Reimagining College Athletics: Detailed Analysis - (Part 2)

This one is long...but the devil is in the details.

​​Stakeholder Analysis in a Student Athlete Semi-Pro/ Pay-for-Play Model

NCAA President Charlie Baker noted that the House v. NCAA ruling is a temporary solution to the significant issue of compensating athletes while maintaining at least a tenuous connection to the educational model. This is the crux of the problem—all parties are trying to combine two things that are diametrically opposed. Power Four players are revenue-generating athletes benefiting a wide array of people, corporations, and other stakeholders, and they are trying to maximize their earning power based on a talent that is only available for 5–15 years. Education, at that stage in their lives, often becomes a distraction.

To truly solve the issue, the top revenue-generating sports must separate from the NCAA and form a semi-pro/pay-for-play league. This would allow players to be fairly compensated and given the runway to maximize their talents during their short earning window, with incentives to pursue education afterward.

To successfully develop a new model for major revenue-generating NCAA sports, it is essential to first conduct a comprehensive stakeholder analysis. This process ensures that each stakeholder group is fully understood, accounted for, and thoughtfully incorporated into the design of the new system. The landscape involves a highly complex network of stakeholders—including athletes, schools, conferences, media partners, governing bodies, and coaches. Overlooking even a single group could risk derailing the entire initiative. By building broad consensus and addressing the interests and concerns of all involved parties, the transition can be managed more smoothly, and the new model is more likely to gain long-term viability and support.

Key Stakeholders and Transition Considerations

Structure of the New Semi-Pro / Pay-for-Play League

Contracts & Eligibility

• All athletes must sign formal contracts, with flexible durations. Upon contract expiration, players become free agents.

• A four-year eligibility limit is imposed. While arbitrary in a newly formed league, it honors the traditional collegiate athletics model.

• Athletes are allowed one-time re-entry into the non-pay-for-play (amateur) league, but must sever all ties to sponsorships and endorsements.

Compensation & Salary Structure

• A salary cap will be enforced across all semi-pro teams to maintain competitive balance.

• A portion of each team’s revenue should be allocated for:

  • Revenue-sharing with the originating university

  • Supporting non-pay-for-play sports programs

• Athletes can earn salary bonuses for taking academic courses aligned with their declared major.

• If an athlete chooses not to take academic courses during their playing career, a portion of their salary is placed into escrow.

  • After retiring from professional play, they will have five years to complete their degree to unlock those funds.

• Create a structured salary system, possibly based on player star ratings, to assign athletes to compensation tiers.

  • EXAMPLE: Each football team can field a roster of 60 scholarship/paid players, structured into five tiers of 12 players each.

    • Each tier corresponds to a defined salary band based on star rating and expected contribution.

    • Teams must distribute their roster within these limits (e.g., 12 players at the top tier, 12 at the next, etc.).

    • Optional flexibility: Teams may exceed tier caps, but must pay a tax or luxury penalty, adding strategic depth to recruiting and roster management.

  • Incentives for retention: players who stay longer may unlock higher salaries or more immediate payouts.

  • Escrow accounts will play a key role in:

    • Deferring income for those who transfer

    • Encouraging athletes to complete their degrees in order to access withheld funds

  • Allow flexibility in contracts (1–4 years), enabling players to balance short-term gains and long-term security.

Academic Engagement & Life Skills

• Academics are optional while playing, but strongly encouraged and financially incentivized.

• All athletes must complete basic life skills courses, with an emphasis on financial literacy.

  • Completion of these courses unlocks portions of their salary.

Team Logistics & Facilities

• Each semi-pro team must have a roster size cap, ensuring roster stability and financial sustainability.

• Teams must be located within 50 miles of their affiliated school, preserving community ties and minimizing disruption.

• Teams may initially share facilities with their affiliated schools.

  • A phase-out plan should be in place to develop independent facilities.

  • Alternatively, teams can offer free facility access to the school as part of a “give-back” arrangement.

