SI: With NCAA Embroiled in Chaos, Notre Dame’s Swarbrick Calls Division I Breakup ‘Inevitable’

[WindyCityGopher]

Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick says total Division I realignment is ‘inevitable’ - Sports Illustrated

Wholesale change is unavoidable in college athletics. The Fighting Irish athletic director thinks a total realignment of Division I is coming with it.

www.si.com

Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick told Sports Illustrated that he believes the breakup of college sports at the NCAA Division I level is “inevitable,” and puts a potential target date on that seismic change as the mid-2030s. Swarbrick also said there are “so many” schools trying to leave their current conferences, but they’re handcuffed by existing contracts.

 

[Some guy]

I don’t disagree with that, but I do think the breakaway “superconferences” have to be careful not to kill their golden goose.

you don’t just get a 1:1 transfer of tv ratings.
If half the pac 12 and big 12 are out along with the entire G5, fewer people watch the big 10 and SEC title games.
There is a reason people watch college football and basketball and not G League and USFL

 

[Gophergrandpa]

The Notre Dame AD has some very pointed criticisms of what NIL has quickly become: a recruiting tool legitimizing bagman practices (versus its original design as independent of recruiting). Sees college football splitting into conferences that retain academic affiliation, performance and rules for student athletes (where Notre Dame and, hopefully, the Big Ten schools would reside) and conferences that simply license their school names to professional sports teams whose players are unencumbered by academic affiliation, performance and rules. Not really doomsday for me. Who'd want to watch a bunch of smug quasi-student professional football players wearing Texas A$M jerseys? What a joke. And the universities that license their names to quasi (or non)-student professional football teams will over time be seen in academia as jokes schools as well.

 

[alchemy2u]

College football and basketball are destroying themselves and the golden goose that pays for the madness.

Every college fan would love to see their team win a national championship, but that is not the major driving reason fans support their team.

They want the team to play at a competitive level and to win meaningful games. Meaningful games are games against historical rivals, division or conference championships, tournament or bowl games, etc. With multiple conferences there is room for each team to have numerous meaningful games. There are plenty of wins that are available and the opportunity is greater for a second tier team to break through.

Assembling more top teams into a consolidated conference makes it impossible for many of those top teams to have their typical W/L records. For examples: Texas, Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Oklahoma, Florida, Georgia are not all going to win the SEC. The conference is not large enough to give them each a division to win, there is not enough wins to go around for all those teams to keep their fans happy. Etc….

You have moved too many “kings of the hill” onto just one hill. As a result, teams can be just as good as they have been in the past, but have less wins and less fan approval.

Combine this with unlimited NIL payouts (recruiting bribes) and college sport is killing itself.

 

[Gophers_4life]

I know I speak only for myself, and that's just fine.

If Nebraska, Ohio St, Michigan, and Penn St football programs leave the Big Ten for a college football super conference, godspeed to them.


And that will be that, for me. I'll likely never watch their football teams on TV, again.

I have zero point zero interest in ever tuning into said "College Football Super League". Just, none. Zero.

Why? I already spend hours on fall Sundays watching the NFL. I'm not going to just pick up some team in a super league, just because they used to be in the Big Ten, and watch them battle USC, Texas, Clemson, and SEC teams.


I have a very finite budget of hours in my life I'm willing to spend watching live football on TV, and that will go to the Gophers and the Vikings.

 

[Gophers_4life]

The Notre Dame AD has some very pointed criticisms of what NIL has quickly become: a recruiting tool legitimizing bagman practices (versus its original design as independent of recruiting). Sees college football splitting into conferences that retain academic affiliation, performance and rules for student athletes (where Notre Dame and, hopefully, the Big Ten schools would reside) and conferences that simply license their school names to professional sports teams whose players are unencumbered by academic affiliation, performance and rules. Not really doomsday for me. Who'd want to watch a bunch of smug quasi-student professional football players wearing Texas A$M jerseys? What a joke. And the universities that license their names to quasi (or non)-student professional football teams will over time be seen in academia as jokes schools as well.

