How would you fix college sports?

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

I don’t think you can change NIL and I don’t really know all the details.

Two things I’d change:

One transfer per player, period. No exceptions.

Four seasons of eligibility. Medical year only if you were hurt in first half of schedule. No graduate student years, no COVID year, nothing else.

 

[bhawk24bob]

Get it down to two conferences under one roof and get a collective bargaining agreement in place

 

[Bank of Hawk]

Keeper league setup.. schools can lockup good players for four year contracts but only allowed a certain number of those contracts and can do one year contracts for the rest. Schools and players negotiate the pay with an upper limit. Players can take advantage of making money through advertisements and endorsements.

 

[funksouljon]

NIL needs to be contract based and not hand shake.
NIL needs to be regulated and needs a tax based organization to give funds. e.g. fans should NOT be allowed to create NIL offerings. Should go through some org.
Money (NIL or other) should have education incentives as well as performance.

I agree NIL isn't going anywhere but the Wild West needs to be "fixed".

Transfers should be limited or at least have certain conditions, but 1 and done needs to be limited.

If we continue to pretend they are Student Athletes, they need professional education INCLUDING making the % chance of a pro contract very clear on rarity. Likely make it school / conference based....

 

[alaskanseminole]

I don’t think you can change NIL and I don’t really know all the details.

Two things I’d change:

One transfer per player, period. No exceptions.

Four seasons of eligibility. Medical year only if you were hurt in first half of schedule. No graduate student years, no COVID year, nothing else.

In no particular order:

• Cap NIL
• Contracts and/or performance payouts.
• One transfer that doesn't impact playing time, a second, but you sit a year.

 

[rfgiowa]

1. NIL needs to be fixed with a cap and contracts.
2. One transfer only.
3. Overtime rule in football needs to be changed again.

 

[mnole03]

First, we burn down the University of Miami.

 

[SeaPA]

1. Five years to play 4. I'm fine with allowing appearance in a few games to not count, either 3 or 4. No exceptions, no additional year because you got hurt.

B. First transfer is "free." After that you have to sit a season. If you haven't redshirted already you can use it the sit out season (i.e. played every game as a freshman at School 1; transfer to school 2 you are eligible; play 2nd year at school 2, then transfer to school 3, you have to sit out the season but still have 3 years left; but if you'd already used your redshirt, you lose a year of eligibility the year you sit).

3. Some type of salary cap per team on NIL money.

C. Maximum roster of 85.

5. If your team colors include orange, your roster size is limited to 40 and your salary cap only 25% of that for schools with proper colors.

 

[desihawk]

Somebody should tweet the question to Musk and Ramaswamy. One of them will post an answer within the hour that will have many of us rioting in the streets

 

[Aardvark86]

I don’t think you can change NIL and I don’t really know all the details.

Two things I’d change:

One transfer per player, period. No exceptions.

Four seasons of eligibility. Medical year only if you were hurt in first half of schedule. No graduate student years, no COVID year, nothing else.

I think the only fix to nil is an industry collective bargaining contract.

And I hate saying that

 

[Urohawk]

Get rid of revenue sharing. It's killing all the Olympic sports. The US is going to suck at the Olympics in about 15 years when there is no development anymore.

Have the SEC and B10 break out of the NCAA. Doesn't that make all these required contracts and court rulings null and void if the entity doesn't exist anymore? Develop a salary cap and make it a semi pro league for football and basketball. Make the rest of the college sports ncaa based.

 

[hawkeyetraveler]

My idea:

• Institute a salary cap and collective bargaining for players
• Any (non-endorsement) NIL goes against the salary cap as do university salary payments. This is written into each player’s contract
• Any school that violates the above is ineligible for post-season play and receives scholarship reductions
• Any player that fails to report extra NIL money loses all eligibility
• Players are eligible to receive all the endorsement money they want just like other pro athletes, they just can’t receive freebies like they do today

I think this solves as much of the issue as could be solved. Larry Ellison could not write the 10M check for the Michigan QB as it would go against the cap, oracle could however sign the kid to a 10M endorsement deal…although shareholders might say something about that,

 

[onlyTheObvious]

Going to cap how much a player makes with endorsements?

