They can sign players to help them market business services, however, the key will be to ensure the players are doing work, not just taking the money and coasting

The contracts are the glue that keeps the pros from chaos and having players move every year. It’s amazing how college football is chasing every possible dollar while avoiding the key controls that are needed.

has unlimited player movement without contracts.

in hopes they avoid opening up that can of worms. This strategy will probably only work for so long, but eventually the schools will be forced to deal with this issue. At least I don't see how the schools will be able to avoid it for an indefinite period of time.

It is really the only rationale way forward.

then they can claim the direct payments are similar to a student participating in a school's work-study program. If the schools decide to enter into multi-year contracts with the athletes, then they could be encroaching on the possibility that these athletes are really more like the school's other employees. If the athletes are more like a professor, secretary, maintenance worker, or whatever other position you want to include on the list, then it opens the door to whether the school can require the athletes to fulfill an education requirements and/or limit the athlete's window of eligibility since the schools currently don't have those requirements with their regular employees.

is anything like work-study...because it's not. Not sure why multi-year contracts would make a difference either. I don't think that's common for university employees. Don't believe I ever signed for more than a year for multiple positions, both faculty and staff, across multiple schools.

Edge sword. Ask any NFL/MLB/NBA fan. It's great when your team has multi year control of a good to great performing player. It stinks when the player doesn't perform due to injuries or lack of talent. Traditionally, 1/4 of freshman recruits wash out as non performers. Imagine Austin Clark on a multi year contract. Having no collective bargaining, colleges/collectives can structure the contract where they (not the player) have annual options to renew for the next year. That being said it is in the player's interest to front load the mo ey as much as possible. Contracts may also be a way to get transfer fees if a,player ransfers"up" through an exit fee that is paid by the new college's collectives. Lots of directions this can go. ** Edited by PadrosWindup at 7/23/2025, 12:58:36 PM

the purpose of colleges and universities, they may not be able to cleanly separate the "straight sports point of view" from the mission because history has interwoven them over the years. Yes, I can list multiple examples (mostly soccer and rugby) in other countries where a college/university either directly or indirectly owns a pro team after said team spun off from the school. So the concept isn't really foreign even though it may be foreign in the US. What I am most curious to see play out is how long the schools, particularly the P2 schools, are able to avoid that from becoming their destination and what decisions are made (including any damages) along the way. If the schools are able to manipulate the situation to end up at a different destination, then that's great for them. It still doesn't change that the train will cross the point of no return which will decide their final destination. Time will tell if the schools have already crossed the point of no return or not.

I think we would be better off if we picked a lane. However, that would require alignment across the participating schools, which is not going to happen.

It may be neutral given that schools will likely be impacted differently regardless of what decision a conference (or school) makes going forward. Some ACC schools may be in a position where they can easily afford to treat all their athletes as employees. While other ACC schools may say that path is "too rich for my blood" and opt for a different path. Instead of viewing the decision at the conference level, it may be more accurate to say the decision will be made at the school level and those decisions will eventually roll up to the conference level. Now that isn't to say that the conference won't make a decision too because it will have to at some point. The decision is the only way a conference can clearly and publicly articulate to schools, who may be interested in joining a conference at a future date, what the requirements will be in order to secure a membership in said conference. Regardless if it is the public sector or the private sector, we can all think of examples where the "solution" to a problem is to continue kicking the can down the road until that option is no longer possible. I don't think the schools avoiding the issue as being any different. Particularly since the schools are able to continue to have their cake and eat it too. Now the schools may have to eventually share the money they are pocketing today. They are willing to wait for that "some day" to come when they are forced to cross that bridge instead of being proactive about it because they can justify the decision by saying the money does more good in their pockets instead of someone else's pocket. Hence why Big12 guy said in another post that real change will only come about when some external entity makes the change for them. If you are a fox and in charge of guarding the hen house, then why would you willing give it up?

Or can, really, as long as they're all sharing space under the same NCAA umbrella. The "schools" are not "pocketing" money. All these changes alter how the money is shared, but it's not like shareholders are getting healthy dividend/distribution checks or execs are getting sweet stock deals. And sports aren't some great financial boon to schools' overall finances...were talking about a fairly self-contained island that's a pretty small chunk of a typical football school's overall budget. I think the can-kicking is tied up in schools not wanting to admit that big time sports really have nothing to do with academics...you know, that thing the schools actually exist for.

leave a conference to either join another conference or go the Independent route.