#10: The NCAA “got off easy settling House v. NCAA for more than $2.7B,” according to Coastal Carolina Chair of Athletics Joe Moglia, who writes: “Bankrupting the NCAA would have disbanded the organization’s ineffectual leadership and structure, making way for something that actually serves the needs of athletes and universities. But that’s not what happened. There is a prevailing sense the NCAA is ‘too big to fail’ and that collapse would irrevocably destabilize college athletics. This fear is shortsighted. If the NCAA disappeared tomorrow, it might disrupt a couple seasons, but the Conferences could quickly fill the void. … Does anyone really believe it’s impossible to hold a basketball tournament or a bowl game without the NCAA? Why go to such lengths to protect it? Unfortunately, too many administrators seem to prefer the status quo to leading.” The House settlement, Moglia continues, is tantamount to kicking the can down the road on further lawsuits while the “profound structural problems plaguing college sports remain—an out-of-control NIL marketplace, de facto unlimited free agency on the transfer portal, weak coaching contracts, and a playing field increasingly tilted against smaller programs.” Moglia suggests one option for reforming college sports would be to spin off football and men’s and women’s basketball into Professional Collegiate Athletics (PCA) while the rest of the sports would remain with the NCAA. The PCA would be set up with collective bargaining, binding contracts, direct payment of players, NIL deals, and more. The latter Amateur College Athletics (ACA) would limit compensation to scholarships and direct NIL deals with brands. Lots more. (link)
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#9: The College Football Playoff announces kickoff times for each of its games this season. (link) |
#8: Auburn selects Tennessee ACs Chris and Kate Malveaux to take over as Softball Co-HCs. (link) |
#7: South Carolina has parted ways with Baseball HC Mark Kingston after seven seasons. (link) |
#6: Texas AD Chris Del Conte on the rate of change within college athletics: “We’ve lost our voice of what college athletics is about. No one wants to hear that but only 2% of our student-athletes are going to go pro. The rest of them are going to be doctors, lawyers and great productive citizens.” Still, Del Conte accepts the changes that are coming: “I have 21 sports now. We’re funding all 21 sports, giving them incredible opportunities through the educational model. So this landscape, we’re just gonna have to adjust to it. We’ve all been there. We’ll figure it out. It’s just different pressures now.” (link)
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#5: A former Boston College Women’s Tennis assistant coach says the Eagles head coach “set out on a campaign to undermine and alienate” her out of professional jealousy and gender bias, alleging she was fired in retaliation after complaining about this to administrators. More behind the Law360 paywall. (link)
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#4: Long Island promotes Deputy AD Elliott Charles to AD. LIU President Kimberly Cline: “We are fortunate to have someone with Elliott's athletic leadership experience in this important role. He is committed to excellence and his student-centered approach will continue to elevate LIU's championship athletics program.” Charles: “I am honored and excited to serve LIU, our student-athletes, and sport programs in this critical leadership capacity. Our student-athletes continue to excel academically, and I am looking forward to sustaining and enhancing our well-established competitive success.” (link)
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#3: Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins believes the “problem with college sports isn’t the athletes. It’s the schools.” She goes on: “The college athlete isn’t the one who needs reminding he or she is a student. It’s the colleges that forgot — they’re the ones that ran so profiteeringly amok that they turned athletes into labor law case studies. Once you make that simple thought reversal, the NCAA’s mess becomes easier to sort out. It’s going to take an act of Congress to fix it, you bet. But what needs regulating is the conduct of the schools, not the kids.” Further, Jenkins believes the litany of antitrust casts and legislative reform bills in headlines of late all “slightly miss the mark because they wrongly focus on athlete behaviors rather than institutional ones.” Jenkins lauds insight from former UC Davis AD Kevin Blue, who in his open letter to NCAA President Charlie Baker states: “From a behavioral economics perspective, financial decision-making in college sports has been perfectly rational within the structures of the current system. They have chased their own competitive self-interest, the natural result of what he calls an ‘eat-everything-you-can-possibly-kill system.’” Jenkins sums up her stance: “Alabama should have to eat its own rotting meal, not shove it down Seton Hall’s throat.” Lots more. (link)
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#2: Sports Business Journal’s Ben Portnoy gets more viewpoints from industry leaders on what the House settlement could mean for the future of college athletics. Texas AD Chris Del Conte: “The House settlement [affects] the NCAA and what they do and we’re looking at, ‘what are the ramifications moving forward?’ Because, to me, House is taken care of through [the NCAA]. What does it look like? We don’t know. There’s so many unknowns. It’s one of those things, it’s hard to speculate until the details have been ironed out.” Interesting comment from an unnamed source: “People had a really good excuse during COVID to [cut sports] because you’re $30-$40 million short, and [people] got sued and had to reinstitute programs. I don’t think you’re going to see that. What I think you’re going to see is the amount of food that we were giving to athletes, because they didn’t have money to eat, well, now they do. We’re cutting that. … The student-athlete feel-good stuff that we did for recruiting advantage, yeah, we’re not doing that anymore.” More. (link)
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#1: St. Bonaventure selects Le Moyne AD Bob Beretta for the same role. SBU President Jeff Gingerich: "Bob has every characteristic we were seeking in an AD. He's a planner, a builder and a leader, someone who's willing to be collaborative to build a special team through action and accountability with the student-athlete always at the center of everything. The fact that he's an alum is simply a bonus, but having a deep appreciation of our mission and values is an asset that will prove invaluable. … What really impressed me about Bob was the number of innovative, student-focused programs he established at both Army and Le Moyne.” Beretta: "To have the chance to return and serve my alma mater, the institution that transformed me academically, socially and professionally, the place that inculcated all the values I was able to take into my career, is an amazing opportunity. Everything I've done in my life points back to my time in the Enchanted Mountains." ESPN's Pete Thamel reported it first. (link, link)
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