Seasonal Structure

• Game schedules, season lengths, and timing will mirror current collegiate sports calendars, maintaining familiarity for fans and broadcasters.

• Teams may implement mandatory practices and activities, consistent with professional-level expectations.

Governance & Leadership

• Establish a League Commissioner to oversee operations, enforce rules, and serve as the public face of the organization.

• Form an initial Board of Directors, composed of:

  • Either representatives from each participating conference,

  • Or one member from each semi-pro entity, modeled after the NFL ownership structure.

• Draft and ratify a formal set of bylaws, including:

  • Dispute resolution processes

  • Arbitration guidelines

  • Frameworks for union involvement

  • Revenue sharing

  • Salary cap

Media & Competition Structure

• Address and integrate legacy TV deals, ensuring contracts are honored or renegotiated to align with the new league’s structure.

• Allow limited cross-play between amateur and semi-pro teams, such as one sanctioned matchup per year between each amateur conference and its affiliated non-NIL league counterpart.

Player Representation & Movement

• Only certified agents may represent athletes, particularly during contract negotiations and league entry, ensuring players receive professional guidance.

• Establish a defined free agency period with strict anti-tampering rules.

• Implement a formal Draft system to allow non-pay-for-play (amateur) athletes to enter the semi-pro league.

• Maintain traditional high school recruiting pathways for team development.

• Require contract buyouts, trade protocols, and free agency policies, ensuring a structured player movement ecosystem.

Eligible Sports & Evaluation

• Clearly designate which sports will be part of the semi-pro league:

  • Immediate inclusions: Football, Men’s and Women’s Basketball, Baseball, Hockey

  • Under consideration: Lacrosse, Softball, and others

• Establish a policy to accept formal business cases for new sports.

  • Hold a review every 5 years to assess whether additional sports have met the threshold for inclusion.

• Key Issue: Are all sports managed under the same umbrella or managed separately?

Colleges/Universities

• Eliminating major sports programs could significantly impact university revenue streams. Compensation from any new pay-for-play league should include revenue-sharing mechanisms to offset this loss.

• It is essential that schools maintain strong academic ties, in alignment with the NCAA’s foundational mission.

  • Suggestion: Ivy League institutions could lead by example, continuing to operate within a non-pay-for-play NCAA framework and offering a purely amateur athletic option.

  • A draft system could be introduced for student-athletes who choose to transition from amateur status to a professional, pay-for-play league.

  • Non-revenue sports such as swimming, track, and others must continue to receive funding and institutional support.

• Maintaining Academic-Athletic Integration in a Pay-for-Play Era

  • Academic engagement can be incentivized by linking compensation to educational progress. For example, players who take a defined number of courses toward their bachelor’s degree could become eligible to receive a greater percentage of their salary.

  • Alternatively, academics could be deferred. A portion of each player’s compensation would be placed in escrow, to be accessed only once they return to complete their degree within a designated time period after their professional career ends.

  • These measures would preserve the academic connection between athletes and their institutions, even within the structure of semi-professional or professionalized athletic teams.

• The creation of a separate, pay-for-play league could support improved Title IX compliance at the collegiate level by allowing schools to rebalance gender equity obligations within their traditional, non-compensated athletic programs.

Athletes/Players

Compensation & Employment Structure

• Athletes should be paid directly through structured contracts with their teams, rather than relying solely on NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) deals.

• Players would be treated as employees, receiving standard employment benefits such as health insurance, union representation, and collective bargaining protections similar to those in the NFL, MLB, and other professional leagues.

• Athletes can still earn income from NIL opportunities, but as salaried employees, NIL is expected to become a supplementary source of income, not the primary one.

Academic Engagement and Personal Development

• Despite professional compensation, academic progress should remain a priority for athletes.

• Athletes should be required to complete a set of basic life skills courses, covering:

  • Money management and personal finance

  • Filing taxes

  • Cooking and basic nutrition

  • Vehicle maintenance (e.g., jumping a car, changing a tire)

  • Navigating personal and professional relationships, especially with those who may try to exploit them

• To incentivize education, portions of a player’s salary can be tied to their academic participation—unlocking more funds as they take and pass courses.

