What year was the Anti-Trust legislation enacted? I think the Teddy bear was created then.
Your point, as I wrap my brain around it, is well taken. This whole NIL think isn't easy for an old fan of College sports to swallow. Purity in belief rarely allows for anything.
The problem with this type of legislation is that while it appears to solve one problem, without in depth consideration a flood of problems/issues never conceived can cause unexpected REAL problems for the kids. The problems we citizens have is: We believe our people in DC are as smart as the smartest Citizen--all too often they are NOT. Citizens, without DC influence can always do bet
This isn't about what anyone likes or wants. The P5 schools may have wanted a system without walls or ceilings, but it's going to create unintended consequences for the P5 schools they will absolutely regret or will be unsustainable. You don't need to be a futurist to see an enormous cliff approaching.
First, there is no governing body for college football at this moment -- and I know of no organization of almost any size that doesn't have some governing rules. A cartel perhaps (mafia), but even groups like this have some unwritten rules and a leader at the top. In CFB, is it a super group (P5s) of football schools? Is it the SEC? No one knows.
Just trying to unpack one piece of this: are the leaders of the 65 P6 schools (like WSU, OSU, and KSU) going to want to play under the same unfettered rules as AL and GA? Because all 65 schools will have voting rights and I can absolutely assure you their interests are not aligned.
Right now, any school/booster can offer unlimited limited dollars to HS students and matriculating college athletes. So a talented college freshman can be recruited (poached) by other schools at any time during the academic year, in an auction, free-market way? Hell, there are no rules, right? So every player is an open, individual auction from his junior year of HS on? Forget what I like or believe...is this really a sustainable system?
No one -- NO ONE -- hates the NCAA and its past ways more than me. And I don't have a romanticized view of college sports. But a utopian system of no rules & unlimited money won't & can't work. And if it does somehow survive, only a handful of schools will want to compete in that system. Most can't. No sporting entity worldwide that I am aware of operates this way. All sports have limits, regulations and caps to allow the game to be competitively fair and profitable for the owners, players, and leagues. CFB is going to need to have something of a level playing field, otherwise, it will lose credibility and fans.
Just my opinion though.