The Wild West of College Athletics
It's Time for a Reset
Transfer Portal Chaos: How NIL Deals and Media Influence Are Reshaping College Athletic
I have been wanting to create a Substack to be able to share longer form thoughts on Innovation, AI, and Missions for some time. I just haven't been able to narrow down one topic to post about. Today, I thought about something that desperately needs change and innovation - college athletics in the United States. It has become the Wild West and is on the brink of collapse.
As someone about to send our fourth child off to college, I’ve had plenty of time to reflect on the value of higher education—and the mess that college athletics has become. What was once an extracurricular addition to academics has turned into an unruly landscape dominated by NIL deals, the ever-expanding Transfer Portal, and the unregulated influence of media powerhouses like ESPN. While I fully support college athletes gaining from their efforts, what we’re witnessing now is a far cry from reasonable and completely not sustainable.
The Value of a College Education
Let’s not forget that a college education is incredibly valuable. A free education for scholarship college athletes—including tuition, room, board, books, incredible access to tutoring, and a stipend—is worth a substantial amount.
For most families, sending a child to college costs between $30,000 and $50,000 annually for in-state or out-of-state public universities. Private schools? You’re looking at $75,000 to $100,000 a year. I know these costs very well because I have a spreadsheet of all of the schools my daughter is considering. This is an enormous opportunity for scholarship college athletes.
NCAA athletic scholarships offer an incredible opportunity, especially when combined with the academic, personal, and professional development that college provides. Yes, athletes should have the chance to receive fair compensation from NIL marketing, but the current environment isn’t about fair compensation—it’s about who can throw the biggest bag of cash at a player. It’s not sustainable, and it’s not in line with the purpose of college education.
The Transfer Portal: A Revolving Door
Then there’s the Transfer Portal. At its core, the portal was designed to give student-athletes the flexibility to pursue better opportunities. But the reality is far more chaotic. It’s now common for athletes to transfer three or even four times. Does anyone seriously believe that this promotes academic or even athletic development?
How do academic transfer credits even work in this scenario? Are students attending class, or is the classroom just a side note to the next game or NIL deal? At some point, the Transfer Portal starts to look less like a tool for student empowerment and more like free agency. If this is the direction we’re going, why not just make it official? Turn college athletics into minor league systems, with athletes as paid representatives of the school, separate from academia. Those who want to play sports for an education could still have that option—but at least we’d stop pretending that academics and athletics are always aligned. Just let schools license their brand and create an alternative to NFL/NBA.
Media: The Puppet Masters
And then we have the media, particularly giants like ESPN. Do I even need to elaborate? They’re the puppet masters pulling the strings, dictating schedules, hyping the next "big game," and turning athletes into celebrities before they’ve played a single professional game. This level of influence amplifies every problem we’re seeing today—creating an environment where money, not education, takes center stage in college athletics.
A Call for Reasonable Reform
College athletics is teetering on the edge of falling apart (maybe it already has, and we just don't know it yet). If we continue down this path, it won’t be long before the educational aspect of college sports is entirely overshadowed by commercial interests. Here’s what I propose:
Reasonable NIL Regulation: Let athletes benefit from their name, image, and likeness, but within limits. Set clear, enforceable rules that prevent the "wild west" of player buying while ensuring fair compensation for the use of their likeness. There certainly should be caps put on those receiving scholarships.
Transfer Limits: Create reasonable boundaries for transfers. For instance, one transfer without penalty might make sense, but hopping from school to school every year doesn’t serve anyone in the long run.
Separate Academic and Paid Teams: Consider formalizing a dual-path system. Athletes could either play for a school as a representative in a professional, paid capacity, or as student-athletes focused on earning an education.
Reduce Media Influence: Universities need to reassert control over their athletic programs, rather than letting media companies dictate the terms. Easier said than done, but necessary for preserving the integrity of college athletics. It's a broken system when the highest paid public employee in a state is the college football coach.