1) College football players would be deemed employees of the universities and programs they sign on to play for as high schoolers. Contracts would be negotiated by the schools and their collectives with the players, parents, and their representatives. Signing bonuses and “release clauses” could be negotiated as well.
2) A model strikingly similar to European soccer would then be implemented. The system is not without flaws but is far more structured than current state, where a state of no structure and chaos is essentially the structure.
Players under contract could talk to other programs at any point and personal terms for another contract with another program could be agreed, but a transfer fee would first have to be negotiated between the two programs. This protects smaller clubs/programs who develop talent from getting their stars poached from bigger clubs/programs without a fee or “reward” for having that player in the first.
Think of it in terms of Jordan Addison. Pitt gives a 3 star recruit a chance to play a position no one else would recruit him for. He turns into a star. USC gives him an under the table 3 million and he leaves and Pitt gets literally nothing in return. In European soccer’s structure, Addison could have agreed terms with USC to leave but then USC would have had to pay Pitt for his rights to leave. He may have even had a release clause they could have triggered for a fee. But the player still has freedom of movement. Pitt then uses those Addison funds to acquire a WR replacement and possibly another piece or two to fill out the roster. USC, one of the wealthier programs, gets to acquire a Biletnikoff receiver because they can. This happens all the time in Europe. Smaller clubs use these funds for players they develop in their academies or in the 1st team to replenish their current talent base and they at least aren’t left without some compensation when a bigger fish just waives a huge bag in the face of one of their players.
Everyone wins? Not quite… but it’s at least much fairer and with some structure to it. There’s already a complete lack of parity in this sport, the NCAA should stop hiding from this fact and add guardrails like this to the current system. Instead, they will do absolutely nothing, the conferences particularly the top 2 and their top programs, will continue to get more powerful, and this thing will continue to spiral into an even worse state of flux and chaos.
2) A model strikingly similar to European soccer would then be implemented. The system is not without flaws but is far more structured than current state, where a state of no structure and chaos is essentially the structure.
Players under contract could talk to other programs at any point and personal terms for another contract with another program could be agreed, but a transfer fee would first have to be negotiated between the two programs. This protects smaller clubs/programs who develop talent from getting their stars poached from bigger clubs/programs without a fee or “reward” for having that player in the first.
Think of it in terms of Jordan Addison. Pitt gives a 3 star recruit a chance to play a position no one else would recruit him for. He turns into a star. USC gives him an under the table 3 million and he leaves and Pitt gets literally nothing in return. In European soccer’s structure, Addison could have agreed terms with USC to leave but then USC would have had to pay Pitt for his rights to leave. He may have even had a release clause they could have triggered for a fee. But the player still has freedom of movement. Pitt then uses those Addison funds to acquire a WR replacement and possibly another piece or two to fill out the roster. USC, one of the wealthier programs, gets to acquire a Biletnikoff receiver because they can. This happens all the time in Europe. Smaller clubs use these funds for players they develop in their academies or in the 1st team to replenish their current talent base and they at least aren’t left without some compensation when a bigger fish just waives a huge bag in the face of one of their players.
Everyone wins? Not quite… but it’s at least much fairer and with some structure to it. There’s already a complete lack of parity in this sport, the NCAA should stop hiding from this fact and add guardrails like this to the current system. Instead, they will do absolutely nothing, the conferences particularly the top 2 and their top programs, will continue to get more powerful, and this thing will continue to spiral into an even worse state of flux and chaos.