• Players who defer education can have a portion of their compensation held in escrow, which they can later access by returning to complete their education.

Governance, Protection & Mobility

• Players must be protected from predatory agents, managers, and other bad actors through regulation and oversight.

• The ability to transfer between programs should remain, but it should be structured and governed to ensure fairness and stability within teams and leagues.

• A major issue with the current state of college athletics is the lack of governance on the transfer portal.  It is assumed that when players play under contracts, the influence and prominence of the transfer portal will be diminished because player movement can be managed easier with the establishment of contracts directly with the team instead of payment arrangements made with the NIL collectives. 

Eligibility Duration

• A key question remains: should player participation be capped at four years?

  • This limit aligns with current collegiate norms, but it may not make sense in a professionalized model—especially when compared to leagues like the NFL, MLB, or NHL where playing tenure is based on merit and performance.

Athletic Directors

It’s important to be mindful of the current landscape of Athletic Directors (ADs) of Power Four schools. This group possesses a deep understanding of the complexities of NCAA sports, making it essential to carefully consider how they are integrated across the evolving collegiate athletics structure.  Without the right leadership and involvement from ADs, the proposed restructuring cannot take place.  

Key questions include: Would ADs remain with the amateur league, transition to the semi-pro/pay-for-play league, or oversee both? 

Once determined, the ADs would need to be highly involved in detailed planning and execution of the new league. 

Current and Future Conferences

• The proposed semi-professional/pay-for-play league should maintain ties to existing collegiate structures by designating current athletic conferences as the divisions within the new league. This preserves continuity and leverages the established brand equity and media relationships of these conferences.

• Given their current influence, conferences—particularly the Big Ten, SEC, and independent programs like Notre Dame—must take the lead in shaping this new model. These entities now wield more authority and strategic leverage than the NCAA and are best positioned to drive the transition.

• At the same time, conferences must continue to govern and support amateur athletics that remain at the collegiate level. This includes ensuring integrity, structure, and opportunity for non-professional student-athletes. (Question: Do the legacy conferences govern both the semi-pro/pay-for-play league and the new amateur athletic league (new NCAA), or are new conferences formed to govern the new NCAA?

• If new conferences are created to manage the new NCAA, to better support these amateur programs, leagues should consider realigning geographically, minimizing travel demands for student-athletes. However, such restructuring would likely require significant planning, coordination, and investment to implement effectively.

Television Broadcast Rights and Current Contracts

If the NCAA is dissolved or significantly restructured, decision-makers must carefully consider the implications for existing and future television contracts—particularly those involving conference-specific networks like the Big Ten Network, SEC Network, and others.

To preserve these valuable media rights, current athletic conferences could be repurposed to serve as the “divisions”within any new collegiate athletic league structure. This approach would help maintain continuity for broadcasters, protect revenue streams, and reduce legal and logistical complications related to media agreements.

*See below (“Congress and Government Involvement in College Athletics” Section) for a discussion on the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 and how its application to the new league could affect broadcast rights, revenue and logistics.

Coaches

• In the current NIL model—largely unregulated and lacking clear guardrails—coaches are among those most negatively impacted. Many coaches relocate frequently, often with families in tow, in pursuit of stability in an already volatile profession. Yet now, their job security is increasingly at the mercy of 18–22-year-old athletes focused on maximizing their earnings—a goal that is understandable, but difficult to manage in the absence of structure.

• The ease with which players can transfer without consequence has only heightened instability. As a result, the profession has seen a wave of early retirements among legendary coaching figures in recent years—Jay Wright, Roy Williams, Coach K, Nick Saban, and others—many of whom cite the changing landscape as a key factor. The loss of this caliber of leadership significantly impacts both the quality of competition and the development of young athletes.

• To reduce volatility and restore balance, the following ideas could be implemented:

  • Revenue sharing and salary caps to create a level playing field across teams.

