The charade is over. College athletes are now employees.

NFL Owners all play by the same rules that that isn't price fixing or collusion. NBA and NFL have salary caps and that isn't price fixing and not illegal. And if we go with that the players will likely form a union and will be part of the establishment of a salary cap.

 

If the teams that get into the "professional" model want to succeed, then they will all have to agree to some kind of level playing field. Level for the players as well as the schools. Just like the NFL. One issue nobody talked about is that in the NFL you can sign a Patrick Mahomes to a 12 year deal. In college they are only supposed to be there 4 years. In practice it will likely be less.

 

The NFL has anti trust protection. CFB doesn't.
Salary caps are negotiated in a CBA. College players would have to agree to it. The NFL and NBA players were given huge concessions in other areas to agree to a salary cap. One of them being receiving a heavy sum of the revenues.

 

They have a CBA and the players union agreed to the terms. Otherwise it is illegal. Your initial post suggested this was something the schools could just do on their own. Right now it’s not something they can do at all.

 

The other leagues also never had systems in place to circumvent a cap. CFB does.

 

I am sure that they would, provided the contract that contained the non-compete properly incentivized them. Currently, the market does not appear to be heading in that direction.

 

The NFL has also had lockouts and strikes to force negotiations. Right now, the schools aren’t even allowed to make payments directly, so all this talk is for naught. Laws will have to change before they can even begin to talk about any type of cba or salary cap (which won’t do much good anyway).

 

What are they not competing with? Who are they signing the non compete with? The NIL contracts aren’t even allowed to tie them to any specific school. The school itself can’t offer any more incentives.

 

This is the most succinct summary of the issue many have despite the attempts some will make to turn it political or assume prejudice. It's a farce at this point until it evolves into actual NIL.

 

I agree. Only thing I would counter with is that I just don’t see it going back to what it was. We will likely have to adapt to it, or move on from it. It’s an individual choice. For me, my enjoyment watching the games during the season hasn’t changed, except for the fact that we are losing. If we were winning, I’d likely feel the same watching as I did in the past. The tough part is the offseason, but really… should we be paying that close attention to transfers, recruitment, and NIL payments? If we just focus on the team from the beginning of the playing season to the end, then would it really matter?

 

And CFB would have to have the same thing and the players would have to have a CBA as well. There are relatively fewer players in the NBA vs CFB (or NFL for that matter). 2 billion dollars split up between 15 NBA players on 30 teams is a much much higher amount than split up between 80 players on 40 or 50 teams or how ever many decide to go that route, could be more.

 

It may not ever evolve into actual NIL. College has always had the bagman, now he’s been turned loose with a minimal amount of restrictions. I don’t see him ever going away. As long as some schools have guys willing to do it, all schools with a desire to win will have guys willing to do it.

 

Right now they aren’t even allowed to do what you want them to do. This is about much more than football too. Most of the numbers tossed around as revenue are athletic dept revenue. Unless college football separates itself from the schools (which means it’s no longer college football), all of the other sports programs are tied to the same system. A college players union won’t just be football players, unless the other programs are separated or killed off in the process. You’re either talking about a lot more than 80 players at 40-50 schools, or you’re talking about something that isn’t really college football anymore.

 

Oh I agree completely. Even if rules reel it in the usual suspects will circumvent them as they always have

 

True, which is why what I want is for the Universities to get together and tell everyone to pound sand. You want to get paid, go ahead and do that in some form of league that has nothing to do with the schools. Problem is that there are a certain sub set of schools that want to win for their fanbase sooooo bad, they are willing to pay the money.

 

So you are not in the we get good student athletes at Florida camp?

 

The Universities are not legally allowed to just get together and tell everyone who wants money to pound sand. I don’t know what you’re having such a hard time with here. The supreme court made this decision for them.

 

Unfortunately its way more complex than that. All of these major sports universities have invested heavily in Sports facilities taking on obscene amounts of debt to do so. I suspect if there weren't so much debt and the reliance on TV money to service that debt, then you might actually see something happen. If the money quotient were absent, I think most academic-types would generally just tolerate the athletics because it brings attention to their school. Unfortunately in the real world, the major Universities won't be able break free of this cycle they are in because of the revenue stream. Since the CFA won against the NCAA in the early 1980's, colleges have been painting themselves into a corner. Now that the dynamic has completely pivoted they are stuck there.

 

The supreme court is also not telling the universities they have to pay anything, that would be extortion, also illegal. If one university all by itself decided it wasn't going to pay, they would have to get players who weren't interested in money but an education. Then, if other schools did the same thing all by themselves then no collusion or anything.
It's not stopping any high school player from trying to find a professional league to get paid right out of high school. I don't see where the supreme court demanded that the schools are forced to provide some kind of quasi profession for high school students.

 

Colleges and Universities could withdraw from the NCAA, eliminate athletic scholarships, dismantle their athletic departments, and convert all their sports teams to club status within the 1 year if they wanted to. Nothing in Alston would prevent them from doing that. The problem is how do you pay for those debt-ridden, bloated facilities if you intend to do that.