Hard hitting truth here:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.co...image-likeness-recruiting-collectives-payouts

NIL was supposed to fix college sports, instead it’s become a pay-for-play free-for-all ​

The Athletic recently reviewed an NIL contract for an unidentified five-star recruit worth $8 million, including $350,000 up front followed by monthly payments amounting to $2 million per year. And one for a four-star receiver worth $1 million, and a three-star defensive lineman for $500,000.

Those are incoming freshmen who have yet to play a snap of college football. There are also the transfers who have essentially become free agents with the NCAA no longer mandating they sit out a year. One coach tells the story of two SEC basketball programs bidding for a high-profile transfer, and one tapping out when it got to $650,000.

Even at the lower levels of Division I, ho-hum basketball transfers are commanding $75,000. Some are demanding multiyear deals.

“It creates a situation where you can basically buy players,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said earlier this month. “You can do it in recruiting. I mean, if that’s what we want college football to be, I don’t know.”

“It’s the NBA,” another coach told me, “without the NBA salary cap.”

The only regulation is the universities themselves can’t make the deals. No problem. Just as politicians created Super PACs (political action committees) to skirt campaign finance laws, with no limits on donation size, boosters have formed nonprofit “collectives” to funnel money to athletes without answering to Title IX.

...

“Whatever casual sports fans or coaches think student-athletes are earning from collectives, they’re (underestimating) by 10X,” Opendorse founder Blake Lawrence, whose company matches them with NIL deals, told The Athletic. “While $2 million is wild, $200,000 isn’t. But most people are thinking they’re getting $20,000.”

The contracts typically don’t stipulate athletes must attend a specific university (but presume they will). Take Shaedon Sharpe, a five-star basketball recruit who graduated high school in December and a month later enrolled at Kentucky, where NIL packages include a Porsche, with the intention of playing for the Wildcats in 2022-23. “Thanks for the wheels,” he said on social media. Now he’s entered the NBA Draft.

It works both ways, though. There are reports some NIL contracts control a players’ marketing rights through his collegiate career, limiting the ability to transfer, or contain clauses that siphon off a percentage of future earnings in pro leagues.

There are other dangers, most notably the loss of locker room camaraderie among players with unequal NIL deals and a widening resentment on campuses between regular students riding bikes and entitled student-athletes driving Porsches. And who’s responsibly managing all that money for them, or advising them on filing taxes?

And what about the pressures now heaped on 18-year-olds? If they don’t meet expectations, it’s no longer, hey, they’re just college students trying to balance academics and athletics. It’s: We spent $8 million on this guy?

...

The question now is whether anyone or anything will regulate it. The NCAA wants no part of it, paralyzed by fear of antitrust litigation. Congress could step in, but with soaring inflation and a divided nation and a war in Ukraine, it has more pressing matters to address than fixing college sports.

That leaves the market itself, which ultimately will decide the viability of an escalating arms race. Schools with billionaire boosters can stomach spending millions for unproven recruits in the name of an SEC title. The have-nots might get $75,000 here or $100,000 there in the short term, but what happens when you keep dipping the bucket into that well?

The bigger concern among athletic directors is what happens to their own budgets when all the millions they traditionally receive from donors are diverted to NIL cooperatives? Women’s sports advocates, curiously, haven’t made the connection: Their sports will suffer funding cuts and, possibly, probably, elimination.

 

[Gophers_4life]

And the universities that license their names to quasi (or non)-student professional football teams will over time be seen in academia as jokes schools as well.

I hope not.

Just as I don't fault a cutting-edge cancer researcher who is working at Penn St for what happened there, there are many very talented PI's who work for Texas A&M, and not just in Ag fields, that I wouldn't fault for what happens with college football.

I understand the spirit of what you are saying though.



It will be an interesting decision, that Notre Dame and the non-elite football program, but high(er) academic/research schools in the P5, will have to make.