  • Standardized player pay scales to prevent wild fluctuations and bidding wars.

  • Buyout clauses: Players who leave early could forfeit a portion of their salary, similar to professional contracts.

  • Multi-year contracts: Locking players into longer-term agreements would reduce year-to-year instability.

  • Maintain market-based compensation for coaches: Coaches should not be subject to salary caps to preserve the ability to attract and retain top talent.

  • Overall, the new league must enforce fair and transparent systems for recruiting, signing, retaining, trading, and drafting players—bringing professionalism and predictability to what has become a chaotic environment.

Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) and NIL Collectives

Reform or Restrict NIL Collectives

• Ideally, NIL collectives should be made illegal or subject to significant barriers that disincentivize their creation and misuse.

• Impose strict penalties on NIL entities that represent athletes from only one school—this suggests a direct pay-for-play model.

  • To avoid this, collectives must demonstrate a diverse client base across multiple institutions.

Tax and Financial Regulations

• Designate all NIL collectives as for-profit entities and heavily tax their revenues, with proceeds redirected to support schools and amateur athletic programs.

• Consider removing tax deductibility for donations to NIL collectives to reduce the financial incentive for donors.

• Enforce strict financial audits to ensure transparency and compliance. 

• Offer enhanced tax incentives for donors who contribute directly to schools or athletic departments rather than through NIL collectives.

• Require NIL collectives to contribute a percentage of their payments into a centralized pool, which could be:

  • Used to fund the remaining amateur league or the NCAA.

  • Allocated to a newly formed clearinghouse, responsible for reviewing and auditing NIL transactions—similar to how the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) funds the FDA’s drug approval infrastructure.

Audit & Oversight Requirements

• NIL collectives should be subject to comprehensive oversight, including:

  • Full transparency of donations—no anonymous or “dark money” sources.

  • Proof of no coordination or collusion with universities.

  • Market-based valuation of NIL contracts to prevent inflated deals.

  • Receipts and proof of work for all payments—no compensation without deliverables.

  • Establish a clearinghouse that would monitor/audit; clearinghouse funded via NIL tax similar to FDA PDUFA funds.

• If a collective or athlete is found to be involved in a pay-for-play arrangement:

  • The collective should be dissolved.

  • The athlete should be barred from participation in collegiate athletics.

Antitrust and Competition Questions

• A key legal question: Is it anti-competitive for an NIL collective to work exclusively with athletes from a single school?

  • If so, it may open the door for regulatory intervention based on monopolistic behavior or unfair market practices.

Historical Parallel: PACs

• The current NIL landscape bears a striking resemblance to the evolution of political action committees (PACs):

  • Originally created under FECA (1971, 1974) to ensure transparency and fairness in campaign finance.

  • Over time, PACs exploited legal loopholes, allowing dark money and outsized influence from wealthy individuals—subverting their original purpose.

  • NIL collectives risk following the same path without strong regulation, oversight, and ethical standards.

Agents

• There must be a formal certification process in place to ensure athletes work exclusively with sanctioned agents who meet ethical and professional standards.

• Additionally, financial literacy education should be mandatory for all participating athletes. To enforce this, both the athlete and their agent would be ineligible for compensation until the athlete successfully completes the required coursework. This ensures that athletes are better prepared to manage their finances and navigate professional relationships responsibly.

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) 

• The NCAA should have no role in the new semi-professional/pay-for-play league. Its longstanding inaction—over the past 20 to 30 years—despite clear signs that student-athletes deserved more equitable compensation, has directly contributed to the current need for systemic change.

• However, the NCAA would continue to oversee the remaining amateur leagues affiliated with schools, ensuring governance and structure for non-professional collegiate sports.

• A key decision will be determining which sports transition to the new league. Likely candidates include:

  • Football

  • Men’s and Women’s Basketball

  • Baseball

  • Hockey

  • Lacrosse?

• To maintain fairness and growth opportunities, the league could establish a formal review window every five years to evaluate whether additional sports have reached the necessary competitive and commercial thresholds to transition into the semi-professional tier.

