Does this strengthen the NCAA’s place in the industry?
There has been speculation for years that there could be a schism in the NCAA soon. It could be driven by sports, primarily by revenue-generating sports like football and basketball. It could be driven by conferences that want to run the show themselves.
A breakaway of some sort from the NCAA could still happen, but one truth remains – if there is no NCAA, something (or someone) must fill the void of administration and oversight.
The NCAA is to college sports what Roger Goodell is for the NFL. Fans might dislike Goodell, but if the NFL fired him, they would just hire a replacement. That replacement might handle things differently, but they would still serve the same purpose.
Now that the NCAA will be responsible for overseeing not only the sharing of revenue moving forward, but also the administration of retroactive damages to former student-athletes, does Greg Sankey want to be in charge of managing that, even if he is delegating?
Does anyone want to be in charge of creating a new organization to replace the NCAA, or be in charge of modifying the SEC or Big Ten to fill a vacuum left by withdrawing from the NCAA?
Maybe the answer is still yes, but my guess is that this settlement has probably pushed any such action back a bit until the dust settles on some of the questions we still have.
Next: How does this impact Clemson Football?