NCAA proposing new college athletics subdivision rooted in direct athlete compensation

Submitted by Don on December 5th, 2023 at 10:09 AM

Looks as though Harbaugh's advocacy of player compensation is getting support from an unexpected party:

https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa-proposing-new-college-athletics-subdivision-rooted-in-direct-athlete-compensation-145051537.html

Of course, the devil will be in the details.

UMForLife

December 5th, 2023 at 10:30 AM ^

Harbaugh has rattled cages. Mandatory Fuck NCAA.

Having said that, another good reason to leave B1G or ask for high proportion of revenue so UM, OSU and USC has more money to pay their athletes compared to backstabbers. Oh fuck MSU and OSU.

Heptarch

December 5th, 2023 at 10:32 AM ^

It looks pretty radical... until you realize that all the money going to the players is coming from the school. So the NCAA is still left to rake in their riches without paying a dime to players.

WirlingDirvish

December 5th, 2023 at 11:49 AM ^

The NCAA doesn't make near enough revenue to pay the athletes directly. It will always come from the schools. It's like saying the NFL should directly compensate the players, of course they don't. That's up to the teams. 

For reference the NCAA has around $200mil a year in administrative costs and other business costs. With over 500k student athletes, that would be around $400 per athlete per year. 

https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2016/5/13/where-does-the-money-go.aspx

IYAOYAS

December 5th, 2023 at 10:38 AM ^

“…thousands of dollars in additional educationally related funds…”

So there will be a new generation of tuition thousandaires? Or will the term “educationally related” be wiggly enough?

UMForLife

December 5th, 2023 at 11:14 AM ^

There are kids who make money on the internet doing videos about politics or even video games. It is not necessarily about education. If you have a skill, why not make the money. And to your question, not sure if it needs to be educationally related. Sports is attractive to many in this country and nothing wrong with it being "sports related". 

bronxblue

December 5th, 2023 at 10:52 AM ^

This is just a desperate 11th-hour gamble before they lose in court.  Nobody should give them any credit, and at this point let us all remember that this is the same institution that has fought every advance in player safety and benefit for damn near 100 years.  Fuck 'em.

Carpetbagger

December 5th, 2023 at 10:55 AM ^

Nice. Sounds like competition in paying athletes will exist, with a minimum. Better to compete on player salaries than coaches, administrators and bureaucratic bloat.

Carpetbagger

December 5th, 2023 at 1:09 PM ^

Maybe. Unions serve a real purpose in athletics when the member turnover is very high, I agree.

But usually the first step after a union is established is universal pay scales. Which, as all artificial price controls inevitably lead to circumventing those price controls, gets us right back to where we are today. Cheating for those schools willing to look the other way.

I'd much prefer a more free market solution where schools like Michigan, with massive amounts of money can outspend Alabama, legally.

 

93Grad

December 5th, 2023 at 11:11 AM ^

This might have past muster if this was proposed 10-20 years ago, but now it just seems like too little too late, which is an NCAA staple.  

Blarvey

December 5th, 2023 at 11:29 AM ^

I may get bashed here but I don't think Title IX should have anything to do with this. It is not the fault of Men's Football and Basketball that they have higher TV ad revenue as well as money from things like bowl games. Just as Men's water polo or tennis isn't bringing in the eyeballs, assuming that everything has to be equal based on straight numbers is concluding that every athlete faces the same risks and that every sport derives the same post-amateur prospects. 

Jim Harbaugh makes probably 20x what the women's volleyball coach makes and we are okay with that because of the profile of the sport. Why does a different logic have to apply to the athletes, especially when the sports themselves have different rules within the NCAA framework?

Blarvey

December 5th, 2023 at 12:40 PM ^

Of course, same with Women's Basketball. I think the problem is that some sports clearly make money and the ones that don't are already subsidized by the revenue sports so if forced to make equal payments, some sports will be sacrificed and schools will have to choose which ones will get the revenue split therefore making those that choose to offer compensation more attractive (e.g. School A stops at water polo compensation but School B emphasizes it, School B will have more attractive recruiting pitch. School A decides it no longer can compete and drops the sport resulting in fewer scholarships for everyone).