Which technically is what NIL is.

Roflmao.

 

[The Tradition]

First, we burn down the University of Miami.

Now we're getting somewhere....

 

[bagdropper]

Honestly, it's unfixable. Not major college sports (as we knew it) anyway. It was only a matter of time, and unfortunately we're living through its demise today.

One day, probably by roughly the year 2040 - "college" will be removed from what we now call college sports.

 

[Herky T Hawk]

The courts keep on ruling in favor of the players and against the governing body. Because of that, there is no easy fix.

College sports as we know it basically has to roll back the clock decades. The big money side of football has to be separated from colleges. It would become a minor league of professionals. Players are allowed to enter this league right out of high school but forego the ability to participate in the college league. Players retain full NIL, are signed to salaried contracts, and teams have salary caps like the NFL.

The new college sports requires a signed contract where players agree to sign over full NIL rights during their scholarship and stipend period. This creates a pseudo salary cap for rosters. Players have 5 years to play 4 seasons and the contract is automatically renewed unless the player opts out between Jan 1 and Jan 31 each year. No extra seasons for any cause. When a player’s eligibility expires they can move to the other leagues. Players can leave early for the other leagues during their opt out window.


There’s other details involved, but basically college has to get smaller with less money to survive. I think granting exclusive NIL rights to the school in exchange for the scholarship/stipend is the only way to do it.

 

[Aardvark86]

The courts keep on ruling in favor of the players and against the governing body. Because of that, there is no easy fix.

College sports as we know it basically has to roll back the clock decades. The big money side of football has to be separated from colleges. It would become a minor league of professionals. Players are allowed to enter this league right out of high school but forego the ability to participate in the college league. Players retain full NIL, are signed to salaried contracts, and teams have salary caps like the NFL.

The new college sports requires a signed contract where players agree to sign over full NIL rights during their scholarship and stipend period. This creates a pseudo salary cap for rosters. Players have 5 years to play 4 seasons and the contract is automatically renewed unless the player opts out between Jan 1 and Jan 31 each year. No extra seasons for any cause. When a player’s eligibility expires they can move to the other leagues. Players can leave early for the other leagues during their opt out window.


There’s other details involved, but basically college has to get smaller with less money to survive. I think granting exclusive NIL rights to the school in exchange for the scholarship/stipend is the only way to do it.

That’s why collective bargaining is the only answer. Exception to antitrust claims

 

[Hoosierhawkeye]

Honestly, it's unfixable. Not major college sports (as we knew it) anyway. It was only a matter of time, and unfortunately we're living through its demise today.

One day, probably by roughly the year 2040 - "college" will be removed from what we now call college sports.

Ehh really this is just a men's football and basketball thing.

You will get occasional players in other sports who are making big money off NIL. Like Caitlyn Clark was and Livy Dunne. But for the most part the big money is only really going to affect men's football and basketball.

 

[jamesvanderwulf]

Standardized college entrance exams and core courses, then standardized testing on those courses to check progress towards their degree. Three years of core then two more years of coursework in your major. You’re eligible as long as your test scores remain at the appropriate level…

 

[Herky T Hawk]

Standardized college entrance exams and core courses, then standardized testing on those courses to check progress towards their degree. Three years of core then two more years of coursework in your major. You’re eligible as long as your test scores remain at the appropriate level…

Academic eligibility isn’t nearly the problem anymore that it was decades ago. Schools pump so much money into academic advising and tutors for student athletes to keep them eligible that they have to try to get bad grades.

Iowa built the Gerdin Athletic Learning Center by Slater Hall over 20 years ago just for that purpose. Before that we had to go to CHA to meet with our advisors and tutoring was limited and often done in the basement of Quad out in the open or other random places.

 

[jamesvanderwulf]

Wouldn’t matter to me whether you studied in the basement of the Quad or the Taj Mahal as long as you scored at least a 75 on the independently administered standardized test. Then you’re eligible to play…

 

[millah_22]

In no particular order:

• Cap NIL
• Contracts and/or performance payouts.
• One transfer that doesn't impact playing time, a second, but you sit a year.

