College sports are at an inflection point.
Approval of the long-awaited House v. NCAA settlement was finally granted on Friday, a decision set to reshape the future of college sports. And yet, so much of the industry’s future is still pinned to Congress and the hopes of federal legislation, all while private equity and “super league” models circle overhead. President Donald Trump recently considered a commission that would explore the issues facing the NCAA and college athletics, with Nick Saban expected to be involved.
An enterprise that has long had too many cooks in the kitchen now has all three branches of government and outside financing getting involved. (Wherefore art thou “stick to sports” crowd?) That’s on top of the current power struggle over the future of the College Football Playoff, and the expanding competitive gap between the power conferences and everyone else. All of it underscores just how fractured and dysfunctional college athletics have become, with no quick fixes in sight.
But for as dire as all of this might seem, it’s not a death rattle, either. College sports are broken and in desperate need of reform. And college sports will be just fine.
For too long the NCAA was trapped in amber, still trying to operate as a singular, all-encompassing,…
