Evolution of College Athletics

[longtimer]

Some of you probably don't remember The old days. In the Bud Wilkinson era of college football Oklahoma used to recruit all the good players and dominated college football. That continued after Bud was gone. I can remember when Fry came to Iowa and we went down to Oklahoma to play and he said he looked at their bench and saw all those great players on the bench. We played them tough but it was almost impossible to compete with teams that. In comes the scholarship limits and they could no longer hoard all the good players and all of a sudden the Iowas of the world had a chance to compete
Fast forward to the current state of the NIL. Now the (contributors) can buy the good players. And we are back to a totally unfair state of competition. Iowa has put some money in the football program but apparently doesn't have the ability to do much for basketball. I don't know if we have enough to challenge the big programs (Texas has a QB sitting on the bench making like 3 million in the NIL and it appears basketball is pretty much done in competing for the top players.
So what is the answer?
For fans like myself contributing to the Swarm in a very modest way doesn't seem to be a good decision. If I had millions maybe but I will probably continue to use my limited donation money to support the Food banks Red Cross and other charities rather than donate it to buy a point guard. Hopefully this out of control NIL will be resolved.

 

[Will C]

There is no reason the pros have to take players until they get a college degree. The NBA would do basketball in general a good turn if they changed their rules.

 

[eyekwah]

The problem is far greater than the NIL. You can't dismiss the transfer portal influencing competition. To go along with the aforementioned is conference realignment. Let's not forget how ineffective the NCAA is. In economic terms college revenue generating sports are under going "creative destruction". In the background is player unionization and the national labor relations board. We can speculate about what is going to happen, but drastic changes are required. People are too focused on the NCAA problems when it is a relic of th past.

First thing, you have to understand is realistically there are only about 20 colleges that can compete in both football and men's basketball at the championship level. It isn't hard to figure out who they are. Maybe 12 more would try. They end up as fringe members of a 32 member "American" College Athletic Association (ACAA). The ACAA replaces the NCAA for the higher echelon programs. You end up with two 16 team conferences.

Under the ACAA the universities act as sponsors of essentially AAA minor league teams in both revenue sports. There would be 32 AAA minor league teams that are members. The universities provide the academic requirements for the players, the facilities, and their naming rights in exchange for a share of the proceeds and TV revenue. The 32 AAA members of the ACAA determine which sports will have minor league teams. Some sports fall to club sports with no scholarships involved.

The ACAA establishes the rules and regulation and does the enforcement. Under those rules players become salaried employees of a minor league team. Players agree to specified dates in order to play for the minor league team. The player is ineligible for transfer until the term of his or her contract is met.

Second thing, you will never eliminate NIL. These "AAA minor league " players can make as much as they want from a sponsor or sponsors. They could be resticted on use of the sponsoring university's trade marks in commercials and publicity.

I'm sure there are plenty of people out there that hate what the solution will be. It's coming because the power is in the hands of the players and their agents. {Maybe you're looking at a new career as a player rep.} The coaches are helpless to do anything about it. The presidents of the universities have more to worry about than the atheletic programs. They just want the revenue and as long as get a share they will be happy to out source revenue sports.

Amateur college sports is now history. The other 100 FBS teams devolve to AA or A level minor league teams and form there own associations and conferences.

 

[kicker22]

There is no reason the pros have to take players until they get a college degree. The NBA would do basketball in general a good turn if they changed their rules.

Not sure I agree. (1) This assumes most future pros are there for an education and value a degree. (2) The window of opportunity is only so long for athletes before they find themselves on the downward spiral. Is it fair to mandate those that are ready have to give up those years playing additional years simply to get a piece of paper.

I'm not saying I don't agree with you about it improving the sport, but feel it should be left up to the athletes.