The Demise of College Sports as We Know Them

E. Gordon Gee, president of West Virginia University, and Kent Syverud, chancellor of Syracuse University (NY), write:

Two years ago, a Southeastern Conference NIL collective paid $150,000 to keep a defensive end from transferring. To retain him this season, it had to pay $1.5 million — and that’s just for one player. There isn’t a day that goes by when university presidents aren’t forced to make difficult choices about the allocation of finite resources. Until recently, these decisions were hard, but navigable. Now, if you are a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) university president, you are going to be held responsible for what happens next, not only to college football but to women’s collegiate sports and Olympic sports, which are fueled by football revenues. Our balkanized system of college football — the conference structure itself — is at the heart of the problem.