In laying out a proposed vision for the future in major college athletics last week, NCAA President Charlie Baker said a lot of things that make sense in the context of modern sports and go against the paradigm that has historically defined college sports.
“First, we must make it possible for all Division I colleges and universities to offer student-athletes any level of enhanced educational benefits they deem appropriate,” he wrote in a letter to more than 350 Division I schools. “Second, the rules must change for any Division I school, at its option, to engage in name, image and likeness licensing opportunities with student-athletes.”
He said the disparity between FBS schools — the top financial and competitive level in Division I — and all other schools is growing, writing that “the challenges are competitive and financial and are further complicated by the intersection of name, image and similarity opportunities.” for student-athletes and transfer portal access.”
But in calling for a recognized, regulated level of schools with rules about increased spending, Baker’s comments somehow fell short. He said the consolidation would be voluntary and that Power Five schools would have the option to enter – or not – into this new financial level that would Requires Schools to pay at least half of their athletes $30,000 annually.
But in reality, each of the Five Power Schools would have no choice but to be a part of it. And Becker’s ideas – while a work in progress, which is good to acknowledge – would create a larger gap within this higher level of schools than exists now if schools were allowed, he writes, to offer “any level of education-enhancing benefits they saw fit.” “
Instead, what should happen in a structure like this is some sort of “salary cap” for each school — and a salary floor. Without it, the recruiting process will simply be dominated by whichever school has the most money to offer players.
This is what we are already starting to see without any rules in place, as programs that pumped/raised early money into currently unaffiliated NIL groups throw six and seven figure deals at athletes in order to flip high school commitments and move high profile lands.
The Gophers football program has lost players to the portal and players have recently decommitted. It’s also happened in basketball. In basketball, it’s even more damaging because of the impact one or two players can have – as Marcus Fuller and I talked about on the Daily Delivery show on Friday.
Zero money may not be the primary motivation when athletes change their minds and change schools, but it’s foolish to think it’s not a factor. If “nothing” funds were controlled by schools rather than just donor-funded associations, the money schools could give would only grow and the gap between the haves and have-nots would widen.
So, if this top tier of big-money schools is created, there should be an upper limit on spending to give everyone a fairer shot at recruiting — just as there should be a minimum level of spending to make sure players participate in college sports making billions of dollars and to ensure The schools at the new level belong to this level.
Here are four more things to know today:
*The Wolves fell 17-2 early to the Mavericks on Thursday, and it looked like they might be headed toward some real adversity on top of their losing streak this season. Instead, they outscored Dallas 117-84 the rest of the way to improve to 18-5. This team is still impressive.
*It was shocking to see the Raiders score 63 points on Thursday, just four days after the Vikings beat them 3-0. As one emailer quipped to me this morning, Las Vegas has averaged 31.5 points over its last two games.
*On a somewhat related side note, Nick Mullins replaced Joshua Dobbs in that 3-0 game and led the Vikings to their only points. We already knew he would start Saturday’s game against the Bengals. What we learned, perhaps surprisingly on Thursday, is that Dubbs has been demoted to No. 3 on the depth chart while rookie Jarren Hall will serve as the backup.
“I wanted him to continue throughout the week, like he was playing, and use it as a real tool for his development and growth,” head coach Kevin O’Connell said.
I’d totally buy that if the Vikings were 4-9. But the Vikings are 7-6 and fighting for a playoff spot. They should look to Hall as the next best option to win the game at this point.
*Kudos to Patrick Rios for paying some attention to outgoing coach John Anderson and the Gophers baseball program.
The implementation of the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rules in college sports has sparked a significant debate about the possible imposition of a “salary ceiling” and floor for big-time college athletes. While some argue that such limitations are necessary to maintain the amateur status of college athletes and prevent recruiting imbalances, others believe that these restrictions would undermine the purpose of the NIL rules and limit the earning potential of student-athletes. This contentious issue raises important questions about the future of college sports and the fair compensation of student-athletes.