• Note: While this proposal primarily focuses on Division I athletics, Divisions II and III should also be considered in the development of the new structure and strategy.

Pro Leagues - NFL/NBA/NHL/MLB

• Each of the major professional sports leagues currently relies on the NCAA as a feeder system for player development and drafting talent. As the new semi-pro league is established, it must be mindful of preserving this pipeline and ensuring that a clear, credible pathway remains for athletes to transition to professional sports.

• Disrupting this development route could create tension with major leagues like the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL—entities that wield even more influence than collegiate conferences. Any perceived threat to their talent pipeline could lead these leagues to oppose or undermine the new semi-pro system, potentially stalling its momentum and legitimacy.

• Risk: See below (“Congress and Government Involvement in College Athletics” Section) for a discussion on the potential impact of the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, and potential broadcast conflicts between the new league and established US professional leagues.

Bowls/Tournaments

• Major events must be carefully considered in any restructuring of college athletics: the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl, March Madness, the College World Series, the Dayton play-in games, and the NIT—which could potentially return to serving as the official amateur championship for NCAA basketball.

• All existing events and tournaments should be cataloged, and their respective contracts thoroughly reviewed to ensure they are either honored in their current form or renegotiated in a way that makes affected stakeholders whole. This will help avoid unnecessary disruption and preserve the historical and financial significance of these cornerstone competitions.

Congress and Government Involvement in College Athletics

While Congress is beginning to engage in the evolving landscape of college athletics, it is currently addressing only fragments of the broader system. Many of the initiatives appear misguided or incomplete, failing to address the full complexity of the challenges at hand. Below is a summary of the various actions congress, lawmakers, and other political leaders have engaged in related to college sports.

House v. NCAA

The recent House v. NCAA decision marks some progress, but its insistence on treating athletes as though they are not being paid to play ignores the reality of the current system. This disconnect could lead to further complications and inconsistencies in the near future.

NCAA v. Alston

In the 2021 NCAA v. Alston ruling, the Supreme Court determined that the NCAA cannot cap education-related benefits—a pivotal legal step that opened the door for broader athlete compensation discussions.

2025 Restore College Sports Act

2025 Restore College Sports Act - Introduced as H.R. 2663 by Congressman Michael Baumgartner (WA-05), the "Restore College Sports Act" proposes the creation of the American Collegiate Sports Association (ACSA) to oversee and regulate college athletics.

• Key components include:

  • Creation of the ACSA with the authority to regulate all college sports.

  • Appointment of a commissioner to oversee operations.

  • Revenue from sports would be shared equally, but it’s unclear whether this distribution applies within schools or across all institutions.

  • A return to equal treatment of all sports, which does not reflect the reality that only a few sports generate significant revenue.

  • A cap on coaching salaries.

  • Unlimited athlete transfers.

  • Conferences must be organized by time zone to reduce travel burdens.

• Key Criticisms and Open Questions

  • The proposal assumes continuation of the current collegiate structure, which is widely seen as unsustainable.

  • There’s no clear incentive for higher education institutions to opt into the ACSA model—what’s the appeal?

  • Conferences are unlikely to support the proposed structure, particularly if it reduces their autonomy or financial leverage.

  • Unclear who is lobbying for this legislation—does Baumgartner have backing from stakeholders, or is this a personal initiative?

  • The proposal lacks enforcement mechanisms and may be easily exploited, just like existing frameworks.

Knight Commission

The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics is actively pursuing several initiatives in 2025 aimed at reforming college sports governance, promoting financial equity, and supporting student-athletes. Here's an overview of their recent activities:

• In 2025, the Knight Commission launched the second phase of its C.A.R.E. Model Conference Grant Program, offering $100,000 in grants to Division I conferences that implement principles related to the equitable distribution and use of shared athletics revenues. An additional $30,000 is available to current C.A.R.E. participants. Knight Commission

• The Commission released a resource explaining the proposed House v. NCAA settlement, which, if approved, would allow schools to directly compensate athletes and significantly alter the NCAA's amateurism model. The brief outlines the potential impacts on Division I programs and advocates for reforms that align with educational values. Reuters+2Knight Commission+2Knight Commission+2

• Continuing its efforts to reform college athletics, the Knight Commission hosted a series of public forums titled "Transforming the NCAA D-I Model". These sessions examined the current structure of Division I athletics and proposed recommendations for change to ensure the system better serves student-athletes and educational institutions.