Cap NIL under the base NFL or NBA rookie contracts (I'm talking 7th round), and if they feel like they can earn more than that then go pro.

All NIL deals need to be public record, any under the table or hidden deals should result in penalty.

Million dollar mercs like Cam Ward, Dillon Gabriel, Will Howard, etc need to end.

 

[SoDakHawk]

Congress needs to step in with legislation granting antitrust exemption. That's where it all has to start.

 

[beanerhawk]

Going to cap how much a player makes with endorsements?

Which technically is what NIL is.

Roflmao.

That's what it was suppose to be. The original thought is you should be able to get a contract with Nike if they are willing to give it to you. Or a car dealership, of clothing line.. doesn't matter but that was the intent.

Now it's just players sitting in a coaches office saying, I'll come here or stay here for 500k a year to play safety. If you can't give me that then State college said they would.

 

[millah_22]

That's what it was suppose to be. The original thought is you should be able to get a contract with Nike if they are willing to give it to you. Or a car dealership, of clothing line.. doesn't matter but that was the intent.

Now it's just players sitting in a coaches office saying, I'll come here or stay here for 500k a year to play safety. If you can't give me that then State college said they would.

Right. My naive ass thought "ya players should get money from the book store for selling jerseys with their numbers on it."

Never did I once think of donation based collectives and agents and such.

 

[Rifler]

1. Five years to play 4. I'm fine with allowing appearance in a few games to not count, either 3 or 4. No exceptions, no additional year because you got hurt.

B. First transfer is "free." After that you have to sit a season. If you haven't redshirted already you can use it the sit out season (i.e. played every game as a freshman at School 1; transfer to school 2 you are eligible; play 2nd year at school 2, then transfer to school 3, you have to sit out the season but still have 3 years left; but if you'd already used your redshirt, you lose a year of eligibility the year you sit).

3. Some type of salary cap per team on NIL money.

C. Maximum roster of 85.

5. If your team colors include orange, your roster size is limited to 40 and your salary cap only 25% of that for schools with proper colors.

I like this,.. but I'd drop the penalty for teams that make poor color choices.

 

[artradley]

I don’t think you can change NIL and I don’t really know all the details.

Two things I’d change:

One transfer per player, period. No exceptions.

Four seasons of eligibility. Medical year only if you were hurt in first half of schedule. No graduate student years, no COVID year, nothing else.

What problems do those things fix?

 

[Hans81]

Get it down to two conferences under one roof and get a collective bargaining agreement in place

If so, Iowa State would need to be left out of those two conferences. 😉

 

[noleclone2]

That's what it was suppose to be. The original thought is you should be able to get a contract with Nike if they are willing to give it to you. Or a car dealership, of clothing line.. doesn't matter but that was the intent.

Now it's just players sitting in a coaches office saying, I'll come here or stay here for 500k a year to play safety. If you can't give me that then State college said they would.

Yep and everything about this model is unsustainable because it is not just Football players. We are having to get fans to pay millions for basketball rosters and pay for baseball players, women’s sports players in addition to the scholarships.

And there is no true profit being generated like in a professional sport. It is all in pursuits of national championships and in the end, the fans, both the whale boosters and the small time fan giving 10 bucks are going to stop giving money. Ratings will dive if football becomes simply whose alumni fan base can spend the most money year after year and the end result is only same 10-15 programs with a chance every year. People will stop watching- there is no market for a developmental league for NFL or second pro football league.

 

[onlyTheObvious]

Nothing is going to collapse. Some schools will not have big time NIL boosters and that’s that.

If you think somebody like Minnesota is going to drop football because they can’t compete for NIL and just pass on their $100,000,000 network checks you are nuts.

 

[funksouljon]

Ehh really this is just a men's football and basketball thing.

You will get occasional players in other sports who are making big money off NIL. Like Caitlyn Clark was and Livy Dunne. But for the most part the big money is only really going to affect men's football and basketball.

How do you define "big money"? I do agree with you overall, BUT, it has already started to trickle to other sports. E.g. Oklahoma lost out on a pitching star because Texas Tech NIL money was $1M to get a transfer. Previous largest was in the $175k range, which was also "big money". It isn't as prevalent, I agree, but its coming hard and fast (thats what she said).

