Is college sport on life support?

[MooseLodge]

I never thought so until the recent Dartmouth ruling. This is a non-athletic scholarship school, where the court has ruled that the student athletes are employees, and they can collectively bargain with the university for compensation and benefits. This is thing is fast denigrating into a situation where there are no rules or guidelines of any sort. The courts have obliterated the NCAA. What's to keep players from being able to transfer from week to week, or month to month? What's to keep them from only taking a class or two to be eligible to play? What's to keep them from being eligible from now on, as long as they are enrolled in school? And if athletes at a non-scholarship school are considered employees and they can unionize, where does that leave ALL programs, from D3 and up?

The courts are ruling the various eligibility, transfer, and participation rules are antitrust. I don't see where that snowball finally stops, before the whole deal of college sport is something vastly different than what we know now.

I've never been so pessimistic about the future of college sport as I am right now. Certainly, these athletes should be protected by antitrust law, but the cure may well kill the whole thing. I don't see D2 programs that have the finances to employ athletes and collectively bargain with them. I see a bunch of presidents pulling the plug and moving on in a life without athletics, as below the top 40-60 programs in the US, it may not be feasible to have college athletics at all, unless it is all non-scholarship. Even that is in question with the Dartmouth ruling.

Are intramurals the new model of college athletics for the little guys? I think it's very possible.

Would love to hear thoughts and have discussion on this.

[zimmy21]

No. It is not dead, it is not dying. It is evolving as all things do.

[WVIAC-F-EVER]

College student athletes will eventually be college student athlete employees at every level - even d3 per the evidence presented and approved by nlrb… this will also effect graduate student, teaching assistant and research assistants at every college/university..

[Ship69]

I never thought so until the recent Dartmouth ruling. This is a non-athletic scholarship school, where the court has ruled that the student athletes are employees, and they can collectively bargain with the university for compensation and benefits. This is thing is fast denigrating into a situation where there are no rules or guidelines of any sort. The courts have obliterated the NCAA. What's to keep players from being able to transfer from week to week, or month to month? What's to keep them from only taking a class or two to be eligible to play? What's to keep them from being eligible from now on, as long as they are enrolled in school? And if athletes at a non-scholarship school are considered employees and they can unionize, where does that leave ALL programs, from D3 and up?

The courts are ruling the various eligibility, transfer, and participation rules are antitrust. I don't see where that snowball finally stops, before the whole deal of college sport is something vastly different than what we know now.

I've never been so pessimistic about the future of college sport as I am right now. Certainly, these athletes should be protected by antitrust law, but the cure may well kill the whole thing. I don't see D2 programs that have the finances to employ athletes and collectively bargain with them. I see a bunch of presidents pulling the plug and moving on in a life without athletics, as below the top 40-60 programs in the US, it may not be feasible to have college athletics at all, unless it is all non-scholarship. Even that is in question with the Dartmouth ruling.

Are intramurals the new model of college athletics for the little guys? I think it's very possible.

Would love to hear thoughts and have discussion on this.

I think there will continue to be college sports, although not in the manner we've known them. D2 schools provide financial aid for quite a number of athletes nows, so there is some money to employ them. Those who want to play at smaller colleges might have to take some combination of scholarship aid and direct financial renumeration. Obviously, the money of the D1 programs isn't there, so anyone who wanted to play at smaller schools would basically have to realize there was an upper limit to what the school could offer or play elsewhere. Real life would intrude as it often does now. D2 schools need athletes, but athletes who want to play at that level also need schools who field teams.

If D1 goes much farther, I think those schools might as well drop the pretense of the "student-athlete" thing and make clear they're doing what some, in effect, are doing now — hiring mercenaries to play football in the school's name. If they indeed want to get an education at the school, make the scholarship program part of their renumeration package. A full ride at schools such as Northwestern is no small amount of dollars. In the end, the best players will go to the highest bidders, and the football factories now will likely be the football factories of the future. I don't see 130 schools at the highest D1 level in the future. Competition is lopsided in favor of a few schools now. The 12-team playoff might help even things out, but I think the glory days of most mid-level P4 programs are largely behind them.

[SW_Mustang]

It's probably more popular than ever. It's changing (for better or worse) and people don't like it - that's all.

I think we'll see the landscape shift dramatically in a few different ways, but It's not going away.