On the one hand, we know exactly what happens to very high end schools who deemphasized their football teams, that were once dominate in the nation: the Ivy League.

It would be sad if the schools of the Big Ten became that ...

 

[alchemy2u]

I know I speak only for myself, and that's just fine.

If Nebraska, Ohio St, Michigan, and Penn St football programs leave the Big Ten for a college football super conference, godspeed to them.


And that will be that, for me. I'll likely never watch their football teams on TV, again.

I have zero point zero interest in ever tuning into said "College Football Super League". Just, none. Zero.

Why? I already spend hours on fall Sundays watching the NFL. I'm not going to just pick up some team in a super league, just because they used to be in the Big Ten, and watch them battle USC, Texas, Clemson, and SEC teams.


I have a very finite budget of hours in my life I'm willing to spend watching live football on TV, and that will go to the Gophers and the Vikings.

And that is why it is killing college sports.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

If you read the article, the Notre Dame AD is basically talking about a new structure for D1 Sports with two levels:

1 level where sports teams are still tied to schools with academic requirements - the traditional model with 'student-athletes.'

and a second level where teams essentially operate outside of the academic structure. So the players might play under the banner of Directional State, but they do not attend class or have to meet traditional academic requirements.

like HS basketball vs AAU basketball to some extent.

under that type of structure, you would have two completely separate systems for conference titles, playoffs or bowl games.

obviously, that raises a lot of questions - media rights being at the top. I suspect that a lot of the media rights would be based on separate streaming agreements - at the conference level or even at the individual school level. By the mid-2030's, who knows if cable TV even still exists.

 

[Pompous Elitist]

I see it a little differently since NIL. Currently the schools are not directly paying players. NIL allows boosters to pay players. In theory this could allow schools like OK State, Oregon, USC - or NIU if a crazy and wealthy enough benefactor steps in - to vacuum up the best players despite being outside the SEC or Big Ten. In practice maybe the collective cash donations from fans/boosters at Alabama and the like will keep them at the top, sure. Maybe the SEC will trade out Vanderbilt for OK State.

The big domino yet to fall is if/when athletes are reclassified as employees. At that point wholesale chaos and change seem inevitable.

Maybe a consortium of schools will decide to not allow any payment outside of cost of attendance, agree on salary caps, revenue distribution to promote a level playing field. Maybe an asteroid will strike earth today.

 

[hungan1]

Notre Dame and other institutions are sounding the alarm. Who is listening?

NIL has legitimized greed and corruption in college sports. It is a Pandora's Box of unintended ugly consequences.

All good things must pass before we realize what we missed.

Who has the legal and moral authority to fix college sports corruption? The NCAA organization is impotent. They don't want to bite the hands that feed them.

Is what is happening in college sports a reflection of the state of our society? We have become Sodom and Gomorrah.

NIL is a double-edged sword.

 

[hungan1]

I see it a little differently since NIL. Currently the schools are not directly paying players. NIL allows boosters to pay players. In theory this could allow schools like OK State, Oregon, USC - or NIU if a crazy and wealthy enough benefactor steps in - to vacuum up the best players despite being outside the SEC or Big Ten. In practice maybe the collective cash donations from fans/boosters at Alabama and the like will keep them at the top, sure. Maybe the SEC will trade out Vanderbilt for OK State.

The big domino yet to fall is if/when athletes are reclassified as employees. At that point wholesale chaos and change seem inevitable.

Maybe a consortium of schools will decide to not allow any payment outside of cost of attendance, agree on salary caps, revenue distribution to promote a level playing field. Maybe an asteroid will strike earth today.

If D1 college athletes are re-classified as employees who are benefactors of large sums of NIL money, what D1 colleges can do within their bounds to level the playing field is not enough.

The IRS should impose mandatory audits for every athlete (possibly including their family members) receiving NIL money. The IRS must be able to trace the money trail.

Maybe then they can control corruption.

