\u00a0Big Ten Conference<\/strong>. The\u00a0realignment craze was underway.<\/p>\n Even the basketball-rich\u00a0Big East Conference<\/strong>\u00a0succumbed to adding football schools or risk extinction. And extinction\u00a0came anyway a decade ago. When the\u00a0Big East broke apart,\u00a0Jim Boeheim<\/strong>\u00a0sat alone with me in his office, bemoaning the fact the league didn\u2019t remain at its original number of nine schools after Pittsburgh<\/a><\/strong> joined in 1982.<\/p>\n \u201cFootball came and got in the way,\u201d Boeheim told me. <\/p>\n His cohort,\u00a0Rick Pitino<\/strong>, put a finer point on it in an ESPN documentary: \u201cIt became like Walmart<\/strong> \u2013 a big corporation.\u201d<\/p>\n Fast-forward: a coast-to-coast super conference has bloomed in the Big Ten, which leaned on\u00a0FOX Sports<\/strong>\u00a0to secure almost all marquee West Coast media markets. The ESPN-fueled SEC has planted its formidable flag in the heart of the Midwest, adding\u00a0Texas<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Oklahoma<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in 2024. The\u00a0Big 12<\/strong>\u00a0will stretch from Phoenix to Morgantown. The\u00a0ACC<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 yes, the ACC<\/em> \u2013 is on the verge of adding California<\/a><\/strong> and Stanford<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n And the 108-year-old\u00a0Pac-12<\/strong>\u00a0is a cadaver.<\/p>\n \u201cNo question conferences compete against each other \u2013 they are vicious,\u201d McMillen said. \u201cThey\u2019ll look for any angle to get ahead of the others, even when working together might be in the best interest of college sports. There is a fragmentation where dog-eat-dog is the prevailing culture.\u201d<\/p>\n It has intensified. But the money grab? What\u2019s old is new again.<\/p>\n \u201cAll these people within the structure act like\u00a0Ed McMahon<\/strong>\u00a0knocked on their door and handed them billions of dollars for winning the Publishers Clearing House<\/strong>,\u201d Bilas said. \u201cThey have methodically and purposely and thoughtfully built this industry into what it is. And they\u2019re saying, \u2018How did this happen?\u2019 Oregon<\/a><\/strong> and Washington<\/a><\/strong>, they weren\u2019t the first to do this. They were just the latest. Like, what are you talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n Watch the games this fall and remember\u00a0Betsy Mitchell<\/strong>,\u00a0the athletic director at Division III\u00a0Cal Tech<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n During the NCAA transformation\u00a0meeting in January 2022, Mitchell asked the seminal question during the open forum. With more than 1,100 institutions offering disparate resources, revenue and missions existing under one proverbial Big Tent,\u00a0\u201cWhy are we still trying to stick together?\u201d she asked. \u201cWe do not have one model of college sports. Those days are long over.\u201d<\/p>\n Nineteen months later, she is still awaiting an answer.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mitchell said \u201call in we spend about $4 million bucks\u201d annually on athletics. Ohio State\u2019s annual athletic department expenses? $225 million. Now, as TV dollars further widen the gap, her disappointment\u00a0and \u201cdisgust\u201d\u00a0peak. None of these realignment decisions, she said, take into account athlete well-being.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, what the hell are we doing?\u201d Mitchell told On3.\u00a0<\/p>\n The industry has\u00a0evolved \u2013 or devolved \u2013 into \u201ctwo minor league football conferences [SEC and Big Ten],\u201d she said. \u201cCall it that and get\u00a0those young professionals the support they seem to need.\u00a0The whole thing is screwed up \u2026\u00a0There\u00a0has not been a transformation of the NCAA \u2013 that is hogwash.\u201d<\/p>\n Amid the frenzied chase for TV revenue, what\u2019s in the best interest of the broader enterprise has been lost. Regionality, tradition, century-old rivalries and the charm that attracts\u00a0most of us are thrown by the wayside.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bilas explained how college athletics stands in stark contrast to a property like The Masters<\/strong>. Augusta National Golf Club<\/strong> could pursue maximizing revenue above all else, pursuing more sponsorship signage and a more lucrative rights package. But it does not. Its\u00a0product is near perfect as is, year after year.