Average NIL baseball roster in the SEC is just under $1M. Baseball players can jump straight to the bigs, so I expect that will slow the large $s in college baseball for a while, but it's coming there as well IMO.

 

[beanerhawk]

Nothing is going to collapse. Some schools will not have big time NIL boosters and that’s that.

If you think somebody like Minnesota is going to drop football because they can’t compete for NIL and just pass on their $100,000,000 network checks you are nuts.

100% agree, way to much money to be made by a lot of people for it to collapse. Where there are thousands of people making millions of dollars each it's not going anywhere.

Just sucks that it's a train wreck is all and not much fun anymore. Out side of Iowa playing and a few big bowl games I don't even watch anymore. Not a protest or anything, just can't follow along enough to know the players anymore.

 

[Hoosierhawkeye]

Yep and everything about this model is unsustainable because it is not just Football players. We are having to get fans to pay millions for basketball rosters and pay for baseball players, women’s sports players in addition to the scholarships.

And there is no true profit being generated like in a professional sport. It is all in pursuits of national championships and in the end, the fans, both the whale boosters and the small time fan giving 10 bucks are going to stop giving money. Ratings will dive if football becomes simply whose alumni fan base can spend the most money year after year and the end result is only same 10-15 programs with a chance every year. People will stop watching- there is no market for a developmental league for NFL or second pro football league.

IDK the connection with the institutions seems strong even if they are basically pro-teams with a college name.

 

[onlyTheObvious]

100% agree, way to much money to be made by a lot of people for it to collapse. Where there are thousands of people making millions of dollars each it's not going anywhere.

Just sucks that it's a train wreck is all and not much fun anymore. Out side of Iowa playing and a few big bowl games I don't even watch anymore. Not a protest or anything, just can't follow along enough to know the players anymore.

Smart play is for a school like Northwestern is to not even try to compete and just cash the big TV checks as a revenue stream. Good lord, imagine how much tuition could be lowered.

 

[funksouljon]

Smart play is for a school like Northwestern is to not even try to compete and just cash the big TV checks as a revenue stream. Good lord, imagine how much tuition could be lowered.

Why do that? Lower the price of the tuition, you lower the perceived value of the degree. Harvard / Yale / etc have enough endowment money they don't need to charge; they need to continue to charge as part of the perceived exclusivity and value. Studies show this time and time again.

 

[Old_wrestling_fan]

Honestly, it's unfixable. Not major college sports (as we knew it) anyway. It was only a matter of time, and unfortunately we're living through its demise today.

One day, probably by roughly the year 2040 - "college" will be removed from what we now call college sports.

The OP's question is a good one...I can say for sure that what is going on now is not going to be sustainable, but I also admit that I do not have any good ideas on simple, as in achievable, fixes.

Somehow, a movement to pay the players something so as to give them "pizza money", etc, has QUICKLY escalated into 6 and even 7, figure annual payouts...to some players. Yikes! I will be ding-donged before I ever contribute to a fund to pay the players more when I could otherwise put those coins in my grandchildren's college savings fund or give them to a young family in need, etc.

How can there be so much money involved and there be none, or nowhere near enough apparently, to float the players' salaries???? That's just corruption to me.

Just go to a minor league system, not associated with a college.

 

[Old_wrestling_fan]

Ehh really this is just a men's football and basketball thing.

You will get occasional players in other sports who are making big money off NIL. Like Caitlyn Clark was and Livy Dunne. But for the most part the big money is only really going to affect men's football and basketball.

Well how do you propose that the other sports are then funded? Because men's FB and BB pretty much carry every other sport.

 

[Whiskeydeltadeltatango]

Mammories.

Lots and lots of Mammories.

 

[gohawks50]

Since the NFL basically uses college football as a minor league, maybe they could get involved in solving the problem.

 

[funksouljon]

Since the NFL basically uses college football as a minor league, maybe they could get involved in solving the problem.

I laugh, because while having the players "trained" and ready for contract vs the Wild West we have building now would help them, this is likely a chaos they don't want to get into. They have been low cost recipients of the beneficial old system for a long time.


You created this mess, you fix it" - probably the NFL