End Of College Sports As We Know It: NCAA President Is Reportedly Proposing A New Football Subdivision Where Schools Can Pay Players Directly
This is all in the works and not concrete ... yet. Apparently this will be introduced later this week and schools will have the option to opt-in or out of it:
[Source] - According to Baker’s proposal, schools that choose to be part of the new subdivision — they can opt in or out — are required to meet a strict minimum standard rooted in athlete investment.
Members of the new subdivision will be permitted to strike name, image and likeness (NIL) deals with their own athletes — a significant move away from the current NIL structure.
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.
Let's be honest though, this is basically making a Division I platinum conference for the major 4 conferences. I have no idea how it will look with the 12-team playoff, but this is the first step in just having the 4 major conferences away from each other. There's no way smaller schools will be able to 1) compete or 2) have enough NIL to be part of this whole thing.
I've been vocal about pro-NIL. I don't care that players get paid because it's been going on in college sports quite literally since day 1. It has no impact on me watching a game that players are getting paid above the table instead of it being all hidden. I cheer for laundry meaning if you wear a Kentucky shirt I'm gonna cheer for you. I don't care if you get $0 or a million. I just want to see wins. That's all fans care about.
Now as I say that, the older I get, the more I miss the old days. I miss the old days of conferences mattering. I'm going to miss the Pac-12. I miss the 9-team ACC and round robin basketball seasons.
I have no idea how it will look or anything because this is all hypothetical. We don't know what schools will opt-in, but this is step 1 in the big divide between the major conferences and everyone else.
The new subdivision will remain under the umbrella of the NCAA, and its members will continue to compete for NCAA championships with others in Division I. Under the proposal, the NCAA maintains oversight of the existing national championship model across all Division I sports, except FBS football, which continues to operate under the rubric of the College Football Playoff, Baker writes in the letter.
All I know is if the NCAA Tournament ever gets changed I will officially lose my shit. What makes college sports unique is the matchups. The small schools beating the big schools in a regular season game, bowl game, NCAA Tournament, whatever. That's what people want to see still. We knew this was coming at some point, but now it feels sped up. Either way college sports is completely changing.
