Very long but astute read/listen of the changes in College Athletics and what they mean for universities

[upstater]

The Seismic Impact of College Athletics - Future U Podcast

The impact of college athletics is felt throughout institutions, but too often sports are considered separate from the rest of higher ed. On this episode, Michael and Jeff connect the dots between recent changes to college athletics and the campus-wide ripple effects they could have. They are...

www.futureupodcast.com

I trust Jeffrey Selingo to be the best general academic journalist reporter we have in the USA, and here he takes on college sports with the editor of Extra Points.

It's a very long read, but they have 3 main things to say:

1. Universities are conflicted because they have a finite money of investment around to grow revenues and there are academic needs and sports needs, and the most successful schools are the ones that can do the 2 together, but they are few and far between. To fail at either means you fail at joining a conference. You can read this part headlined by THE INTERSECTION OF COLLEGES.

2. There's a very real possibility that student athletes are considered employees in the near future. If this happens, then many D1, D2 and D3 schools will need to shed non-revenue sports and make them into Clubs because there is no way they can fund them. This will impact enrollment as a lot of schools recruit athletes and give them scholarships, but it will also hurt a lot of D3 schools that depend on athletes who pay tuition. It will also impact our Olympic Sports development as many athletes are in non-revenue sports.

3. The portal and transfer frenzy makes it nearly impossible for students to graduate when they transfer more than once. The Extra Points person makes the argument however that it very well may be that the $300k they make (if they make that much) may be worth not graduating if it means you're going to play pro basketball (presumably in Europe?) and that you can always return to education later.

IF and WHEN athletes are made into employees, the entire landscape of college sports changes with huge ramifications on universities.

This isn't in the podcast but you could possibly ringfence this whole thing by spinning off the revenue sports into businesses, so that only football and basketball players are considered employees. Just cleave them from the university and let the programs maintain a connection through branding only. Then you could set up an NCAA for what are effectively glorified club teams of non-employees.

If this isn't done, then every athlete will be considered part of the same class, and it will decimate non-revenue athletics at universities.