It’s a mess!

by TexCane

For decades, the NCAA has struggled to keep the association viable and alive.

The association has constantly faced major issues, from rules enforcement, to competitive balance, to financial parity, to federal anti-trust actions. They have waged war in the courts over student rights to be compensated for their name, image and likeness and for their freedom of movement (transfer portal).

Conferences are chasing the almighty dollar, creating huge financial disparity between conferences and schools.

Conferences are realigning from traditional regional structures to national footprints. Teams and fans are having to cross the country to play and attend conference games.

Networks now dictate who plays who, where and when.

Students are suing schools, conferences and the NCAA to preserve their “workplace” rights.

Schools are suing conferences and the association over media rights and conference media rights agreements.

The U.S. Congress is jumping into the fight, with the Department of Justice threatening anti-trust action against conferences and schools.

To hell with what’s good for the student-athletes and the fans.

The NCAA has become a loosely knit group of warring tribes.

It’s a mess!

The NCAA’s standard approach to such major issues is to not offend anybody. The lack of strong and deceive leadership is the root of the problem. Who’s in charge? Please, don’t tell me Charley Baker.

Who you ask?

The NCAA needs a strong, bold, impartial but decisive CEO. The NCAA needs to overhaul their management structure. Centralize command and control of Division I. Streamline and eliminate conferences as we know them today.

All current conference operations and headquarter functions should be centralized in a single reporting structure in one central location. Consider Kansas City.

Breakup the old cultures.

Over the past year, one of my favorite streaming personalities has been Josh Pate at the College Football Show. He has made it clear, he wants to be the “commissioner” of college football. He often states…

“IF I were commissioner…”

Mr. Pate is not afraid to publicly address the issues facing college athletics. He’s not afraid to call out who’s responsible for the problems. And most of his ideas/recommendations are, at least, worthy of serious consideration.

It got me thinking. What if I was college football’s chief executive officer? What would be my plan to get college athletics back on track?

After years of contemplation, I HAVE A PLAN!

My plan may not be perfect, but it will begin to fix the problems facing the NCAA. First, I’m not professing to get rid of the NCAA. At least not yet. Just restructure it , reorganize and streamline its product lines.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll take you through my “steps to sanity” again in college athletics.

In our next edition, I’ll address new five-year strategic goals for the NCAA.

Until then…

GO CANES!