Commission on College Athletics

Former Alabama football coach Nick Saban is expected to serve as co-chair for a potential commission on college football initiated by President Donald Trump. This commission aims to address pressing issues in college athletics, particularly focusing on Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) legislation.Chron+4Chron+4CBSSports.com+4

Saban has been a vocal critic of the current NIL system, expressing concerns that it creates an unbalanced playing field by allowing programs to "buy players." He has advocated for regulations or caps on NIL earnings to ensure fairness in college sports. This stance has raised concerns among fans of programs like Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech, which have significantly benefited from the current NIL framework through booster-funded payments and high-profile deals for top recruits.Chron

While the commission has not been formally established as of the article's publication, President Trump is reportedly very engaged with the issue, viewing it as one of national importance. The formation of this commission follows recent attention to the House v. NCAA settlement, which permits schools to allocate up to $20.5 million in revenue for direct athlete compensation, though not granting them employee status.ChronChron

In summary, the article highlights the potential formation of a federal commission on college football, co-chaired by Nick Saban, to address NIL-related issues. Saban's involvement and his views on regulating NIL earnings have sparked debate, particularly among supporters of programs that currently leverage the existing NIL system to their advantage.

*Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961

• Normally, under U.S. antitrust laws, businesses aren’t allowed to cooperate in ways that limit competition. For example, if NFL teams worked together to sell TV rights, it could be seen as collusion.

• The Sports Broadcasting Act gives sports leagues a limited exemption from these laws, specifically allowing them to pool their broadcast rights and sell them as a package.

Purpose:

• This was mainly passed to help the National Football League (NFL). In 1961, the NFL wanted to sell all of its teams’ TV rights as a group to a single network (CBS), but that raised antitrust concerns.

• Congress passed the Act to allow such deals, believing that league-wide broadcasting deals were good for the sport and for fans.

Restrictions:

• The Act prohibits professional games from being broadcast on Fridays and Saturdays during the high school and college football seasons (roughly late August to mid-December), to protect local amateur football attendance.

The law helped leagues become financial powerhouses, as selling national TV rights collectively brought in huge revenue and created more even playing fields for small-market teams.

Leveraging the spirit of this law, the new league would be positioned to benefit financially from its new status as a semi-pro league. 

Risks: One key risk associated with this legislation is that once the new league is established, it will be classified as a professional league and therefore prohibited from broadcasting games on Fridays or Saturdays. However, recent trends in streaming professional sports through web-based platforms appear to offer a loophole that some leagues are already leveraging for financial benefit. This may indicate a need to update the legislation to address emerging media formats and accommodate the unique structure of the new league.

What Congress Should Do

• If Congress is to play a role in reshaping college athletics, it must take a comprehensive, systems-level approach—one that accounts for:

• Pay-for-play structures

• Athlete employment and labor rights

• Academic and athlete development pathways

• NIL guardrails and tax implications

• The roles of conferences, schools, media entities, and professional leagues

• Legislation that treats all sports, athletes, and institutions as equal is out of step with today’s reality. A nuanced, flexible framework is needed—one that distinguishes between amateur and semi-pro models, and aligns with both economic realities and educational missions.

• Congress must also engage with the newly formed amateur league to assess whether there is a need or desire for federal funding to support amateur sports. The impact of this proposed shift on overall athletic department budgets remains uncertain. However, if it results in a significant reduction in funding for amateur athletics, congressional involvement will be essential to preserve and strengthen the United States' position as a global Olympic powerhouse, as college athletics serves as one of the primary pipelines for developing that talent.