NCAA President Makes A Proposal
Is this the beginning of the long desired "super league" for college football or a path to something better?
On December 5th, NCAA President Charlie Baker (the former Republican Governor of Massachusetts) sent out this tweet thread:
It's time for the @NCAA to provide a forward-looking framework that preserves the best aspects of the student-athlete experience, builds on positive investments in women's sports, and improves the overall athletic and academic experience for students at well-resourced schools.
We must implement key changes: 1. Allow all @NCAA DI schools to provide student-athletes with greater educational benefits. 2. Permit any DI school to opt into NIL licensing opportunities with athletes.
A new subdivision in which schools invest at least $30,000 per year in an educational trust fund for at least half of its eligible student-athletes, ensuring gender equity. Join @NCAA staff and peers to establish appropriate rules for their schools.
Lots more work to do but I know student-athlete leaders and college sports administrators everywhere are committed to deliver world-class education and world-class athletic experiences across all three divisions.
This is an attempt, in my opinion, to do several things:
Try to get a handle on NIL and bring some uniformity to how it’s handled across the country. There are states stepping in to create their own laws on this subject which creates a lot of complexity for athletic conferences. There are bills floating around the U.S. Congress, but let’s be honest, it’s total gridlock up there and the landscape of college athletics is changing fast. It makes sense to the NCAA to take the lead on bringing uniformity and transparency to NIL.
Head off attempts to force colleges and universities to treat student-athletes as employees.
Head off any attempt to completely sever college football from the rest of the college athletic department at your favorite university. These athletic departments rely on the revenue football and basketball generate to support all the other sports student-athletes compete in. Take that revenue away, or allow the system to change where only a handful of schools get most of the football money, and other college sports all but dry up across the country. This has huge implications for women in sports, and the ability of the United States to compete at the Olympic Games.
Baker’s framework is merely a rough draft and what ends up happening will likely look much different. ESPN’s Dan Murphy describes the Baker framework in detail.
365 Sports discusses the Baker framework with Dan Lust, a sports law attorney.
We’ll see where this goes, but I hope they find a way to stop the conference realignment madness, and the mad push for a “super league” that relegates most of the other Division 1 schools to the hinterlands. I remain convinced the super league scenario would be bad for everyone and not the TV ratings bonanza some think it will be.
I also think, if we care at all about competition, there needs to be a salary cap on Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) payments for each school. If folks are happy with there only being three or four teams with a chance to win the national championship in football every year, then allow things to continue as they are.