Article: What Even Are College Sports Conferences In 2024?

The absurd amount of money being talked about in NIL will level out and steady downwards. But it's not a broken system, it's the freest system college athletes could ever hope for.

 

The SCOTUS certainly did not ALLOW amateur athletes to become employees. However they didn't disallow it, either. Its under the control of the institutions and the organizations they belong to. If not banned by individual State law, employment could be offered.

The NCAA has found itself as virtually powerless against the various State laws and several State AG's have joined the lawsuits against it. The divisions between the States and Conferences have rendered the NCAA an anachronism which I don't believe will be much longer for this world.

 

Th NCAA is major problem to college athletics for many reasons. I believe they are corrupt to the core and that's the reason why they pick winners and losers when it comes to handing out sanctions. But, like I said, no one is sanctioning full-on employment of college athletes to their schools. That myth and desire is coming from NFL people, and people that are being paid to agree with and push that idea.

 

The ones that stand to gain the most are the players I would think. What does the nfl have to gain? They already are getting a free minor league that they have no obligation to. How could it possibly be a better of an advantage for nfl?
Schools are the ones who have been getting the free rosters and having the fans pay under the table for rosters. The luring and cheating has been done by the college fans and the schools have raked in the cash. It’s time to come above board. Courts haven’t forced anyone to do anything. They just said what should be obvious,” you can’t prevent “ someone from making a living.

 

My point is no one has to sanction it. Currently the NCAA has rules against it and is ostensibly a voluntary organization that sets policy for amateur college athletics. Conferences and/or individual colleges could leave the NCAA tomorrow and hire athletes as employees as long as there aren't State statutes against it. Heck, Virginia has already passed a law allowing direct payment to athletes from schools in direct conflict with NCAA rules. We know the NCAA will cave. They always do and so all States will have to pass a similar law to remain competitive.

I wish I could believe that college athletics will remain an amateur sport because I hate the alternative. Unfortunately, I can't see the NCAA or amateur athletics in a college setting surviving the rampant greed much longer.

 

The ncaa is just the major money making colleges prop to hide behind. It’s the wolf guarding the henhouse. They are only there to do what’s best financially for the moneymakers. The rest of the schools have no say so.

 

Maybe there should be no conferences.

 

I would say yes and no to that. Yes, they are definitely raking it in, but what the NCAA makes and distributes on running championship events pales in comparison the TV rights deals that the conferences make (or ND who makes their own). The schools have a say so, but part of the problem is that Slippery Rock State has the same amount of say so that Michigan or Alabama have, and trying to compare the two college athletic environments between the two is apples and oranges. Additionally, the NCAA recently proposed lowering the number of school representatives on their executive committee, thus reducing representation. Honestly I believe that NCAA has far outlived its usefulness and the top X conferences that play big-money football and basketball should withdraw and form their own organization. Perhaps the NCAA can live on for colleges that want to offer athletics but have no intention of moving to the pro model and want to retain amateur status.

 

The NFL would love that...

 

I would actually say the smaller schools are the only reason anything ever got enforced.

 

What part do you think Vandy would have in getting us sanctioned? Not sure what angle your looking at.

 

The smaller schools are the majority. Strength in numbers.

 

Just so it's clear, the NCAA isn't some profit making entity. It's a non-profit organization that essentially is an association of the member schools. The Board of Directors is made up of 20 university presidents and chancellors. At least in theory, other than staff salaries and costs directly associated with events it coordinates, like March Madness, the rest of the revenue goes to scholarships and grants.

To your point, I agree that the NCAA's usefulness has waned and that's part of the reason we're seeing what's going on with the Big-10 and SEC now. A big part of the problem is that, as you say, the smaller schools/conferences are getting the same say as the big schools/conferences, and things like expanding the college football playoff to let more smaller conference schools in and more evenly distributing revenue to smaller conferences are not exactly what the historical state land grant blue bloods in the SEC and Big-10, who have built the college football brand over generations want.

The problem is the historical state land grant universities have capped enrollment to increase standards, which has led to the explosion of huge secondary universities (like UCF and USF). NCAA has made it easier for these newer schools to gain FBS status, and as you stated have an equal vote. In the Fall, the Big-10 will have 18 members and the SEC will have 16. That's 34 total votes. By my rough count, the rest of the FBS conferences should have over 90 votes. I expect them to continue to add more and more of these smaller state universities and metro universities as they meet the undergraduate enrollment requirements.

To your point, those 90+ non SEC/Big-10 FBS votes are going to have more power in the NCAA than the 34 SEC/Big-10 schools that probably easily represent 75%+ of the entire college football revenue, which probably represents the vast majority of the entire college sports revenue. I completely agree with you that something has got to give. The current NCAA model just doesn't work anymore.

Either the NCAA needs to give the schools and conferences that generate the most revenue a disproportionate representation, which I don't see happening, or the Big-10 and SEC, at least in football, are going to have to find a way to operate outside of the NCAA.

 

THE BUG MESS (FKA Big 10 + 6)

The SEC & Squatters (fka The Southeastern Conference)

 

Or... fight like hail to keep the SEC from adding 2...4...6 more teams. We are as big as we need to be, and any bigger could make it easier for this experimental NFL "AFC"/ "NFC" super league that would make college football one step closer to a semi-pro league that I most definitely do not want.

Forget adding more team let the B1G Conference fall under their own weight of add-ons an let them rethink their mistake.

The SEC should not expand... and never agree to super league, nor should the SEC ever agree to one (BS) commissioner type conference leader. We need to keep a close eye on Sankey too. I don't trust him.

 

Looked at through this lense....what's the point of college football/"amateur athletics"?