 

[Allshade]

Hard hitting truth here:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.co...image-likeness-recruiting-collectives-payouts

NIL was supposed to fix college sports, instead it’s become a pay-for-play free-for-all ​

The Athletic recently reviewed an NIL contract for an unidentified five-star recruit worth $8 million, including $350,000 up front followed by monthly payments amounting to $2 million per year. And one for a four-star receiver worth $1 million, and a three-star defensive lineman for $500,000.

Those are incoming freshmen who have yet to play a snap of college football. There are also the transfers who have essentially become free agents with the NCAA no longer mandating they sit out a year. One coach tells the story of two SEC basketball programs bidding for a high-profile transfer, and one tapping out when it got to $650,000.

Even at the lower levels of Division I, ho-hum basketball transfers are commanding $75,000. Some are demanding multiyear deals.

“It creates a situation where you can basically buy players,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said earlier this month. “You can do it in recruiting. I mean, if that’s what we want college football to be, I don’t know.”

“It’s the NBA,” another coach told me, “without the NBA salary cap.”

The only regulation is the universities themselves can’t make the deals. No problem. Just as politicians created Super PACs (political action committees) to skirt campaign finance laws, with no limits on donation size, boosters have formed nonprofit “collectives” to funnel money to athletes without answering to Title IX.

...

“Whatever casual sports fans or coaches think student-athletes are earning from collectives, they’re (underestimating) by 10X,” Opendorse founder Blake Lawrence, whose company matches them with NIL deals, told The Athletic. “While $2 million is wild, $200,000 isn’t. But most people are thinking they’re getting $20,000.”

The contracts typically don’t stipulate athletes must attend a specific university (but presume they will). Take Shaedon Sharpe, a five-star basketball recruit who graduated high school in December and a month later enrolled at Kentucky, where NIL packages include a Porsche, with the intention of playing for the Wildcats in 2022-23. “Thanks for the wheels,” he said on social media. Now he’s entered the NBA Draft.

It works both ways, though. There are reports some NIL contracts control a players’ marketing rights through his collegiate career, limiting the ability to transfer, or contain clauses that siphon off a percentage of future earnings in pro leagues.

There are other dangers, most notably the loss of locker room camaraderie among players with unequal NIL deals and a widening resentment on campuses between regular students riding bikes and entitled student-athletes driving Porsches. And who’s responsibly managing all that money for them, or advising them on filing taxes?

And what about the pressures now heaped on 18-year-olds? If they don’t meet expectations, it’s no longer, hey, they’re just college students trying to balance academics and athletics. It’s: We spent $8 million on this guy?

...

The question now is whether anyone or anything will regulate it. The NCAA wants no part of it, paralyzed by fear of antitrust litigation. Congress could step in, but with soaring inflation and a divided nation and a war in Ukraine, it has more pressing matters to address than fixing college sports.

That leaves the market itself, which ultimately will decide the viability of an escalating arms race. Schools with billionaire boosters can stomach spending millions for unproven recruits in the name of an SEC title. The have-nots might get $75,000 here or $100,000 there in the short term, but what happens when you keep dipping the bucket into that well?

The bigger concern among athletic directors is what happens to their own budgets when all the millions they traditionally receive from donors are diverted to NIL cooperatives? Women’s sports advocates, curiously, haven’t made the connection: Their sports will suffer funding cuts and, possibly, probably, elimination.

If D1 college athletes are re-classified as employees who are benefactors of large sums of NIL money, what D1 colleges can do within their bounds to level the playing field is not enough.

The IRS should impose mandatory audits for every athlete (possibly including their family members) receiving NIL money. The IRS must be able to trace the money trail.

Maybe then they can control corruption.

RACISM I SAY, RACISM!!!!!

 

[Allshade]

If you read the article, the Notre Dame AD is basically talking about a new structure for D1 Sports with two levels:

1 level where sports teams are still tied to schools with academic requirements - the traditional model with 'student-athletes.'

and a second level where teams essentially operate outside of the academic structure. So the players might play under the banner of Directional State, but they do not attend class or have to meet traditional academic requirements.

like HS basketball vs AAU basketball to some extent.

under that type of structure, you would have two completely separate systems for conference titles, playoffs or bowl games.

obviously, that raises a lot of questions - media rights being at the top. I suspect that a lot of the media rights would be based on separate streaming agreements - at the conference level or even at the individual school level. By the mid-2030's, who knows if cable TV even still exists.

