Knight Commission makes drastic recommendations for reforming FBS football, including ditching the NCAA
The Knight Commission has made a recommendation that would create a huge shift in the makeup of college athletics.
The Knight Commission, which promotes reforms that support and strengthen the educational mission of college sports, recommended this week that FBS football break away from the NCAA and form a new organization, according to a report from Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic. It appears revenue, and how to control it, is the key point in this discussion.
Auerbach added that this is not a surprise, but it’s also a confusing setup, “as we saw this summer, when the NCAA doesn’t control the postseason of the sport. Revenue streams, etc. matter, too.”
Laine Higgins of the Wall Street Journal pointed out that, “If you had to boil down the timeline of college football, the moment when things became really messy happens in 1984. That’s when the NCAA ceded control of televising games, unlocking a new and VERY lucrative revenue stream for universities with successful teams.”
Here are some explanations about how the organizations would shift:
The Knight Commission is unveiling its major NCAA recommendations as we speak. Here’s No. 1: pic.twitter.com/P3f0Jz336S
— Nicole Auerbach 😷 (@NicoleAuerbach) December 3, 2020
Here’s No. 2: pic.twitter.com/DuXUg0piuy
— Nicole Auerbach 😷 (@NicoleAuerbach) December 3, 2020
Useful chart here re: FBS revenue distribution, Power 5 vs. Group of 5 edition pic.twitter.com/QJqU5WaIVq
— Nicole Auerbach 😷 (@NicoleAuerbach) December 3, 2020
Yawn. Good luck, chief.
I mean they’re not wrong
Right – the NCAA should be replaced with another organization that does everything the NCAA does but not be icky.
I’ll cede the floor to fans of schools that have been punished recently to explain the “moral bankruptcy” of the NCAA and why this makes sense.
Tick tock, tick tock…
Are you kidding me? Controlling revenue–that’s what Mr. Marx and Mr. Engels advocated. While this leftist commission is at it, maybe they should also mandate that the top 1% of football fans should pay for free tickets for the 99% of the rest of the fans.
The much more logical response to this would be to change college football and men’s basketball to sports where the players are compensated employees of the schools and not students. If they want to attend classes, they are welcome to attend classes at the same discounted rate that other employees receive. These players generate large revenue streams for the schools, so they should reclassify as workers rather than students. They will have to pay taxes like the rest of us. Maybe 32 of the top schools can break away and form the National College Football League, pay the players as they with salary caps similar to Major League Baseball and not the NFL, so that if Alabama signs players to more than 100 million dollars, they have to pay a luxury tax to the other teams not paying more than 100 million dollars. Have these 32 teams play under one TV contract.
All the other former P5 teams can then be like the old times before there were farm clubs and become like the PCL, IL, TL, and the SL in MILB. For instance, say the SMU QB is good enough to start at Texas A&M. The Aggies can purchase his contract from SMU by compensating SMU handsomely for the future star. SMU can then take that money and apply it in recruiting another future star QB from a Texas high school.
Please clarify. The Knight Commission recommended that BCS schools move to the NCFA. BCS includes 10 conferences and approximately 120 universities. There are 5 Power 5 conferences with about 60 universities and 5 Group of 5 conferences also with about 60 universities. Is the Knight Commission implying that the BCS be divided into 2 Divisions. The BCS for the Power 5 conferences which would be under the NCFA. And a new Division for the Group of 5 conferences that would stay in the NCAA. The implications would be interesting.
1. Most of the Group of 5 universities want to compete at the highest level so many would want to move to the NCFA. This will lead to major realignment of the conferences (which may be a good thing, think schools that are closer together geographically.
2. Some Power 5 universities like Wake Forest, Vanderbilt may want to stay in NCAA again leading to conference realignments.
3. The end result would be 5 college football divisions: