College football is in trouble.
Attendance has been dropping for years. The power brokers of OUR game rolled out the realignment, NIL, the transfer portal and a 12-school playoff in hopes of breathing some life back into the fans. All it has done is frustrate the game’s life blood…the fans. More and more are using their feet, leaving the hallowed halls of college football.
Something bold and creative needs to be done. And now a growing number of schools are joining the revolt. Is there a solution to save the game? Probably not one solution. It will take multiple steps to get the game back on track.
This series will present creative, bold, but logical solutions for discussion. Not all will be welcomed by the “Good Ole Boys” or some fans. But we’re going to throw some spaghetti on the wall in hopes of stirring some serious discussion.
In part one of our “Solutions” series we introduced five solutions to get our nations game back on track.
In part two of our series we will break down the second solution, a restructured management model.
A seismic change.
History...
For more than a century, college athletics has been managed under a traditional academic management model. School presidents/chancellors overseeing specialty schools, who oversaw department heads. Their metrics for success were primarily admissions standards, graduation rates and research accreditation, with some bottom line financial stability. They are not competitive or excellence driven outside of those academic parameters.
About fifty years ago that started to slowly change. Income and growth started to take on larger importance. Money started to drive education although not publicly. And athletics began to play a role in projecting positive public images of the school. Athletics began to influence admissions and alumni donations. Today, college athletic departments pay for themselves through money from TV contracts and merchandising. Athletics drive alumni dollars.
During that same period, schools aligned themselves and formed athletic conferences to help them manage a new business they had little real life experience, athletic management.
After decades of failed leadership and management, those conferences reached out to profit-based TV networks for management support and new revenue streams. Today, college athletics is big business, a billion dollar business. But the financial boom came at a cost. Control. To get the almighty dollar, conferences and schools had to give up control of the game to the networks. Networks or media conglomerates control everything around college sports. They don’t even have to pay for the raw materials of the business (stadiums, coaches, staff, players.) They just give the conferences/schools a cut of the pie and pocket easy money for their shareholders.
Today, a powerless NCAA is facing an increasingly angry customer base. Attendance at games continues to drop each year. Alumni and donors (and their dollars) are turning away from their institutions.
Our second solution is to radically change the management structure of the NCAA from a group of loosely knit warring tribes to a unified team driving excellence and results. (AKA, a corporate model)
STEP ONE: Hire a strong leader as the CEO.
Has the public ever heard of Charlie Baker? No. He’s a puppet for the networks. Get an experienced and tough corporate leader like Elon Musk. They desperately need a Czar of College Athletics.
STEP TWO: All conference commissioners will become EVPs, reporting direct to the CEO.
STEP THREE: All conference staffs will be consolidated into the NCAA headquarters, reporting to a new Chief Operating Officer. As such, the headquarters will be moved to a new location geographically centered in the United States.
STEP FOUR: In addition to the conference EVPs, hire senior vice presidents of Finance (CFO), Legal (CLO) and Marketing (CMO), all reporting to the CEO.
BOTTOM LINE:
By changing the reporting structure and consolidating the organization under one management team, the NCAA will gain operating efficiency and substantially reduce the competitive in-fighting currently between the conferences.
In part three of our series, we will break down Solution #3, Consolidate Division I.
GO CANES!
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