<\/p>\n In college sports and especially in college football, no one is attempting to find that sweet spot \u2013 maximizing revenue but not at the expense of the quality of the product or student-athlete experience. Who is the steward of the enterprise?<\/p>\n \u201cNo one,\u201d\u00a0Rick Neuheisel<\/strong>, the former Washington football coach and current analyst on Full Ride<\/strong> on SiriusXM College Sports Radio<\/strong>, told On3. \u201cSomehow, someway, at least [NFL<\/strong>\u00a0Commissioner]\u00a0Roger Goodell<\/strong>\u2018s job description is to create consensus. There is nobody trying to create consensus. Nobody brokering compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n As the Pac-12 disintegrated, Washington State<\/a><\/strong> coach\u00a0Jake Dickert<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0assessed the carnage: \u201cThe\u00a0old question \u2013 how long would it take TV money to destroy college football? Maybe we\u2019re here \u2026 at the end of the day, we\u2019ll look back at college football in 20 years and be like, \u2018What are we doing?’\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Gloria Nevarez<\/strong>, the Mountain West Conference<\/strong> commissioner, says she isn\u2019t one to shy away from change. In fact, she embraces it. Yet, the extent of change engulfing college athletics now, she told On3, \u201cis pushing my boundaries of comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n Decades ago, ACC basketball teams rode buses to five different conference games during a season. Next year brings a whole new world order, with Big Ten athletes trekking cross-country.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Big Ten now has an\u00a0NFL<\/strong>\u00a0schedule,\u201d Bilas said. \u201cThey are traveling the same amount, if not more, than the New England Patriots<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n One longtime college administrator: \u201cSounds horrible, doesn\u2019t it?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Seattle-based attorney\u00a0Julie Sommer<\/strong>, executive director of\u00a0The Drake Group Education Fund<\/strong>, a nonprofit advocacy organization, drilled down on the hypocrisy. Institutions and the NCAA still use the antiquated\u00a0phrase \u201cstudent-athletes\u201d\u00a0even though the driving force of realignment is, \u201c\u2018You are going to go out there and make us more money,’\u201d she said. \u201cWhen they do that, they are treating them as an employee. You have no say. We\u2019re restructuring. You\u2019re going to be doing this \u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe volleyball team for their Wednesday night match \u2013 so UDub [Washington] is going across the country to play Rutgers<\/a><\/strong>. Essentially miss an entire week of school? Or just four days? To say it interferes with their ability to perform academically is a huge understatement.\u201d<\/p>\n The NCAA has a lot of high-minded rhetorical principles, Bilas said. But when you match the stated rhetoric to the actions of NCAA members, he said, \u201cthey bear zero resemblance to one another. Zero. Then this same group is going to step before Congress and use that high-minded rhetoric to try to get federal legislation to continue to violate federal antitrust law. If anyone buys that, that\u2019s on them.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat is the biggest Brooklyn Bridge I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n Watch the games and remember\u00a0Jennifer Abruzzo<\/strong>, the National Labor Relations Board general counsel.<\/p>\n Next month marks two years since Abruzzo issued the headline-grabbing memo\u00a0that provided guidance regarding her position that some college athletes are employees under the National Labor Relations Act.\u00a0The entire industry has one date circled \u2013 and it\u2019s not Ohio State<\/a><\/strong>\u2013Michigan<\/a><\/strong>. It is Nov. 7, the date of the hearing for the\u00a0NLRB\u2019s complaint against the NCAA, Pac-12 and\u00a0USC<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n College sports is methodically marching toward at least some athletes being deemed employees of their schools, conferences or the NCAA. That formal designation would usher in a dramatically new era, albeit one not expected to arrive next year. Say hello to potential collective bargaining.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no stopping the train,\u201d said\u00a0Sarah Wake<\/strong>, who advises universities on athletic compliance issues in her role as an attorney at\u00a0McGuireWoods.