When Football Breaks Away from the NCAA: + or - for T&F?

Never gonna happen. They'd be leveled with Title IX lawsuits if they ever tried to break away from the NCAA.

The chief positive for T&F/XC if the CFP spins off from the NCAA is that conferences that exist for all other sports (including T&F/XC) would have the opportunity to realign with tighter geographical ties. This would mean that a West Virginia wouldn't have to travel teams to Texas for conference championships, a Boston College wouldn't have to travel teams to Florida or Georgia for conference championships, a Kentucky wouldn't have to travel teams to Texas for conference championships, a Colorado wouldn't have to travel teams to Washington or Oregon for conference championships. However, this presumes that once P5 football programs are out of the NCAA that conferences will choose to realign in that manner, that this isn't a pandora's box situation where college and conference officials are now in love with having the profile of a conference stretched most of the way across the country and don't mind all the travel expense involved for conference schedules for soccer, volleyball, water polo, etc.

It's hard to guess any further impacts without knowing what investment would be required to be part of a break-away CFP structure, what income should be expected, and where that funding would come from and go to for a given university. It seems like it won't really change much, those who are traditionally highly interested in supporting T&F/XC will probably keep to that path.

Oh, and this absolutely is about gaining eyeballs for televised conference network packages. That's the money driving conference realignment, nothing has changed there. Breaking away from the NCAA would be about having the power to make their own rules about player recruiting, compensation, and eligibility.

Oregon to the SEC, book it.

It will never happen! if football was to disassociate itself from the NCAA thats money from the universities itself and possible loss of funding for other sports such as track and field. We all saw the fiasco with powerhouse Clemson last year and their claims to not have the financial means to back the mens track and field team. Then there is the logistics of a minor league and who governs it. Surely They couldn’t operate under the same legislative system as the NCAA and then what of the athletes will these teams still be associated with schools and what will the transition from highschool to this amateur system look like same for the possibility transition to the NFL. Honestly it seems like too much of a hassle Its not as if College football is struggling in notoriety unlike other olympic sports.

I'll revisit this in a year or two when they're gone. People said the same thing about NIL money, etc..

Mark my words- they're preparing to bolt. Too much chatter about it.

It is not Football that would leave - it it the Football Universities. All sports would go to the new Association.

"Some" football may bolt from the NCAA but they can't bolt from their school. "Some" football will still have to financially support Olympic sports at their school. They will still have to support women's sports. Think of the political backlash if AD's cut all men's sports except for the Big 3.

Oh, and with the demise of minor league baseball, college baseball just stepped up its game.

Thoughts?

It’ll be run by a department separate from the AD, probably an arm of the school’s fundraising foundation. Stop dreaming that something radically new will be run by the anachronistic structure. It’s no longer college varsity sport, it’s big time entertainment business. Non-revenue sports will remain stuck under the archaic NCAA.

Yes, obviously the little schools will be left right where they are. This only affects the top 50-60 teams, the name brand teams.

They can leave the school. They can be a pro team playing under the brand licensed to them from the school. A school can license their name, logo etc to a team just like do to some company that makes sweatshirts, or hats etc..

This would give ADs title ix relief because football would no longer be a scholarship sport. No grant in aid, no title ix issue.

How exactly would this work? It's my understanding that Title IX applies to the entire institution. Men and women must receive equal funding and resources across the board. Schools would've applied this workaround years ago if they could've gotten away with it.

When I coached high school (XC/Track) our AD would send us this NCAA Newsletter that went out to colleges and high school AD's.

There was an article about the money in college football. Very interesting and eye opening.

At that time (7-10 years ago) the average was a 1 million dollar loss. VERY few schools make money on college football.

If that sport tried to break away it would be very few schools and would end up being a small minor league for the NFL.

The rest of the D1, 2, 3, NAIA would continue their meager existence letting post high school kids live out their pipe dream and get CTE.

Title IX is a federal law and affects the entire University in regards to any federal funding. This includes scholarship money such as Pell Grants. (The NCAA term is Gender Equity.) Title IX is based on opportunities and funding that reflects the population of the school. As Universities have progressed in female students, opportunities and funding have to reflect that.

Notre Dame is a good example. When it was male only, Title IX wasn't a factor. Now there are more female students than male. Opportunities need to reflect that. The problem is since the 1920's Notre Dame has used football as a funding tool not just for athletics, but for the overall University. (In the tune of $30 million a year for academics.) So reducing football emphasis can not be done. They have to find other ways to make up the difference.

Say certain universities decide to simply cut revenue generating sports, and for-profit leagues are created where schools simply license their trademarks to the league. Is that a workable solution? I understand that many of these schools operate large revenue generating businesses, especially in the healthcare market. However, the programs still directly tie into the school's underlying educational and public policy goals. What are the educational a public policy initiatives being advanced by licensing trademarks to for profit sports leagues? At least now universities can operate under the guise of providing educational opportunities to young adults. Can a publicly funded nonprofit institution even enter into this type of arrangement?

This will be great for the schools who are the winners in realignment. More money for all sports... including T&F.

For the losers, you can expect to see sports disappearing... football will be dropped and most sports will become club teams. Club teams funded by something other than the university. Not good for T&F or minor sports in general