What the notre dame ad doesn't explain is why will this two tier system become inevitable. Can someone please explain in simple terms why this two tier system (or something like it) is the future of D1 sports? I don't get it. Thanks.

 

[fmlizard]

If Nebraska, Ohio St, Michigan, and Penn St football programs leave the Big Ten for a college football super conference, godspeed to them.

at Nebraska in a CFB Super League. They think they lose a lot now...they might have losing streaks that put Osborne's best winning streaks to shame.

 

[Pete smith]

at Nebraska in a CFB Super League. They think they lose a lot now...they might have losing streaks that put Osborne's best winning streaks to shame.

Not when they can buy(legally) 4 and 5 athletes. Remember it is the only D1 school in the state. I can guarantee you Frosty (or AD)has already organized a collective that will become very active in the next months. Plan on it.

 

[Some guy]

Not when they can buy(legally) 4 and 5 athletes. Remember it is the only D1 school in the state. I can guarantee you Frosty (or AD)has already organized a collective that will become very active in the next months. Plan on it.

RetaliatoryTrade tariffs hit back at Nebraska and their NIL money diminishes and next thing you know Nebraska is full of free traders again.

 

[Go4Broke]

What the notre dame ad doesn't explain is why will this two tier system become inevitable. Can someone please explain in simple terms why this two tier system (or something like it) is the future of D1 sports? I don't get it. Thanks

Look at it this way. Even though the Gopher football team hasn't won a Big 10 title since 1967 many Gopher fans have gone into more than a few seasons since then with positive feelings about the team and their chances at taking a run at the title. Most of my friends have been laughing at me for decades because of my eternal optimism about the Gophers chances for the upcoming season. I believe the new NIL and transfer rules are going to make it all but impossible for the Gophers to ever again win a Big 10 title, or even play in the Rose Bowl which has been my dream since 1961.

The traditional college football power teams with their 80,000 -100,000 capacity stadiums, huge fan bases, and their free-spending alumni will substantially increase the already large gap between the haves and have-nots in college football in financial resources, facilities, and recruiting. Competitive games between the top echelon schools and the majority of Power 5 schools (including the Gophers) will happen far less often than they already do. Thus a two-tier split in Division I will become all but inevitable. Unlike the Notre Dame AD I think the split is is going to happen earlier than the mid-2030's.

 

[Allshade]

Look at it this way: Even though the Gopher football team hasn't won a Big 10 title since 1967 many Gopher fans have gone into more than a few seasons since then with positive feelings about the team and their chances at taking a run at the title. Most of my friends have been laughing at me for decades because of my eternal optimism about the Gophers chances for the upcoming season. I believe the new NIL and transfer rules are going to make it all but impossible for the Gophers to ever again win a Big 10 title, or even playing in the Rose Bowl, which has been my dream since 1961.

The traditional college football power teams with their 80,000 -100,000 capacity stadiums, huge fan bases, and their free-spending alumni will substantially increase the already large gap between the haves and have-nots in college football in financial resources, facilities, and recruiting. Competitive games between the top echelon schools and the majority of Power 5 schools (including the Gophers) will happen far less often than they already do. Thus a two-tier split in Division I will become all but inevitable. Unlike the Notre Dame AD I think the split is is going to happen earlier than the mid-2030's.

Thank you. That was a very clear and concise explanation. But it doesn't explain the two different systems he talks about: A traditional system and a system where the school licenses its name to a non-school operation to run a quasi college program. Why is that inevitable?

 

[Word]

Thank you. That was a very clear and concise explanation. But it doesn't explain the two different systems he talks about: A traditional system and a system where the school licenses its name to a non-school operation to run a quasi college program. Why is that inevitable?

