The NCAA isn't coming to save us

OKAggie · Post by **OKAggie** » April 4th, 2024, 6:35 am

In the interest of board coherence, may I make a suggestion? Stop suggesting that the NCAA do something about NIL, or the free-transfer rule, or essentially anything. It cannot. Every time it goes to court to restrict the rights of players, it loses.

Its Enforcement employees are probably hiding under their desks Costanza-style, hoping not to lose their jobs. Its biggest member schools and conferences basically pull the strings, and the NCAA dances. Its primary responsibility right now is negotiating media rights deals for March Madness (and all other NCAA championships), putting on the tournaments, and sending out the proceeds - a glorified event planner. It has virtually no say in football, except maybe certifying bowls which then operate without its involvement or oversight; the College Football Playoff is a creation of the conferences and media rights holders, without any input or jurisdiction from the NCAA, and those entities aren't interested in giving up any of their power..

It's not quite dead yet, but it's not going to get any stronger, and it's not going to able to fix what's wrong with college sports today.

NowhereLandAggie · Post by **NowhereLandAggie** » April 4th, 2024, 7:53 am

OKAggie wrote: ↑
April 4th, 2024, 6:35 am
In the interest of board coherence, may I make a suggestion? Stop suggesting that the NCAA do something about NIL, or the free-transfer rule, or essentially anything. It cannot. Every time it goes to court to restrict the rights of players, it loses.

Its Enforcement employees are probably hiding under their desks Costanza-style, hoping not to lose their jobs. Its biggest member schools and conferences basically pull the strings, and the NCAA dances. Its primary responsibility right now is negotiating media rights deals for March Madness (and all other NCAA championships), putting on the tournaments, and sending out the proceeds - a glorified event planner. It has virtually no say in football, except maybe certifying bowls which then operate without its involvement or oversight; the College Football Playoff is a creation of the conferences and media rights holders, without any input or jurisdiction from the NCAA, and those entities aren't interested in giving up any of their power..

It's not quite dead yet, but it's not going to get any stronger, and it's not going to able to fix what's wrong with college sports today.

The only thing I could see that could and I suspect eventually will happen with NIL is the following.

The players no longer become scholarship "student-athletes," but rather contracted employees of the University. Under contract they will still be able to transfer, but not without buyouts or other legally enforceable clauses. You may see a salary cap and other things the NBA or NFL has in their bargaining agreements. This seems legal to me since it happens with coaches already in the first place. True endorsements from NIL will never be managed, that is why the Lakers can attract top free agents.

I am saying this not because USU is complaining about this, we are relatively small potatoes, but Kirby Smart at Georgia is not happy about and Dan Hurley at UCONN also is saying that changes to the stucture.

https://www.courant.com/2024/03/29/ucon ... s-divided/

NVAggie · Post by **NVAggie** » April 4th, 2024, 7:56 am

The only way to fix it is to disengage with it emotionally and financially. That will be difficult for members of this board.

Aggieiester · Post by **Aggieiester** » April 4th, 2024, 8:19 am

One way that this gets fixed really quick is if you had a rich booster from a G5 conference decide, since this is the wild west, I'll just buy a team, coaches, players, all of it and then have them winning a national championship. I'm guessing about 10 million would do it.

hipsterdoofus21 · Post by **hipsterdoofus21** » April 4th, 2024, 8:42 am

NCAA is basically the UN then.

Hoot · Post by **Hoot** » April 4th, 2024, 9:15 am

hipsterdoofus21 wrote: ↑
April 4th, 2024, 8:42 am
NCAA is basically the UN then.

Was the NCAA initially run by Nazi’s too?

CastIronAggie · Post by **CastIronAggie** » April 4th, 2024, 9:18 am

OKAggie wrote: ↑
April 4th, 2024, 6:35 am
In the interest of board coherence, may I make a suggestion? Stop suggesting that the NCAA do something about NIL, or the free-transfer rule, or essentially anything. It cannot. Every time it goes to court to restrict the rights of players, it loses.