Plus, I don't think there is a women's sport that has 85 scholarships like football. It automatically imbalances the ability to split based on gender because one men's sport that attracts the most revenue also has the most scholarships and must be offset. It's not like basketball where men's and women's teams are both limited to 15 scholarships.

David F

December 5th, 2023 at 11:31 AM ^

May I ask what about this comment offends you?

The status quo is that men’s football subsidizes non-revenue sports. This is effectively a redistribution of value from football players (generally less well off) to non-revenue athletes (generally more well off). Most theories of justice would call this status quo unfair. 
 

 

FieldingBLUE

December 5th, 2023 at 11:44 AM ^

This is the next stage in the consolidation of the B1G/SEC growth developments.
THE SUPER LEAGUE of the NCAA. 

Of the top 25 revenue earning programs this summer, 19 will be B1G/SEC next season.
(The others are ND, 4 ACC schools, and one future BXII school.)

B1G/SEC will be able to drop their programs not willing to go to this level (Vandy, NW, Rutgers).

The other top 50 schools in revenue will likely sign up and be dispersed into conferences.

It is the NFLization of college football. 

Imagine the B1G with 3 divisions and the SEC with 3 divisions, each of 8 teams or so. 

Division winners and wild cards make up a 12-team playoff.

I could truly stomach this as a future if promotion and relegation are part of the system somehow.

maizedNblued

December 5th, 2023 at 2:08 PM ^

Hahaha.........

 

"Get rid of the NCAA!"

"YEAH! But who is going to handle the rules and regs?"

"Yeah, we need to have oversight and someone monitor the rules and relegations"

"Okay - let's form a governing body that handles all of this - it will consist of lawyers, college presidents, athletic directors and former athletic staff."

"We'll call it the NAA"

"Brilliant!"

Vegas Wolverine

December 5th, 2023 at 11:57 AM ^

The biggest lie that NCAA wants to preserve education in college sports is that college coaches can yank your scholarship anytime they want. It's BS. Pay the players directly as employees and let them also get health insurance and disability insurance. It's past time to do this.

maizedNblued

December 5th, 2023 at 1:58 PM ^

Give, give, give, give, give - that's all anyone wants to talk about - no one thinks about the cost associated with all of those measures - where do you think that cost will go? To the students, the fans and those citizens of that particular state - the public schools will be fine, the private schools will never keep up. 

ndscott50

December 5th, 2023 at 12:02 PM ^

I am not sure this really helps but we need some type of regulation around college football and to a degree the other college sports.  Almost every other sport has rules about how much you can spend on players, trades, buying players from other teams, etc.  A sport where very few or one team always wins because they have the most money is not going to be very entertaining.

It seems like this proposal would just accelerate what is already happening and make it happen across all sports.  Essentially the Big Ten and the SEC will win, not just in football but in every sport.  This will be driven by the huge disparity in per school TV money.  Big Ten and SEC get around $80 million per year in TV money compared to Big 12/ACC getting $30 to $40 million. They can afford to spend $20 to $25 million across all their sports to have the best teams.  A big 12 team won’t be able to spend more than half their TV money on players. The group of five conferences are even more screwed, as they have no way to pay this kind of money to players.

The few remaining big name schools that can join the Big Ten/SEC will, there are not many left anyway.  As a result, the other schools will become even less competitive and get lower ratings.  Their TV money goes down while the Big Ten/SEC continue to grow.

Well it’s great for the athletes at schools like Michigan, it really shrinks the number of opportunities for many athletes.  There are currently 350 division 1 basketball colleges and 133 division 1 football schools.  There are 291 division 1 softball schools. This plan would mean there are only around 40 schools at the top level. 

Romeo50

December 5th, 2023 at 12:31 PM ^

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Curt Flood II. Suck on that Dr. Yood and Charlie B. Some waves can catch you off guard. Trying to make them go away is futile.

maizedNblued

December 5th, 2023 at 1:54 PM ^

This will place a severe financial burden on private schools - state schools are government subsidized - those schools will also lay the increase in cost down to the fans. Private schools will be forced to make tough choices with their future. This is an interesting/sad time for colleges and college athletics.