I don't know if inevitable is the right word for me. Possible, sure.

 

[Gophers_4life]

If you read the article, the Notre Dame AD is basically talking about a new structure for D1 Sports with two levels:

1 level where sports teams are still tied to schools with academic requirements - the traditional model with 'student-athletes.'

and a second level where teams essentially operate outside of the academic structure. So the players might play under the banner of Directional State, but they do not attend class or have to meet traditional academic requirements.

like HS basketball vs AAU basketball to some extent.

under that type of structure, you would have two completely separate systems for conference titles, playoffs or bowl games.

obviously, that raises a lot of questions - media rights being at the top. I suspect that a lot of the media rights would be based on separate streaming agreements - at the conference level or even at the individual school level. By the mid-2030's, who knows if cable TV even still exists.

If the Big Ten decides to go that second route, and the U of MN basically just licenses its branding and rents out its athletic facilities to essentially professional teams that play as the "Minnesota Gophers" .... then I'll still watch those teams and the professional athletes they hire to represent the U of Minn on field/court against other such programs.

That's me.

But I understand why others would say "to hell with it" and just watch NFL/NBA/MLB, etc.

 

[Gophers_4life]

I see it a little differently since NIL. Currently the schools are not directly paying players. NIL allows boosters to pay players. In theory this could allow schools like OK State, Oregon, USC - or NIU if a crazy and wealthy enough benefactor steps in - to vacuum up the best players despite being outside the SEC or Big Ten. In practice maybe the collective cash donations from fans/boosters at Alabama and the like will keep them at the top, sure. Maybe the SEC will trade out Vanderbilt for OK State.

The big domino yet to fall is if/when athletes are reclassified as employees. At that point wholesale chaos and change seem inevitable.

Maybe a consortium of schools will decide to not allow any payment outside of cost of attendance, agree on salary caps, revenue distribution to promote a level playing field. Maybe an asteroid will strike earth today.

There are already students at every school who are (also) employees. Work study programs were a thing, I assume they still are. Or maybe it's just as simple as "we have X,Y,Z part time positions open, and are looking for students to apply to fill them", outside of an organized work study program.

Why is that different, just because the "job" is different?

 

[stocker08]

lol @ Notre Dame. They'd like nothing more for a D1 breakup because they already have their own private media contracts and their refusal to join a conference is an issue.

 

[Gophers_4life]

at Nebraska in a CFB Super League. They think they lose a lot now...they might have losing streaks that put Osborne's best winning streaks to shame.

They're still one of the "richest" national CFB brands out there, sadly. Even though they haven't done jack ___ to prove that on the field, pretty much since Pelini got fired.

They have boosters who will pay top dollar for 5* talent, to see the red N rise as high as Alabama.

Would be interesting to see how much their collective of boosters and fans could raise, if there was a magic genie who could say "if you can raise $XX million to pay for these 30 players, I guarantee you will win a national championship".

 

[Gophers_4life]

Look at it this way: Even though the Gopher football team hasn't won a Big 10 title since 1967 many Gopher fans have gone into more than a few seasons since then with positive feelings about the team and their chances at taking a run at the title. Most of my friends have been laughing at me for decades because of my eternal optimism about the Gophers chances for the upcoming season. I believe the new NIL and transfer rules are going to make it all but impossible for the Gophers to ever again win a Big 10 title, or even playing in the Rose Bowl, which has been my dream since 1961.

The traditional college football power teams with their 80,000 -100,000 capacity stadiums, huge fan bases, and their free-spending alumni will substantially increase the already large gap between the haves and have-nots in college football in financial resources, facilities, and recruiting. Competitive games between the top echelon schools and the majority of Power 5 schools (including the Gophers) will happen far less often than they already do. Thus a two-tier split in Division I will become all but inevitable. Unlike the Notre Dame AD I think the split is is going to happen earlier than the mid-2030's.