<\/strong><\/p>\n Whether athletes are formally deemed employees or independent contractors, Bilas expects universities\u00a0in the relatively near future, absent Congressional intervention, to realize the cleanest and easiest way to procure and retain talent is to sign players to contracts.<\/p>\n \u201cContracts work for the rest of American society,\u201d Bilas said. \u201cThe idea it wouldn\u2019t work for college sports is kind of absurd from the get-go.\u201d<\/p>\n What will happen if an employee model takes hold at the D-3 level?<\/p>\n \u201cWhat will happen is we won\u2019t have sports,\u201d Mitchell of Cal Tech said. \u201cIt will all go away.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n As the NCAA continues to aggressively lobby Congress for a federal bill, it seeks a formal designation that student-athletes cannot be deemed employees. Consider those efforts akin to a fourth-down Hail Mary.<\/p>\n \u201cThere will not be a bill in Congress that comes out that codifies non-employee status,\u201d McMillen, the former U.S. Congressman, said. \u201cIt is dead on arrival. There is going to be round two in this. And round two is going to be much more important \u2013 much more existential.\u201d<\/p>\n It is possible to implement a revenue-sharing model without a full-fledged employment paradigm.<\/p>\n Several stakeholders said realignment moves, driven by TV dollars, will accelerate progress toward a revenue-model structure. The moves illuminate hypocrisy: Athletes don\u2019t receive a dime.<\/p>\n A growing number of industry leaders \u2013 including Oklahoma Athletic Director\u00a0Joe Castiglione<\/strong>,\u00a0AAC<\/strong>\u00a0Commissioner\u00a0Mike Aresco<\/strong>\u00a0and the MWC\u2019s Nevarez \u2013 told On3 that now is the time to explore what that model would entail. And West Virginia<\/a><\/strong> football coach Neal Brown<\/strong> told On3, \u201cCollege football missed the boat when the TV contracts went up and up. Players deserve a piece of that pie.\u201d<\/p>\n At other levels? Pushback.\u00a0Tom Wistrcill<\/strong>, the\u00a0Big Sky Conference<\/strong>\u00a0commissioner, told On3, \u201cThe devil is in the details. It\u2019s really difficult to manage because you\u2019re getting to pay-for-play.\u201d<\/p>\n Regardless of the model, Castiglione stressed that a future structure needs to be conceived\u00a0with<\/em>\u00a0athletes and\u00a0for<\/em>\u00a0athletes. The responsibility rests on the entire industry, he said, to figure this out.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not going back,\u201d Castiglione said. \u201cWe can wish it all we want. We are not going back to the way it was. But what is the way of the future?\u201d<\/p>\n Watch the games and remember\u00a0Trent Dilfer<\/a><\/strong>, former Super Bowl-winning quarterback turned first-year UAB<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0football coach.<\/p>\n He is receiving a baptism by fire in the NIL world. Alleging that Power Five schools routinely coerce his players into the transfer portal with financial promises, Dilfer told On3<\/a> that, if proven, punishment should be harsh: Lifetime bans.<\/p>\n Schools coerce\u00a0players into the portal who \u201chad no desire to go into the portal,\u201d Dilfer said. \u201cThey are in my office in tears. \u2018I don\u2019t want to leave, but my dad is being told by the collective<\/a> or by my high school coach, or by the frickin\u2019 player director at Power Five school, that I can make way more money with them than with [UAB].\u2019 He\u2019s crying. He doesn\u2019t want to leave. It is tampering.\u201d<\/p>\n NIL isn\u2019t going away. Neither is the time-honored tradition of pay-for-play schemes. As Neinas said, \u201cKnow what NIL stands for? Now it\u2019s legal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is chaos,\u201d Aresco told On3.<\/p>\n The NCAA has shown little appetite for policing NIL activity because it is fearful of litigation. But McMillen said it\u2019s past time for the association to assume \u201clitigation risk\u201d and establish and enforce recruiting restrictions.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got professional sports \u2026,\u201d\u00a0Ole Miss<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0coach\u00a0Lane Kiffin<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0said at SEC Media Days<\/strong>. \u201cIn the NFL, it\u2019s business. It makes for a very different dynamic, and we\u2019re now moving toward where it is really business. I would say the joy is not the same.\u201d<\/p>\n As the future takes shape in 2024 and beyond, watch for a potential Football Bowl Subdivision<\/strong> football breakaway from the NCAA. The reform-minded\u00a0Knight Commission<\/strong>\u00a0has long endorsed it.