They’re About to NASCAR College Sports
The product was once so good it felt untouchable. That’s exactly when the danger began.
College sports is supposed to be idiot-proof. Rick and I say it on Full Ride all the time.
That is what makes the current moment so unsettling.
Since the NCAA v. Alston ruling in June 2021, chaos has become the defining feature of college athletics. Lawlessness has reigned. The foundation of college sports feels shakier than at any point in my lifetime.
Conference realignment. NIL. The transfer portal. Endless playoff debates. Tournament expansion.
These are not small adjustments around the edges. They are seismic shifts that have fundamentally altered the feel of college sports in just five years.
And that word — feel — matters.
Because from the first college football game between Princeton University and Rutgers University in 1869 until June of 2021, college sports had a distinct identity.
Yes, we all knew there was some behind-the-scenes shadiness. We joked about the occasional “$100 handshake.” Nobody was naïve.
But at its core, college sports was exactly what the name implied: college sports.
More glamorous than high school athletics, but still rooted in education.
The model was simple and powerful. Young men and women went to school, attended class, earned degrees, developed as people, and if they were talented enough, used athletics as a platform to reach the professional ranks.
In many cases, they chose a school for life.
When Schools Became Home
For generations, athletes visited campuses, fell in love with a place, and stayed three or four years.
They arrived as 18-year-old kids and left as young adults.
They built lifelong friendships. They met spouses. They established professional networks. They developed identities tied to a university and a community.
Academics mattered.
Graduation rates mattered.
Academic Progress Rates mattered.
At least they used to.
Today, we have transformed college athletics into fully professional sports.
Everything is about money.
The players.
The coaches.
The schools.
The conferences.
The television partners.
Everyone has their hand out. Everyone wants a larger piece of the pie.
And that is precisely because the pie was so extraordinary.
College sports was one of the most unique and authentically American institutions ever created. No other country had anything like it.
It was amateurism — perhaps never in its purest form, but certainly in one of its finest and most compelling versions.
The Power of Belonging
Look at guys like Jacob Hester and Bobby Carpenter.
Hester went to Louisiana State University and built his life in Baton Rouge.
Carpenter played at Ohio State University and stayed in Columbus.
That attachment is powerful.
It is why college sports matters so deeply to fans.
You attend a school. You grow as a human being. You fall in love with the campus and the people. You root for those teams for the rest of your life.
That bond is the emotional engine of college athletics.
The question is whether future generations will experience that same connection.
Minor League NFL
We have effectively turned college football into a minor league for the National Football League.
The sport has become transactional.
Professional.
Soulless.
Yes, there are still stories like Ty Simpson, a player who stayed at University of Alabama, endured adversity, and continued to grow.
But he increasingly feels like the exception rather than the rule.
The days of the Jacob Hesters and Bobby Carpenters are fading into memory.
Expanding What Was Already Perfect
Now the sport’s power brokers are once again chasing more.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association has announced plans to expand the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments from 68 teams to 76.
People love NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament because it is elegant.
They love the clean bracket.
They love the upsets.
They love the simplicity.
We are taking one of the most brilliant sporting events ever created and making it more complicated.
Will it destroy March Madness? Maybe not.
Perhaps the magic survives.
But let us be honest about why this is happening.
This is not about access.
It is about money.
The NCAA has been battered by lawsuits since Alston, and the organization is desperately searching for new revenue.
Football Is Following the Same Script
College football is no different.
Conference championship games were effectively devalued by the playoff structure.
Last year’s Big Ten Football Championship Game and SEC Championship Game carried surprisingly little impact on the final playoff rankings.
The risk outweighed the reward.
University of Alabama lost a third game in the SEC title game and still reached the playoff.
The result made the contest feel almost meaningless.
If the games no longer matter, administrators must replace them with something else that generates revenue.
Hence the push for even more playoff expansion.
The American Football Coaches Association and various conference leaders have floated larger formats, with some preferring 16 teams and others discussing 24.
Again, the primary motivation is obvious.
Money.