[SW_Mustang]

If D1 goes much farther, I think those schools might as well drop the pretense of the "student-athlete" thing and make clear they're doing what some, in effect, are doing now — hiring mercenaries to play football in the school's name. If they indeed want to get an education at the school, make the scholarship program part of their renumeration package. A full ride at schools such as Northwestern is no small amount of dollars. In the end, the best players will go to the highest bidders, and the football factories now will likely be the football factories of the future. I don't see 130 schools at the highest D1 level in the future. Competition is lopsided in favor of a few schools now. The 12-team playoff might help even things out, but I think the glory days of most mid-level P4 programs are largely behind them.

I heard Arian Foster once suggest the idea of letting players just "major" in football. I think that would be a neat idea. I mean, many of them are anyway - so might as well just put a name on it.

[Tundra_Man]

I heard Arian Foster once suggest the idea of letting players just "major" in football. I think that would be a neat idea. I mean, many of them are anyway - so might as well just put a name on it.

And it looks good a few years later when you're applying for a job at the local car wash. :D

[SW_Mustang]

And it looks good a few years later when you're applying for a job at the local car wash. :D

Given what most of these guys are "majoring" in now - it wouldn't be that much different.

[MooseLodge]

And it looks good a few years later when you're applying for a job at the local car wash. :D

there's a whole lot of truth to this. These players transferring from school to school so that they can get more playing time are totally screwing themselves. They'll end up with nothing.

[SW_Mustang]

there's a whole lot of truth to this. These players transferring from school to school so that they can get more playing time are totally screwing themselves. They'll end up with nothing.

Or a person could spend 5 years at the University of North Carolina and end up with... nothing...

It's like Cardale Jones is famous for saying (tweeting) "...we came here to play football, we ain't come here to play school."

[MooseLodge]

Or a person could spend 5 years at the University of North Carolina and end up with... nothing...

It's like Cardale Jones is famous for saying (tweeting) "...we came here to play football, we ain't come here to play school."

bingo.

[northwest missouri state]

I never thought so until the recent Dartmouth ruling. This is a non-athletic scholarship school, where the court has ruled that the student athletes are employees, and they can collectively bargain with the university for compensation and benefits. This is thing is fast denigrating into a situation where there are no rules or guidelines of any sort. The courts have obliterated the NCAA. What's to keep players from being able to transfer from week to week, or month to month? What's to keep them from only taking a class or two to be eligible to play? What's to keep them from being eligible from now on, as long as they are enrolled in school? And if athletes at a non-scholarship school are considered employees and they can unionize, where does that leave ALL programs, from D3 and up?

The courts are ruling the various eligibility, transfer, and participation rules are antitrust. I don't see where that snowball finally stops, before the whole deal of college sport is something vastly different than what we know now.

I've never been so pessimistic about the future of college sport as I am right now. Certainly, these athletes should be protected by antitrust law, but the cure may well kill the whole thing. I don't see D2 programs that have the finances to employ athletes and collectively bargain with them. I see a bunch of presidents pulling the plug and moving on in a life without athletics, as below the top 40-60 programs in the US, it may not be feasible to have college athletics at all, unless it is all non-scholarship. Even that is in question with the Dartmouth ruling.

Are intramurals the new model of college athletics for the little guys? I think it's very possible.

Would love to hear thoughts and have discussion on this.

if anything it'll help the schools collectively. everything is so chaotic rn with unionization order can be negotiated.

in theory.

[Eagle74]

Fact is that only 1.6% of college football players make it to the NFL, so 98.4% better have a good backup plan.

It's clear that your chances for potential $uccess in life drastically improves with a good education.

[MooseLodge]

Fact is that only 1.6% of college football players make it to the NFL, so 98.4% better have a good backup plan.

It's clear that your chances for potential $uccess in life drastically improves with a good education.

Yeah, the only problem is, 98.4% of the players think they're in the 1.6%.

[Mule]

Fact is that only 1.6% of college football players make it to the NFL...

...and that percentage is even lower in D2.

Things are crazy and getting crazier at the D1 level, but I don't think too many D2 programs are going to find themselves in wholesale negotiations with multiple players. Some programs might have to negotiate with a couple every year or so, but I think the vast majority of D2 programs would hold the upperhand at this level and in this matter, as potentially opposed to the D1 counterparts. On the other hand, if unionization is the future across the board, then yeah, a lot of D2 programs probably will have to close shop...and a lot of kids who would have gotten a free education playing ball will suddenly find themselves in the employment line at Costco. Personally, I think most ballplayers are smarter than that...especially the ones who have taken Econ 101 their freshman year.