<\/p>\n Watch more big brands in power conferences (see Florida State<\/a><\/strong>) grow tired of carrying the financial water and sharing the revenue pie with also-rans that lack a brand name or major TV market. In a game where networks often play puppet master, a veteran media rights source told On3: \u201cThe networks will pay whatever you need them to pay you for top inventory. What they don\u2019t want to do anymore is pay $9 million a game for Michigan-Ohio State and also pay $9 million a game for Rutgers-Maryland<\/a><\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n Massive change abounds.\u00a0As\u00a0Steve Hank<\/strong>, executive vice president for college athletics at\u00a0Affinaquest<\/strong>, told On3: \u201cCollege athletics is not undergoing an evolution right now. It\u2019s in the midst of a revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n Mit Winter<\/strong>, a college sports attorney at Kansas City-based Kennyhertz Perry<\/strong>, said 2024 will move us toward a new college athletics model, one acknowledging some athletes are professional. But it is unlikely to be fully formed next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Winter laid out the path: Expect either a court or the NLRB to rule that college athletes are employees this coming year, which will likely take a few years to resolve through appeals. Look for more movement at the state level on bills that include revenue sharing and potentially college athlete employment status. Keep an eye on more movement on proposed revenue-sharing plans from other organizations. And expect more activity at the state level with bills that likely allow schools to bring certain aspects of NIL in-house. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTo fully bring all elements together into a coherent model will take some work,\u201d Winter told\u00a0On3. \u201cWhere we\u2019re at in a year will also be heavily dependent on the approach the NCAA and conferences take: Do they want to continue to fight where things are headed? Or will they be part of the process of creating a new model?\u201d<\/p>\n After this season, the enterprise reaches the doorstep of unbridled professionalization.\u00a0David Ridpath<\/strong>,\u00a0a sports business professor at\u00a0Ohio University<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>who has appeared before numerous Congressional committees regarding college athletics, said the veneer is gone. <\/p>\n Big-time college athletics is now seen for what it is: big business, not education.\u00a0<\/p>\n Relish the memories this season: the four-team playoff, the Pac-12\u2019s last dance, Texas and OU vying for Big 12 supremacy. Bathe in nostalgia. Player empowerment, super conferences, and a revenue-sharing reckoning loom ahead \u2013 a professionalized world fueled by billions of TV dollars.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNothing is perfect, but where we are going comes close,\u201d Ridpath said. \u201cIf we make bargained decisions based on what is best for the athlete and they have an equal seat at the negotiating table, college sports will be just fine. It will be different. But as in all cases \u2013 we will still watch the games.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Relish college football\u2019s final act before era of unbridled\u00a0professionalization arrives<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Go ahead, watch the football games and savor everything: The Apple Cup, Bedlam, #Pac12AfterDark. Better…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}1984 Supreme Court case \u2018released the tiger\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
College football changed after the ruling<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\u2018Football came and got in the way\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\u2018What the hell are we doing?\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Nobody is creating consensus in college football<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\u2018The biggest Brooklyn Bridge I\u2019ve ever seen\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Athlete contracts won\u2019t work? \u2018Absurd\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\u2018What is the way of the future\u2019 for college footbal<\/strong>l?<\/h2>\n
\u2018Know what NIL stands for? Now it\u2019s legal\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
College athletics: \u2018In the midst of a revolution\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n