I think the reason for mid-2030's is that will be the timeframe when a lot of contracts are expiring, that "lock in" the TV rights of schools to their current conferences. So would be a "convenient" time to negotiate a huge overhaul of the system and perhaps make what would essentially be a new version of the old CFA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_Football_Association

 

[Gophers_4life]

Thank you. That was a very clear and concise explanation. But it doesn't explain the two different systems he talks about: A traditional system and a system where the school licenses its name to a non-school operation to run a quasi college program. Why is that inevitable?

IF things go like they currently are, then it probably isn't.

That last step is a big step.

But if more players organize and/or sue to press their rights to be paid like professionals ... then that's where I think you could see those bigger, more drastic dominoes maybe fall.

The schools/conferences still have their arguments to make about why that would "kill the golden goose", and judges may still side with them to block it. Or they (judges) may feel that the free market is the best tool to decide how much a college football player should be compensated, etc.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

Thank you. That was a very clear and concise explanation. But it doesn't explain the two different systems he talks about: A traditional system and a system where the school licenses its name to a non-school operation to run a quasi college program. Why is that inevitable?

the AD may not say it this bluntly, but I think he is talking about NIL.

If School A is bringing in a 5-star QB with a promise of $8-million in NIL money, while School B
is promising a good education and a chance to compete, then those are the two classes the AD is talking about.

One class of "no holds barred" schools buying athletes on the open market, and a separate class that is still trying to play under the traditional rules and systems.

If a school like MN is trying to play under the traditional model, then there is simply no way that MN is going to be able to pull in top-level talent - when that top-level player can go to an 'outlaw' school and make millions of dollars, and not have to worry about even the pretense of being a student.

NIL - in and of itself, is going to make the divide between the Halves and the Have-Nots so pronounced, that they will in fact be playing under two different sets of rules.

it will be like Major League Baseball where the Guardians have a $40-million payroll and the Dodgers have a $220-million payroll. Only worse.

 

[Word]

the AD may not say it this bluntly, but I think he is talking about NIL.

If School A is bringing in a 5-star QB with a promise of $8-million in NIL money, while School B
is promising a good education and a chance to compete, then those are the two classes the AD is talking about.

One class of "no holds barred" schools buying athletes on the open market, and a separate class that is still trying to play under the traditional rules and systems.

If a school like MN is trying to play under the traditional model, then there is simply no way that MN is going to be able to pull in top-level talent - when that top-level player can go to an 'outlaw' school and make millions of dollars, and not have to worry about even the pretense of being a student.

NIL - in and of itself, is going to make the divide between the Halves and the Have-Nots so pronounced, that they will in fact be playing under two different sets of rules.

it will be like Major League Baseball where the Guardians have a $40-million payroll and the Dodgers have a $220-million payroll. Only worse.

Dodgers are $290 million and Guardians are $69 million, but I get your point. Twins are surprisingly $135 million.

I agree with the overall premise of your post though.

 

[Gophers_4life]

But that's when you call up the top pitcher from last season in the California Penal League ...

 

[Some guy]

the AD may not say it this bluntly, but I think he is talking about NIL.

If School A is bringing in a 5-star QB with a promise of $8-million in NIL money, while School B
is promising a good education and a chance to compete, then those are the two classes the AD is talking about.

One class of "no holds barred" schools buying athletes on the open market, and a separate class that is still trying to play under the traditional rules and systems.

If a school like MN is trying to play under the traditional model, then there is simply no way that MN is going to be able to pull in top-level talent - when that top-level player can go to an 'outlaw' school and make millions of dollars, and not have to worry about even the pretense of being a student.

NIL - in and of itself, is going to make the divide between the Halves and the Have-Nots so pronounced, that they will in fact be playing under two different sets of rules.

it will be like Major League Baseball where the Guardians have a $40-million payroll and the Dodgers have a $220-million payroll. Only worse.

NIL isn’t able to be relguated at the lower of the two “new” levels whether they want to or not.

they literally won’t be playing under two sets of rules at least in terms of NiL