This is the first step, everyone. A small, pie in the sky step, but a very firm shot across the bow that, if you’re a student athlete, you better recognize.
You want the NCAA’s money? It’s going to cost you.
That radical change you wanted is coming, all right. The stipends, the guaranteed scholarships, the savings accounts for name and likeness. All of it.
All you have to do now is play by the rules — today’s rules, and those in the pipeline.
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“While we are comfortable generating multiple ideas about an “education first” approach to intercollegiate athletics in the 21st Century,” Big Ten president Jim Delany said Tuesday in a prepared statement, “we won’t go it alone on any of the matters.”
Most will read that statement and pick up on “we won’t go it alone,” a declaration that the Big Ten clearly is looking for its Power 5 brethren — the SEC, ACC and Big 12 — to join the ride.
Meanwhile, I zero in on this: “multiple ideas.”
If you really think freshmen ineligibility is what this floating balloon is all about, you’re as naïve as the student athletes who think they’re going to get their cake and eat it, too.
Freshman ineligibility, frankly, is laughable. It’s not happening.
This archaic, Pollyanna idea was stopped in the 1970s because universities felt as though there weren’t getting the bang for their buck. Think about that: universities were upset because they were “paying” scholarship money, yet players weren’t playing in their freshmen seasons — so universities weren’t seeing a return on their investment.
But freshman ineligibility isn't the point. The obvious question is, what’s next?
Where do universities set the bar, and how far do the tentacles reach? In other words, what exactly are the “multiple ideas” and how do they connect with the stated “education first” mantra?
It most certainly is education first if universities decide student athletes must maintain a 2.5 grade point average to be athletically eligible.
It most certainly is education first if universities decide student athletes must take 12 credit hours a semester (roughly four classes) — and (key point) must pass all 12 hours to be eligible the following semester (hello, One and Done).
It most certainly is education first if universities decide student athletes are immediately suspended from all team activities — including games, offseason workouts, access to weight room and training tables, etc. — for one full semester if these academic requirements are not met.
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It most certainly is education first if universities decide once players are kicked off a team for behavior issues, they can’t play at another university for one full year — so they can adjust to academic life at their new institution.
And if you don’t abide by the academic rules, there’s a long line of high schoolers behind you who would love to take a crack at it. Do you really think universities — at this point, after losing (or in the process of losing) on every front of this fight to keep their amateur ideal (and don't kid yourself, their television cash) — care who they give money to?
They’re not going to start throwing out money hand over fist and become the glorified minor leagues for professional sports we all already think they are. They’re going to fight it the only way they know how: by making academics matter.
The argument no longer is about paying players; that’s happening no matter what fancy name you call it. It’s not about student athletes securing name and likeness marketability; that’s happening, too.
By trying to recapture the stated higher education goal (you know, what college is really all about), universities are banking they can at least devalue the “minor leagues” narrative — and maybe reach a percentage of student athletes they couldn’t before.
The Big Ten and Pac-12 have started the idea of academic big tents (see: “multiple ideas”), and soon enough the other three Power 5 conferences will tout their academic initiatives that, strangely enough, will be nearly identical to those of the Big Ten and Pac-12.
Don’t get caught up in the absurd freshman eligibility argument. Real change is coming, and there’s no avoiding it.
And it will have a significantly greater impact than a couple thousand in stipends.