Its Enforcement employees are probably hiding under their desks Costanza-style, hoping not to lose their jobs. Its biggest member schools and conferences basically pull the strings, and the NCAA dances. Its primary responsibility right now is negotiating media rights deals for March Madness (and all other NCAA championships), putting on the tournaments, and sending out the proceeds - a glorified event planner. It has virtually no say in football, except maybe certifying bowls which then operate without its involvement or oversight; the College Football Playoff is a creation of the conferences and media rights holders, without any input or jurisdiction from the NCAA, and those entities aren't interested in giving up any of their power..

It's not quite dead yet, but it's not going to get any stronger, and it's not going to able to fix what's wrong with college sports today.

That's fine I guess. If it dies, it dies. The NCAA is worthless and needs to just split off from schools and make their own minor league. I'll keep watching for quite a while but at some point I'm going to lose all interest. Happened to me for the NBA and NFL a few years back. If Div II had better streaming options, I think I'd just move to following that exclusively. Maybe, the local high school.

Post by **aggies22** » April 4th, 2024, 9:22 am

In my opinion, the NCAA needs to be disbanded. They are useless. The P4 can break away and do their money-hungry thing. However, for the G5 and perhaps the FCS schools a new governing body that includes NO ONE that was EVER involved with the NCAA could be created to provide some checks and balances for the remaining schools that would like to continue to compete in collegiate athletics but not be involved in the pay-for-play arms race. Wishful thinking?? Likely. But I'm just spitballing an idea at this point.

splintorb · Post by **splintorb** » April 4th, 2024, 9:23 am

aggies22 wrote: ↑
April 4th, 2024, 9:22 am
In my opinion, the NCAA needs to be disbanded. They are useless. The P4 can break away and do their money-hungry thing. However, for the G5 and perhaps the FCS schools a new governing body that includes NO ONE that was EVER involved with the NCAA could be created to provide some checks and balances for the remaining schools that would like to continue to compete in collegiate athletics but not be involved in the pay-for-play arms race. Wishful thinking?? Likely. But I'm just spitballing an idea at this point.

I believe that is what is happening. Pretty soon the P2 maaaybe P3 will be a semi pro league and we need a new governing body for the rest.

ineptimusprime · Post by **ineptimusprime** » April 4th, 2024, 9:25 am

I hope a break away isn't happening. If USU isn't competing at the highest collegiate level in basketball, I'd lose interest pretty fast. I could live with FCS football.

Hoot · Post by **Hoot** » April 4th, 2024, 10:35 am

ineptimusprime wrote: ↑
April 4th, 2024, 9:25 am
I hope a break away isn't happening. If USU isn't competing at the highest collegiate level in basketball, I'd lose interest pretty fast. I could live with FCS football.

I’m kind of hoping for a break away now…

Chatman · Post by **Chatman** » April 4th, 2024, 11:21 am

At some point this will be a big enough issue that congress will step in to regulate it. Not sure when, but that will be the end result someday.

Pacobag · Post by **Pacobag** » April 4th, 2024, 12:28 pm

aggies22 wrote: ↑
April 4th, 2024, 9:22 am
In my opinion, the NCAA needs to be disbanded. They are useless. The P4 can break away and do their money-hungry thing. However, for the G5 and perhaps the FCS schools a new governing body that includes NO ONE that was EVER involved with the NCAA could be created to provide some checks and balances for the remaining schools that would like to continue to compete in collegiate athletics but not be involved in the pay-for-play arms race. Wishful thinking?? Likely. But I'm just spitballing an idea at this point.

Agreed!

Unlimited transfers and NIL are probably great for the players, but it is eroding some of my interest in collegiate men’s basketball and football. I’m not going to cough up a significant donation to pay the “salary” of a “semi-pro” athlete just because the name of my alma mater is on the jersey he wears for a season. I feel like some are getting exploited. Imagine Ryan Smith asking fans to donate more money so the Jazz can buy better players.

AggieMeister · Post by **AggieMeister** » April 4th, 2024, 3:04 pm

I've felt for quite some time that the Mountain West should find some like-minded conferences or schools and completely break away from the NCAA and do our own thing. Depending on how many schools or conferences were willing, we could set up several leagues with a promotion/relegation model. I'm 100% sure this will never happen...but it would be great if it did. Sadly, we're forever doomed to be a very small player in a very large game where we will really never be able to compete.

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